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Russia and China are the only two great powers seeking to conquer and annex territory in the world today. China just recently annexed territory the size of France in the South China Sea. They annexed Hong Kong. Next they want Taiwan. They eagerly want several of Japan's island territories. They very obviously won't stop there, as their military power increases dramatically over the next 10-20 years; they're just getting warmed up on territorial conquest in Asia. Russia is dead set on destroying Ukraine as it exists today and will proceed to, at a minimum, annex to the Dnieper River. They already annexed Crimea and a large chunk of East Ukraine. They'll attempt to take all of the Black Sea territory of Ukraine, further impoverishing and cutting off the remaining chunk of broken Ukraine post annexation. Further it has its eyes on taking Moldova, either directly or by forced alliance. Taking Ukraine's Black Sea territory will specifically make Moldova easy to conquer; there is no scenario where they don't pursue that combo. It has begun the (likely longer term) process of annexing Belarus, Lukashenko has capitulated into Putin's arms. Nearly any territory in the region that is not in NATO is up for grabs for conquest as far as Russia is concerned. Russia realistically destroyed Georgia, annexing part of the nation, and it's likely to eventually get around to finishing the rest. It would be a big task for the weaker modern Russia, however they'd also really like to figure out how to sink their claws into Kazakhstan and reclaim some of that territory as part of the empire. For Russia ideally there would be some convenient chaos, civil war in Kazakhstan, and Russia would then use border security as an excuse to de facto invade and claim territory that they'd never give back. Meanwhile, the US has spent most of the post WW2 era trying to maintain global border security, including in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The US was in Vietnam? It sure was, trying to protect the South from a conquering North; when the US left, the South promptly got conquered (and yet the US is the villain in that story? yeah right). The same fate awaited South Korea, except the US saved them from the conquering North. How much territory did the US annex in Iraq? Zero. How much territory did the US annex in Afghanistan? Zero. It didn't try to take those nations, their territory, or their natural resources. When was the last time the US tried to conquer and annex Canada or Mexico? Canada sits right next to the world's primary superpower, with an almost entirely unguarded border. Check out Canada's tiny military spending some time. Ask India how their border context is going with China these days; everyone that shares a border with Russia or China is terrified of their territorial ambitions. While the US has been a superpower during the post WW2 years, how many nations has it annexed? Right. |
Well, I would respectfully disagree with the "conquer" part. Since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, that sounds really hollow.