[xel02]

Consider the annexation of Crimea. That's what happens in a power vacuum or a reduction in the belief that the US and the global community will retaliate against land grabs.

What happens when the US's eleven supercarriers are not in the Strait of Hormuz or floating around the Pacific. The threat is enough to guarantee countries think twice about annexing their neighbors provinces.

[gdy]

"Consider the annexation of Crimea. That's what happens in a power vacuum"

Yeah, let's consider it. It's a direct response to the US-sponsored coup in the Ukraine and the threat of NATO expansion into Ukraine.

The Crimea was (arguably) illegally taken from Russia and assigned to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1954 when they both were a part of the USSR, the Ukraine refused to give it back when it declared its independence and yet Russia did nothing about it for a quarter of century and paid huge rent for Russian naval base located in Crimea.

The prospect of American military bases appearing in the Ukraine was unacceptable for Russia and what happened next you've read in the news.

That's what happens when the US meddles around the world.

"The threat is enough to guarantee countries think twice about annexing their neighbors provinces"

But who would protect countries from the American threat?

The US with the support of its navy invaded Iraq in 2003, bombed Libya, protects its allies (Turkey, Saudi Arabia) when they sponsor terrorists in Syria. The Turkey has de-facto annexed part of Syria, the US are controlling oil fields in another part of Syria, over a million are dead in Iraq, Libya is in a state of civil war ever since American bombing.