U.S. Tech Giants Flocked to the Persian Gulf. Now They Are Targets | Hacker News Reader

U.S. Tech Giants Flocked to the Persian Gulf. Now They Are Targets

nytimes.com

52 pointsstandardUser28 comments

It was obvious for everyone with 2 brain cells to rub together, that the gulf states invited so many US companies to open up shop there, as a defence insurance policy, so that the US government has monetary interests in the area besides oil, to intervene and defend in case of an attack.

Well played from their side, as that's how this game works.

And for those who didn't get it before, Marco Rubio even went out and publicly said Ukraine should sell rare earth rights to the US so that they have something there to defend to justify to the public providing a security guarantee for Ukraine. He basically spelled it out in layman's terms how the game is played. You can dislike it, you can disagree with it, but this is how it always worked, even if the general public was not aware of it. It's nothing to do with defending freedom, democracy, honor, values, whatever, it's all about preserving and making money.

But I thought it was all for democracy and freedom.

Who told you that? It wasn’t Trump.

It was Trump.

“All I want is freedom for the people (of Iran)” - Donald Trump

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5760238-trump-freed...

Touché.

How exactly did you think Ukraine was going to pay back the hundreds of billions they borrowed from the US? Print more hryvnia?

They're unwilling modern battlefield tactics tester and actually losing the Ukraine to Russia would be a pretty big blow to the Europe and to the lesser extent to NATO.

Its not like the rest of the world is not getting anything from Ukrainians standing up to the genocidal KGB* apparatchik.

*yes, i know, FSB. Same organisation really.

It was KGB in his early career, so KGB works, too.

There are many forms of power in the world. If you think of geopolitics purely in terms of money, you miss all the others, and then it still costs you money.

Which is not to say money doesn't do anything, it does, it's just that one of the others is "reputation", and everyone who signed up to the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances and then ignored it or weaselled out of it, damaged their own reputation. Russia moreso than the USA, obviously, but even the USA being unconcerned about this will make it very much harder if the conditions rhyme in future and someone else is expected to give up nukes in exchange for a "Security Assurance".

A damaged reputation makes it more expensive to get other things you may want; from everyone, even the non-involved.

Though most of the "rare earth" stuff seems to be bullshit based on memes built on not understanding that rare earths aren't rare.

Like the Venezuela oil stuff, it's a half remembered fantasy of what was important when Trump's brain still functioned, several decades ago.

They're destroying America's reputation and alliances for fools gold.

Everyone knows they aren't "that" rare. What's rare is a country willing to poison its environment to extract and refine them. China used to be that, but now they aren't, so the west is looking for friendly nations to replace China.

That's where Ukraine comes in since they have bigger issues right now than environmental concerns and are desperate enough to be easily exploitable by the western powers that used to exploit China when it was weak. It's how it works.

Elect a clown, get a circus. Elect a tyrant, get tyranny. Elect a thief, get stolen from. Elect a serial rapist, expect a crime spree as they try to outrun justice. Elect someone who is all of the above and get utter chaos that is inhospitable to long term business.

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