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Comment by armchairhacker | Hacker News Reader

I feel like if the US isn't safe, nowhere is safe. Whose going to stop Russia and China from invading EU countries and Japan if the US won't defend them? Their populations and militaries are comparably tiny.

I know some EU countries have nukes, but I'm not fully aware how much that protects them. Do they have enough to cause MAD?

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There are a bunch of scenarios where the US becomes an unpleasant place to be (eg 1860s, 1930s, 1970s) without collapsing, and where specific other places will have problems but probably won't be terrible, and for a given bundle of preferences, resources, etc. might be better. Global thermonuclear war isn't the only risk. Even if you just took the covid situation and scaled it up to 10 years duration and 10x more lethality, I'd pick Argentina over most of the US (although rural WY, MT would be fine too).

The US' enemies aren't everyone else's enemies ;) We all just go along with it because our governments are insanely pro-US

Sure, but if your enemies are super powers and you succeed, whats left? Would Europe stand ideally by? Probs not... even in a post-war rebel state situation, would not be stable.

When MAD happens, it's pretty much D for everyone; if you're worried about that scenario then maybe look to Oz/NZ/a mineshaft with 10 women for each man.

It's very likely not true that those countries want to invade Europe in the traditional sense.

Russia is invading a European country as we speak and openly claims ambitions to control all of the Eastern Europe at least (see Putin’s ultimatum of 2021).

I was going to say this too, but Russia is delusional.

Russia has strong allies in US and Europe. US has stopped supplying ammunition to Ukraine and Europe did not pick up the slack, so I don’t think Russia is delusional, they are just planning ahead.

To what? Those allies are ephemeral. The delusion is that you have allies at all.

For being ephemeral those allies in the House are very effective at stopping aid to Ukraine.

Sorry (mainly to my friends over there) but Europe in a military conquest sense is nearly useless, its people and old shit. I would be more worried these countries are full on delusional about self sufficiency in a post us-centric globalized economy.

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