Comment by mvelbaum
4 days ago
Cope harder. The US guarantees the security of many nations, including many of the failed states in the Middle East. Look at Saudi Arabia, being completely helpless and begging everyone for help with the Houthis.
4 days ago
Cope harder. The US guarantees the security of many nations, including many of the failed states in the Middle East. Look at Saudi Arabia, being completely helpless and begging everyone for help with the Houthis.
I partially agree: Israel is a little bully who should be extremely worried about the track record of their big bully brother.
Dude, the cover we give Saudi Arabia is also shameful. And when you look at "businesses" like NSO Group, those things are even directly related.
But good on you for recognizing that we have a pattern of this kind of thing, even if you've stopped just short of noticing that it's a problem.
That's been the status quo for decades, but between Trump convincing folks that the US won't protect them and Iran convincing folks that the US can't protect them, and Hegseth focusing more on culture war stuff rather than policy objectives it's a guarantee that's looking a bit thin.
Iran isn't convincing anyone. It's a rogue terrorist state that has pissed off all of its neighbors by launching missiles at them and harassing their ships in international waters. The country is sinking, inflation and unemployment are rampant, its currency is worthless, but the mullahs will do whatever it takes to stay in power.
The US side of the bargain was that we can protect you, period.
I think its pretty clear to everybody now that we cannot protect you if your enemies are:
- sufficiently crazy
- willing to spend $1 attacking for every $50 we spend "defending"
It's now a very different kind of bargain.