Comment by monerozcash
2 days ago
I think you're mistaken if you assume that many of the US people whose opinions matter, senators and the likes, are not supportive of defending Taiwan for boring ideological reasons along the lines of "it's a democracy". I don't doubt that there are some people who share the line of thinking you propose, but I would realistically expect them to be in the minority.
Well I don’t mean to suggest that random senators feel this way, I agree with you that they probably don’t. I mean the groups that actually make policy based on realpolitik interests probably feel this way, because it is the thing that actually makes sense (and while morally bad sounding to admit is totally coherent with historical great power competition). Who that is I’m not totally sure. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking that the people running the show are evil but smart, as opposed to good but stupid.