American allies worry the US is growing less dependable, whether Trump or Biden wins
With a divided electorate and gridlock in Congress, the next American president could easily become consumed by manifold challenges at home.
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Our Allies should rightly be concerned. The US has become more and more isolationist. The last major free trade treaty was under the TPP under Obama and both Hillary and Trump stated they would not support its passing.
The US is now energy independent and a net exporter. The US is also in the middle of the largest industrial build out in history which will bring much of our industrial plant back to North America.
In ten or fifteen years there will be no need for the US to get involved and keep sea lanes open like we are in the Red Sea. We can maintain a presence in the few areas that we deem critical.
My two sons will be of military age soon I would not support active involvement in any war that would risk their lives for Europe, Middle Eastern or other far flung countries when there is no real threat to mainland US. Supply military and financial aid, sure, but no boots on the ground. We don’t need to fight other peoples wars for them.
TPP was a horrible treaty. The entire process was basically Hollywood and a few other corporate entities writing out their dream laws that were too horrible to actually pass any legislative body. But once it was in a treaty, they could hound Congress to pass said laws to "meet international obligations".
TPP was horrible, many, many give aways to the entertainment and medical industries. But my point still stands, there have been no regional free trade agreements attempted since TPP.
We’ve only negotiated bi lateral agreements with individual governments on narrow issues.
Ironically, it was a horrible treaty for everyone except the US. Trump nixing it was yet another own-goal. After the US pulled out, the remaining signatories reworked the TPP into the CPTPP by removing those "dream laws" and passing the rest of it without the US.
My two sons will be of military age soon I would not support active involvement in any war that would risk their lives for Europe, Middle Eastern or other far flung countries when there is no real threat to mainland US.
What the fuck....
Like, I get it. I'm from a red state, my public education is not the best.
But where did you grow up that they didn't even cover WW2 in school?
We ignore countries invading other countries, and we lose our allies while countries like Russia grow stronger.
They'll never stop. Even if Russia "restored the USSR" they're not going to just sit back and relax once that happens.
"Sparing" your two sons from a war that's not going to even have a draft is dooming your grandchildren to living thru ww3 where there will be a draft again and even civilian survivors will (if incredibly lucky and wealthy)live through nuclear Armageddon.
Proxy wars are the only way we've avoided more nuclear bombs, and if one side stops fighting the other is just going to speed up.
But where did you grow up that they didn't even cover WW2 in school?
Buddy, the US was supplying the Nazis (well bothd sides) as a "neutral country" up until Pearl Arbor. A whole two years after the start of the war.
...
So you think we should do the same now?
The other person is arguing for inaction, I'm saying it'll get worse if we ignore it like in ww2 and try to stay neutral...
And you tell me we tried to stay neutral in ww2 like it's some kind of "got ya"?
Your reading comprehension needs work. I made no such comment. I simply pointed out that your premises was historically false.
Sweet jesus, talk about reading a headline and not the whole srticle. Go back and see what they were supplying and in what quantities to each side.
If you want to send your sons and/or enlist yourself to fight in other countries conflicts be my guest. Ukraine is taking foreign fighters you could sign up and serve to protect your global order tomorrow.
Russia has proven incompetent at modern warfare. The Europeans can figure out how to defend against them on their own.
Once we have reshored our industrial base in a decade there is no reason to support the global order as it stands. Let Europe or China try and maintain the sea ways and keep peace in areas like Africa and the Middle East if they need those resources so bad. Honestly, it would be better for the worlds environment if they couldn’t continue ravaging the land and burning fossil fuels.
As stated before I have no problem with providing material support. But I have no interest in involving American troops if there are no direct threats to our homeland.
Mate the Russians don't have to be competent, they just to zerg their way in. Like they are successfully doing now in Ukraine since the Ukrainian army has to put strict quotas on ammo usage.
I was enlisted around 20 years ago in the middle of Afghan/Iraq madness and was going around American bases to "protect them from terrorists" and I'd happily do it again since it means my family won't have to be subject of nuclear Armageddon
Well thank you for your service, but don’t expect me and mine to protect them and theirs.
Supply military and financial aid, sure, but no boots on the ground.
The US is failing to do even that minimal level of assistance in this case. No American troops are helping Ukraine fight, it's all been training and supplies. That's all that's been requested by them. And that's what the Republicans are blocking.
Yep, those are extreme isolationists/Putin stooges.
This used to be the militant wing of the Republican Party. Just more evidence that the US doesn’t want to get involved in foreign military adventures after 20years in the desert.
The problem is isolationism often leads to situations we can't ignore, as with the world wars. We were isolationists before then, and we benefited greatly from our international involvement ever since. We are the richest country in the history of the world largely thanks to our geography and international involvement. The dollar is the world's fiat currency. We prefer not to fight wars for other people, rather we usually just fund and arm groups that share our interests.
If we withdraw back into our shell, we lose the privileged place we have in the world.
I’d argue that the US greatly benefited from isolationism during the world wars, since all the main destruction happened in Europe/Asia.
This meant that after joining the war late and being in the winning side, they were perfectly poised to inject themselves as a global trade leader. Ironically isolationism brought about the globalist policy today.
Yes, being late to the party did benefit the US, but only because we stopped being isolationist.
The US is also in the middle of the largest industrial build out in history which will bring much of our industrial plant back to North America.
What's this now?
See article for details but there is a huge surge in construction of factories and manufacturing in North America.
Mostly due to decoupling from China, not only because they’ve proven to be terrible economic partners but because their population is imploding.
We also found that we can automate a lot of manufacturing since Covid. A textile factory used to need hundreds of workers. With modern mills you need maybe a handful to maintain the machinery while it produces almost finished garments. You can now locate your factory near consumers and avoid long transport.