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>That's a huge price to pay for a largely symbolic imperial gain.

The recent conflict in Ukraine shows that dictatorships are willing to make irrational decisions.

The recents conflicts in Afghanistan show that many different kinds of governing systems are willing to make irrational decisions. Except monarchies maybe? No monarchy has tried to invade Afghanistan recently.

While that's true, we're talking about this in the context of rational deterrence. It's is a valid point, but it's another notch on the "this is probably not necessary" side.

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