America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign • Hacker News Board

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#281

Post by dTal » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 3:03 PM UTC

hkt wrote: post #222

bloodm wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said Ukraine is a Baltic state. Take out a map. Think about why the Baltic states can hardly be defended militarily. Think about what would be different if Ukraine were in the Nato (and a decent amount of Nato troops on the UA/RU border). "No way the EU would let that slide." They EU has no ability in military things if the UK is out. The Nato would not let it slide but they also would not fight back to win i…

Sorry to be a pedant, but the UK's military capability is at an all time low. We have made awful purchasing decisions across the army, navy and air force, as well as failing to recruit enough people. There isn't a part of the UK military which isn't in crisis. We are not the force your post suggests we are.

Awful purchasing decisions from the US, uniformly. The deeper into this rabbit hole one goes, the stronger the smell of rats. One truly wonders who was persuaded to give away the entire fleet of carrier-borne aircraft to the US Marines - and how...

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#282

Post by AsyncAwait » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

Paradigma11 wrote: post #280

AsyncAwait wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone from a country neighboring Poland, I am very familiar with this reactionary mindset and find it disgusting. (Poland seems to be in a very reactionary period right now in general.) - Yes, we were part of the USSR, which was responsible for many crimes, but that doesn't mean we now need to be unsophisticated U.S. bootlickers incapable of looking at each individual situation and evaluating it on its own merit…

"...but the smug coverage from U.S. media completely omits any discussion of the U.S. taking 7 years(!) to admit to a similar disaster." If you are referring to flight 665 in 1988 you are wrong. Crash on July 3, here a reaction on july 4: ""The U.S. government deeply regrets this incident," Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference." https://www.washingtonpost.c…

"In 1996, (~7years), the governments of the U.S. and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice which included the statement "... the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident ..."[16] As part of the settlement, even though the U.S. government did not admit legal liability or formally apologize to Iran" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

There's also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10qatUWwIeg

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#283

Post by Paradigma11 » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

AsyncAwait wrote: post #282

Paradigma11 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...but the smug coverage from U.S. media completely omits any discussion of the U.S. taking 7 years(!) to admit to a similar disaster." If you are referring to flight 665 in 1988 you are wrong. Crash on July 3, here a reaction on july 4: ""The U.S. government deeply regrets this incident," Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference." https://www.washingtonpost.c…

"In 1996 , (~7years), the governments of the U.S. and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice which included the statement "... the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident ..."[16] As part of the settlement, even though the U.S. government did not admit legal liability or for…

But the US admitted within a day that it was one of their ships that shot down the plane. Compare that to next day of the recent crash when an iranian official posted on the next day that it was scientifically impossible to have been an iranian missile. But at least they think they have arrested the person who posted the video showing the crash and making the cause obvious. "On 14 January it was announced that Iranian authorities had arrested the person who had published a video of the aircraft being shot down." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51114945

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#284

Post by LockAndLol » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

This is behind a paywall. Does anybody have the full article? The first few paragraphs say nothing more than the title.

Edit:

https://archive.md/gbAv6

-------------

Maybe this will finally push towards crypto-currencies. Bitcoin doesn't seem to be a candidate though. 10 minutes for a transaction is too slow.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#285

Post by bluecalm » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

AsyncAwait wrote: post #266

bluecalm wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Poland and I am ok with US bullying others around because it increases stability even if we all have to pay for it. The problem with that pipeline is that Russia will get a way to cut off Ukraine and Poland without cutting Western Europe (their biggest customers). This increases chances of them invading rest of the Ukraine or maybe even Poland in the future. Without big bully to prevent countries doing deal…

As someone from a country neighboring Poland, I am very familiar with this reactionary mindset and find it disgusting. (Poland seems to be in a very reactionary period right now in general.) - Yes, we were part of the USSR, which was responsible for many crimes, but that doesn't mean we now need to be unsophisticated U.S. bootlickers incapable of looking at each individual situation and evaluating it on its own merit…

The pipeline thing is easy to evaluate. It clearly gives Russia more leverage over East block countries. Now look who oppose it and who pushes it and you will know who our ally is. Doing huge business deal that destabilizes the region while having sanctions over Russia invading part of Ukraine is just big betrayal. We can't count on Germany helping us. The only big player left who is interested is US. Additional bonus is that they have proven throughout history that they are acually capable of doing something.

Why should I care if they would tolerate military presence in Mexico. I care about stability and safety of my country and our region. It's clear Germany is not our ally here while US at least does something.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#286

Post by bluecalm » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 4:50 PM UTC

AsyncAwait wrote: post #266

bluecalm wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Poland and I am ok with US bullying others around because it increases stability even if we all have to pay for it. The problem with that pipeline is that Russia will get a way to cut off Ukraine and Poland without cutting Western Europe (their biggest customers). This increases chances of them invading rest of the Ukraine or maybe even Poland in the future. Without big bully to prevent countries doing deal…

As someone from a country neighboring Poland, I am very familiar with this reactionary mindset and find it disgusting. (Poland seems to be in a very reactionary period right now in general.) - Yes, we were part of the USSR, which was responsible for many crimes, but that doesn't mean we now need to be unsophisticated U.S. bootlickers incapable of looking at each individual situation and evaluating it on its own merit…

The pipeline thing is easy to evaluate. It clearly gives Russia more leverage over East block countries. Now look who oppose it and who pushes it (while having high ranked politicans accepting lucrative positions paid by Russians) and you will know who our ally is. Doing huge business deal that destabilizes the region while having sanctions over Russia invading part of Ukraine is just big betrayal. We can't count on Germany helping us. The only big player left who is interested is US. Additional bonus is that they have proven throughout history that they are acually capable of doing something.

