Leroy wrote on May 7
th, 2025 at 11:28am:
freediver wrote on May 7
th, 2025 at 10:41am:
Quote:CNN reporting on the ongoing decades long war between India and Pakistan, wonder why this has suddenly taken their interest?
The world seems a more unstable now with Trump in charge,
Russia rebuilding its empire and the CCP flexing its muscles. Every tinpot dictator will be looking to make their next move, and everyone will be fretting about WWIII.
Plus, shooting down jets and blowing up toilet blocks is a bit of an escalation.
Russia rebuilding its Empire, really when did that start, only this year?.
China flexing its muscles only started this year too, wow.
Way to miss the point.
The world is changing from the unipolar one it has been since the cold war wound down, to a bipolar one with the second pole lead by China and a coalition of states that are antidemocratic in some form or another, or at least do not see themselves as naturally aligned with the new liberal democracies of the west and east asia (and India, sort of). The rest of the world has been caught napping to some extent, and Trump is a wake-up call that we may not be able blindly rely on the USA's projected strength alone to keep the bad guys in their corner. We may need to foster new allies outside of Europe and the old colonies, based on a stronger commitment to mutual defence rather than just chipping away at trade barriers (Japan and South Korea being obvious choices). Otherwise we might see our natural allies picked off one by one.
That is why India is a challenge to us. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and all the tinpot dictatorships are allying themselves to give themselves a mandate to do whatever they feel the need to in the short term. Meanwhile India is an ex British Colony, big trade partner and a reasonably functioning democracy and so a natural ally. So you can see how a minor border skirmish could quickly escalate. The old world order is suddenly on shaky ground. No-one expected to see a bipolar world again because no-one expected a challenge in strength from a country that is not a liberal democracy, but China has managed that without actually transitioning to full democracy. They are in a precarious position where they could go either way. A bit like Nazi Germany a century ago - benefitting economically (and thus militarily) from political inclusiveness and social liberalism, growing in strength, but unsure of it's identity and not committed to democracy, human rights etc.
What we don't always appreciate in the west is that even though we are not pointing guns at them, we are a huge threat to the CCP, Kim Jong Un etc. We do this merely by existing. That is why the CCP is so big on censorship. It does not want its people to realise that we exist, at least not in the relative luxury we do. Because then their own citizens might want the same thing. It is still trotting out the "poor starving Americans" propaganda that it was spewing during the Great Chinese Famine. The example we plant in the minds of their citizens is an inevitable threat to their power.