Yikes! Did someone other than USA commander-in-chief decide which neutral overseas territory USA military would occupy? (That seems problematic! and also probably true...) Has anyone in public office ever offered another explanation? You're full of inexplicable confidence, so maybe we should ask you why USA military occupies the eastern third (that's the part with agriculture and oil) of Syria right now... [0]

China discouraged Kim from invading RoK, and didn't come in on DPRK side until dumb-ass insubordinate MacArthur told them he was going to keep rolling across the Yalu. Well that went over about as well as NATO missiles in Donbass! Or Soviet missiles in Cuba! Belt and Road is simply a less abusive foreign investment regime than IMF/World Bank. Little wonder that it appeals more than what USA has on offer.

If you actually agree that American Indians have been robbed and genocided, why be so quick to designate a convenient time before which we shouldn't worry about robbery and genocide? If you don't actually agree about the American Indians, on which side of the line does our strikingly similar subjugation of Philippines fall? Maybe we shouldn't care about that either, even though it was in the 20th century? Maybe you want to move the cutoff line? That seems a common maneuver when discussing the conflict in Ukraine. We're definitely not supposed to remember e.g. 2019 discussions of Ukrainian Nazis. [1]

Recall we started talking about Pentagon's abysmal record of losing every war, then we moved to supporting sovereignty, then we moved to opposing authoritarianism, while you stipulated 'no one is talking about "winning wars"'. There was something about China empowering Pol Pot, which seems rather beside the point when it was USA that bankrolled him for years. [2] I forgot about him in my long lists upthread!

There is some bad news about your final goalpost relocation. The bitter end must be the idea that our current participation in the Ukraine theater of WWIII is in opposition to "authoritarianism". Unfortunately, our puppet in that region is every bit the authoritarian as previous ones in other regions. He is banning political parties, closing down TV channels, disappearing residents [3], and feeding battalion after poorly trained battalion into the meat grinder of Bakhmut. For current Ukraine leadership, it's more important to pretend that Russia even cares about holding this minor town than it is to attempt to preserve military strength. When politics trumps security and respect for life, that is authoritarian.

The late Barry Crimmins was occasionally asked the same cretinous question you pose: “Why don’t you go live somewhere else then?” Barry would reply, “Because I don’t want to be a victim of US foreign policy.”

I support your material analysis, even while rejecting its rude implication. Most opinions about war are motivated by money. Unfortunately, in USA popular media, war is very profitable.

[0] https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-us-military-proud-o...

[1] https://fair.org/home/action-alert-nyt-celebrates-neo-nazi-a...

[2] https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/polpotmontclarion049...

[3] https://jacobin.com/2023/02/ukraine-censorship-authoritarian...