Why should I care if they would tolerate military presence in Mexico. I care about stability and safety of my country and our region. It's clear Germany is not our ally here while US at least does something.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#287

Post by AsyncAwait » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

Paradigma11 wrote: post #283

AsyncAwait wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In 1996 , (~7years), the governments of the U.S. and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice which included the statement "... the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident ..."[16] As part of the settlement, even though the U.S. government did not admit legal liability or for…

But the US admitted within a day that it was one of their ships that shot down the plane. Compare that to next day of the recent crash when an iranian official posted on the next day that it was scientifically impossible to have been an iranian missile. But at least they think they have arrested the person who posted the video showing the crash and making the cause obvious. "On 14 January it was announced that Irania…

Except the U.S. never formally apologized, which you conveniently glance over. Iran did. The background is also important, which is an illegal U.S. assassination of a top Iranian general.

It is true that some U.S. officials admitted the mistake quickly, however the official position of the U.S. government was defiant for 7 years. The official position of the Iranian government was apologetic within 72 hours and cooperative with Ukraine even faster. That's despite the fact that the U.S. homeland wasn't threatened or encircled by Iran, whereas the U.S. constantly maneuvers around Iranian borders and the tense situation came about because of the assassination of Qasem Soleimani by the U.S., while on an officially accredited diplomatic mission(!)

I don't agree with arresting the person who posted the video for sure, but neither do I agree with the torture of Chelsea Manning for exposing U.S. war crimes, prosecution of WikiLeaks, Snowden, treatment of African-Americans by law enforcement, violent treatment of Standing Rock protesters etc. We could go on forever.

The point is when you have the leader of a world superpower like the U.S. saying that he'll never apologize for the United States of America, "no matter what the facts are", when none of U.S. presidents have been prosecuted for war crimes, when the indiscriminate use of devastating sanctions, including on medicine, leads to devastating civilian outcomes, when the U.S. uncritically lets Israel carve progressively more and more of the West Bank, when you have the U.S. President threatening Europe and openly admitting to stealing Syrian oil, then maybe the U.S. does not have any moral superiority to lecture others.

And let me be clear, I don't want to see the U.S replaced by say China either, I want it to be counterbalanced, so that no outrageous actions on the international stage can be taken by either party. I'd love to see the EU be its own player as well.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#288

Post by lgats » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

mamon wrote: post #233

hkt wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People speaking a language is not a useful way of choosing your borders. Otherwise most of Latin America can revert to Spanish control, the US can be annexed by the UK, countries like Morocco can be colonies of the French again. The fact is that spreading your language is a basic element of empire building. The fact that Crimea, Ukraine etc have so many Russian speakers reflects their past.

I think what GP meant is that majority of people in Crimea self-identify as Russians, not Ukrainians - 68%, according to Wikipedia [1] Similar thing can be said about disputed teritorries in the east, around Donbas. Of course that's still not the excuse for what Russia did, taking both places by force, however, this makes fixing this more complicated. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimea#Demographics

Ethically identifying as Russian is certainly not equivalent to identifying as a Russian.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#289

Post by rayiner » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 5:24 PM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #255

rayiner wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fighting against your own government isn’t like fighting against a foreign power. You have the advantage of asymmetric warfare, and also the advantage that the military will not follow orders to just “steamroll right in through” citizens. Egypt has F-16s, but that didn’t stop the government from getting overthrown when the military decided to stay neutral. Libya had advanced Soviet weaponry, but Gaddafi was overthrow…

The firearms are not enough. The Mukti Bahini were heavily assisted by members of India's Research and Analysis Wing. India provided weapons, ammunition, logistical support, and many of the refugees who volunteered were recruited and trained on Indian soil. Months before the revolution had even started Indian spies fabricated evidence linking Pakistan to the 1971 Indian Airlines hijacking, which India used to justify…

India undoubtedly assisted. But Operation Searchlight began in March 1971. The first civilian response began March through May. Members of the Pakistan military defected in April. The order for the RAW to assist the guerrillas was given in late April. The Warsaw Pact countries declared their support in August. Direct military intervention from India ended the war in December.

Without armed resistance from the people, there would have been nothing to support.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#290

Post by pnw_hazor » Sun, Jan 19, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

pinkfoot wrote: post #200

pnw_hazor wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Along with the reliability woes of air force jetliners, only about a third of Germany’s 128 Eurofighter jets are combat ready and just a quarter of its 130 army helicopters are operational, mainly because of shortages of spare parts. Only one of six submarines and fewer than half of 244 Leopard tanks are working, according to a recent report to Parliament." https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-germany-armed-forces-20…

And you don't think they would change that pretty quickly if they really needed to?

They won't have time to train up the manpower. Even if the US gives them more equipment.

For example, it takes the US Army almost 2 years to train helicopter pilots. Similar for Air Force or Navy pilots.