41–50 of 56 posts
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Avoid witch hunting, it adds nothing to discussions and it's against the rules of this board.
A yes, those pesky facts.
I stated a fact, Kosovo seceded unilaterally under foreign forces occupation and created a dangerous precedent.
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I am happy that some Hacker News commenters are not running countries. One wacko is more than enough. The risks are totally not worth it and there are a million better ways to increase pressure (like the trade bazooka).
Literally Hitler is murdering civilians in broad daylight and threatening to start WW3 by invading friendly territories! Oh but also, we should stay calm and issue strongly worded statements and trade declarations. This is an incoherent position. If the threat is as real as claimed, a simple weapon test should be merited. France's official nuclear doctrine permits first strikes anyway.
That is for Americans themselves rise up against. The rest of the world can decide to sanction this behavior, etc. But nations are sovereign.
by invading friendly territories!
We are still in the I am going to tariff you, because I want to buy Greenland-stage. Sure, he has threatened to invade Greenland if that fails, but that's why it is important to make the US feel the pain by employing (initially parts of) the trade bazooka. Then US citizens, congress, the brolichargy or however feels hurt can try to put the government back in check.
Don't forget that for a lot of US tech companies, the EU is the second largest market. Losing control of that hurts the Microsofts, Metas, and Amazons of this world enormously. Some already get nervous without the tariffs or counter-measures started:
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/20/business/video/microsoft-...
a simple weapon test should be merited
Wargame simulations show that there are no winners in nuclear tit-for-tat.
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A yes, those pesky facts.
You didn't bring any fact, only an accusation. I stated a fact, Kosovo seceded unilaterally under foreign forces occupation and created a dangerous precedent.
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It's hardly a precedent, probably half of the countries worldwide have been formed by seceding from some other country against its will. U.S. would be in this half.
It's the first country to do so under foreign military presence since UN inception. The only precedents of unilateral secession were Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia and Bangladesh from Pakistan but none did so under foreign military presence.
"Unilaterally" is not easy to define. Sometimes there is a long and violent struggle for independence and the metropole eventually gives in and signs some paper, sometimes it is stubborn and doesn't sign anything - the difference is not that important in my opinion.
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You didn't bring any fact, only an accusation. I stated a fact, Kosovo seceded unilaterally under foreign forces occupation and created a dangerous precedent.
But for some face-saving gestures, a lot of colonies of the Soviet empire left unilaterally.
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You didn't bring any fact, only an accusation. I stated a fact, Kosovo seceded unilaterally under foreign forces occupation and created a dangerous precedent.
But for some face-saving gestures, a lot of colonies of the Soviet empire left unilaterally.
2. Not sure how it relates to my comment. Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Latvia, etc, were not under military occupation by a foreign force.
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But for some face-saving gestures, a lot of colonies of the Soviet empire left unilaterally.
1. Soviet countries were already countries. They left a supra national entity. 2. Not sure how it relates to my comment. Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Latvia, etc, were not under military occupation by a foreign force.
You haven't been to the Museum of the Occupation in Riga, have you?
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It's the first country to do so under foreign military presence since UN inception. The only precedents of unilateral secession were Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia and Bangladesh from Pakistan but none did so under foreign military presence.
All of the Arab countries have basically seceded from Ottoman empire under an occupation of this or that European country. "Unilaterally" is not easy to define. Sometimes there is a long and violent struggle for independence and the metropole eventually gives in and signs some paper, sometimes it is stubborn and doesn't sign anything - the difference is not that important in my opinion.
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Greenland is not a country, it is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
Puerto Rico is not a country, today, but is analogous to Greenland. They could vote to become closer to the US or vote to distance themselves. Similar to all less-than-independent regions held by larger countries. Remnants of the age of exploration or before, or the crumbs left from wars. Pushing the me-strong logic to the (absurd?) limit, why isn’t California a country? Or New England? Or the red state swath of the…