Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

Canada: 5'4 @110 lb kid in glasses with a pocket protector. Very smart. Has adoring crowd that claps.

US: the 6'1 220lb line backer built in the same school yard

Arrested Chinese exec: 4'10, 78lb daughter of a family from a different school somewhere over there. That school has lots of those like the US, US sometimes exchanges words with that school but they are somewhere over there.

Girls shows up in a schoolyard with Canada and the US. US tells Canada: "Give her to me. I have some business with her".

In that context, a shockingly high amount of comments here are of extremely low quality and reflect a whole lot of "ugly US American" along the same lines of a Trump who boasts about how the US supposedly singlehandedly saved Europe from two world wars.

People from all kinds of allied countries died for these US interests in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other countries, yet comments here are seriously complaining about a lack of "contribution" in a war that wasn't only illegal [1], it was also highly unpopular pretty much everywhere outside the Anglo-Saxon sphere [2].

If countries like Germany would have went along with what their population actually demanded, the US would have been hard-pressed to stage that whole thing in the MENA region without Ramstein Air Base, just like drone controls go through Germany to this day.

These, along with the MENA refugee streams which date back to Afghanistan and Iraq, are among the main factors why right-wing nationalism is on the rise in Europe. No need for any "Russian interference", it's plenty enough when people perceive their own government acting against their own best wishes and interests like it's been repeatedly happening in Germany. Not just in the context of Afghanistan/Iraq support, but also the whole NSA episode which had literally no consequences at all.

In that context, I'd be really interested from whom the US is supposedly "protecting" Europe these days? Iraq? Iran? China? Russia? Really?

The US is in Europe because it profits from being in Europe, you can't project "global military power" [3] without a supporting global network of military infrastructure and contrary to popular belief these "host nations" are no freeloaders [4].

One would think that a president like Trump would have served as a mirror to US Americans how their mannerism is often perceived outside the US, sadly that seems not to be the case.

It's particularly absurd in the current "anti-Chinese" context, Reddit is full of people trying to justify this arrest with the "inhumane treatment of Muslims in China", which is a page China took straight out of the US's playbook: Label them terrorists and all their rights, human or not, and suddenly nullified and everything is allowed, including torture and targeted assassinations.

Either people have really short/selective memories or they can only care/be aware of whatever is currently being propagandized [5] all over the English speaking Internet.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/us/after-attacks-alliance...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/16/iraq.iraq

[2] https://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0919/p12s2-woeu.html

[3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251629141_The_US_mi...

[4] https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-trump-allies-20160930-s...

[5] https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/14/u-s-repeals-propaganda-...

We've had our moments that we were getting close. Now those moments are quite fragile. Every single time the U.S. has kicked us in the nuts in those moments.

Examples are this very same moment, where the economic sanctions and the reformists finally convinced the hardliners to talk to the U.S.

Supreme Leader finally gave it a thumbs up. And he raised his concerns back then that the U.S. cannot be trusted but if that's what people want it's OK to do it.

He was right. The U.S. could not be trusted. Now reformists have lost all credibility. In 2 years we have another election and for sure a batshit crazy like Ahmadinejad is going to be elected.

Same happened around 9/11. We had a really strong reformist movement and government. Then, out of nowhere, president Bush named Iran a part of "axis of evil". That gave the hardliners enough of a reason to push back against major reforms.

Jack Straw (British foreign minister of the time) has good notes on this if you're more interested.

1953's coup was another moment like that. Actually that's probably the closest we've ever been.

Now, if Iran is moving towards democracy, and at the most important moments, you kick it in the nuts, you "are" part of the problem.