Silicon Valley wants to power the U.S. war machine
fastcompany.com
fastcompany.com
The U.S. and USSR were the only countries embracing MAD. The other nuclear powers embraced flavors of what we now call minimal deterrence [1]. (Think it's helpful to know deterrence theory has options other than MAD.)
South Africa did, because the outgoing government didn't want to hand nukes to its successor government.
Ukraine, well, see how that worked out.
Kazakhstan, Belarus... seems ok for them so far.
When you need to 'get shit done' you really need to focus on the shit, not on how you can best profit from it.
Chinese military efforts in the South China Sea are all about controlling shipping and oil extraction - for profit.
Chinese military control of Hong Kong was important to control that financial capital and the in/out flows of cash from China.
Chinese military threats to Taiwan are important because of the vast wealth and industrial knowledge base in Taiwan.
We live in a new era, where gov't, finance, and tech, are increasingly consolidating power to form super-national power structures.
They're perfectly happy to help out regimes the US would come up against in a military conflict are these the the people you want unseating the MIC?
So, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, India, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Mexico…
Which one would you prefer to wield the sword other than the US.
How would Pakistan feel if India were the hegemon, and vice versa? Use your imagination.
In order to be a hegemony you need to be able to sustain that. You can say: I grant thee Andorra or Singapore hegemony over the world. You rule. That’s like giving a toddler in a village a Kalashnikov. It’ll ‘rule’ for an hour till it can’t feed itself and then the brute wrests it away while it sleeps.
Because of those "incidents":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_incidents_in_Switzerlan...
And a pretty good Video from a fantastic channel:
You need to travel more.
It would happen to anyone. Just look at how Germany uses its marginal heft to boss the EU around.
Moving the goal posts.
Would you want the UN running things?
It’s worse than our Congress. They got a couple of decent programs but for the most part it’s a corrupt organization.
It is folly to think there is wisdom in the average intelligence.
https://www.politico.eu/article/vestager-you-should-not-spy-...
https://www.politico.eu/article/edward-snowden-is-back-spyin...
https://grapevine.is/news/2021/06/03/danish-intelligence-ser...
It makes sense that silicon valley protect this linchpin of the global economy - and the majority of their revenues.
It would be nice to have a global democracy, but unfortunately the best we can hope for is the cohesion of the US/EU/NATO alliance.
Bah.
Just because the US isn't perfect, doesn't make it a war machine.
The British Empire was a war machine, more than the US has ever been!.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/america-war-machine/
>>Eisenhower warned the nation against the threat of the military-industrial complex
You know, the US does do peacekeeping, and does at times invade for actual humanitarian reasons.
But I guess those are bad things too, and war making.
For example?
But the US "forgot" to sign the "Convention on the Rights of the Child":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_th...
yes, I too am very smart and unquestioningly parrot my rulers' propaganda lines.
My turn: I am trying to find a list of warlords and oppressive regimes who have destabilized other countries, invaded and subjugated countries under false pretenses caused millions of deaths etc. etc.
"warlords and oppressive regimes who have destabilized other countries, invaded and subjugated countries under false pretenses caused millions of death"
Into google and the 3rd result was that ;)
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRECB-2006-pt8/html/CREC...
"Global war on terror "
In other words, the US curtailing itself.
I did not say the US does not go to war. I merely said, call a thing what it is.
In terms of empires, compared to its power, the US empire is the most peaceful empire in the history of mankind.
Imagine the Roman Empire, The British, with the power the US has. Imagine any other empire in history.
The entire world would be directly, ruled by the US!
Now look at the US again.
i want some of whatever the hell it is you're smoking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
and please, citation very much needed on the assertion that China is more warlike than the US.
In regards to China, I said it was less peaceful, which seems obviously true to me. China has ongoing territorial disputes with ever country close to it, which extends to raising man-made islands out of the sea to push back the sea borders of its neighbors. It believes it outright owns two neighboring countries, occupying one of them, and constantly threatening to conquer the other. A large amount of its northern region used to be Mongolia until the government one day sent millions of Chinese people to live there, and just redrew its maps. As a country it was also founded upon a revolution that included arguably the most brutal mass slaying of civilians in history.
The US fights more wars, but China is far more belligerent imo, and engages in outright territorial conquest every opportunity it gets.
If peace means quietly sitting in the corner while havoc is wrought around you, then no, America isn't very peaceful.
It’s really quite bizarre to say the US isn’t a war machine when it has the world’s biggest arms industry and readily sells to nearly anyone. That’s before even getting into its history of invading the most bizarre countries that most can’t point out on a map, going back to the Philippines over 100 years ago, to the insane level of competition it reached with Russia in the 20th century, to Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
I don't think the article claims it is. The U.S. has a war machine. And Silicon Valley wants to sell to it.
Somehow the imperial managers always stumble into a conquest direction. Like every imperial force before it the US also denies its imperialism.