2022
America: Hey, Russia, what you doin’?
Russia: Invading Ukraine.
America: What!? No, don’t.
Russia: Too late.
Europe: Outrage! We must respond.
America: You’re right. Let’s sit down together and make a deal.
Europe: A deal? Are you crazy? There’s only one way to resolve this.
America: What?
Europe: An interminable land war.
America: A what?
Europe: An interminable land war.
America: That doesn’t sound like a very good idea.
Europe: It’s European tradition. You wouldn’t understand.
America: Alright. You’re the civilised ones.
Three years later…
America: Hey, so this war is still going. Can we finally make a deal now?
Europe: Absolutely not.
America: But it’s been ages and there’s still no end in sight.
Europe: What part of “interminable land war” did you not understand?
America: But it’s been 3 years!
Europe: 3 years is nothing. Remember the 30 years war? Or the 100 years war? Boy, those were the days.
America: Okay, but we’re paying for this shit.
Europe: Typical American. Only care about money.
America: So, when is it going to end?
Europe: It ends when one side is militarily and economically ruined. Admittedly, sometimes both sides get ruined.
America: Why don’t you stop before you get to that point?
Europe: I dunno. It’s tradition.
America: Fine. You keep fighting. We’re getting out before that.
Europe: Cowards!
America: Au revoir.
Hi Simon,
Thanks for the laughs, and sadly I have to agree with your summation. Why do it? It’s in the blood and well there just ain’t that many resources left unplundered in that part of the world. It takes a lot of plundering to live high on the hog.
The comment ‘Okay, but we’re paying for this shit.’ almost made me spit my tea all over the keyboard.
Now tell me, why the heck did our government support the ongoing war there when it pisses off our major ally to do so, and there’s like zero strategic advantage for this country? It’s a real mystery that.
Cheers
Chris
Chris – yes, that is the question. It seems to be a feature of interminable land wars that nobody remembers why we’re in them anymore, only that the bad guys must lose.
Perhaps we never left the British Empire after all? Neither did Canada it seems.
Skip – the irony is that the British Empire fell largely through the enormous cost of getting dragged into two continental land wars. America owes its dominance to the fact that it mostly stayed out of the same wars. Then it just repeated the folly. Who knows whether the damage is done or whether Trump and Vance have pulled the iron out of the fire.
Yeah, it’s funny, but at the same time it’s deeply tragic…
These clowns are used to having the US behind them and have a big mouth, but now the US is no longer backing them, they have no idea what to do but to double down. Even without the means to follow up on that; its quite sad, really.
I don’t deny that war is in our European blood, but what you’re seeing now is not it. This is still the US / Globalist war. Our own wars will start when the current crop of ‘leaders’ is gone and the different countries will look at their own interests again, in stead of simply doing what (they think) the US wants of them.
bk.
BK – you can laugh or you can cry. It really does seem we are governed by zombies as we sleepwalk into multiple crises that anybody with two brain cells could have seen coming. Ukraine was one of them.
I know it’s fashionable to blame the US for everything, but I wonder how much of the nonsense is inspired from Europe. Take Victoria Nuland. Two European parents. Studied European stuff at university. Then used her American position to screw the whole region. Similar story with Chrystia Freeland. As the USAID debacle shows, the US has been bled dry by grifters from around the world.
Well, the US *is* to blame for quite a lot, but I agree that it’s very possible that they were used as a tool by people or organisations to further their own goals.
I doubt it was ever in the best interest of the US to become an empire…
bk.
BK – yes. Governing an empire seems a lot like flying down a mountain on an out of control train and desperately trying to keep it on the tracks.
I think it’s been revealed that the conflict seems to be between Globalists and Nationalists, and the USA just switched sides, whereas Europe (and Canada, Aus, NZ etc) is still on the globalist side.
This doesn’t mean the Nationalists won’t fight each other (China and USA), but their state paradigm of nation first now has more in common with each other than Europe or the previous administration.
It will be interesting to see what happens going forward as I wouldn’t be surprised if the new faction in power in America uses the US state apparatus to oh so gently push things in the vassal states like Aus towards more loyal puppets than the current crop.
Skip – I guess everybody figured it was going to be a repeat of Trump 1.0 where the deep state managed to neuter him. It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens now that they all realise that’s no longer the case. I’m not sure how much more loyal Australia can get. We pretty much roll over on command. Canada and Europe might be more crunchy.
Well Albo has certainly planted his flag on the side of the globalists (pretty sure Labor is just a front for them anyway), whereas Dutton has been more on the fence. I’m guessing the coalition will fall in line with the new sheriff easily if they get it in in May, which may mean some interesting policy changes if the calls are being made from Washington.
Yes, Dutton’s on the fence on pretty much everything.
I think you can’t talk about Europe as a single entity, and the EU will fail sooner than later. If that happens, the separate countries will become much more nationalist.
The top layer of the countries in western Europe is very much on the globalist side, and the poeple here are very much brainwashed into thinking that the US is our friend and benefactor. Thanks to Trump, they are slowly waking up to the fact that that’s not exactly true.
The people in eastern Europe have the memory of the Soviet Union and quite a few of them realized that it was not much different in the West, just with a different boss and more money.
(In Germany, the AfD recently got about 20% of the vote, and that was mosly in the Eastern part)
So, interesting times…
bk.
BK – yes, when you’ve got Poland asking for Germany to re-militarise, and Germany saying they will, then we are definitely in “interesting” times.
Hey mate,
It is interesting how politics and similar BS just goes away when there’s a cat2 cyclone knocking on your door.
Nice change to have people worrying about something real for a change
Roland – indeed. I know a couple of people who live in Noosa, which is right in the firing line. I assume you’re far enough inland to miss the worst?
I think Noosa is not doing too bad.
The bad side of Albert is the south side. Northern Rivers is not looking too good.
No problem here so far. Hot, a bit windy and a slight drizzle.
Might be trouble for some very expensive coastal real estate in Byron Bay. (There’s a very poor taste joke in there that I will refrain from making for now).