| There’s a lot of great non-sequiturs that veer far away from the original conspiracy theory that you can’t support. > we haven't "won" a war since 1945 To my knowledge, the government that we installed in Iraq is still around and it’s still friendly > Since then, because they must spend most of their money actually extracting resources, they've been outbid by the armaments manufacturers. You still haven’t been able to prove this assertion. There are only five countries in Africa that buy our arms. Those countries are also some of the most stable nations in Africa. > "Belt and Road" is investment plus a clumsy marketing campaign. American firms are certainly capable of that. This veers from the original topic of the conspiracy theory that the US is sowing chaos in Africa to “keep them down”, but the Belt road initiative works because it’s just a slightly different copy of our IMF strategy… both end goals are to secure natural resources and cooperation by keeping those nations forever indebted. Chaos is counter productive because it can’t be controlled like a puppet > Your preferred justification then is colonial resource extraction? I am describing both history and current events. Let’s not confuse this for being a proponent of these initiatives. > Why should the average American care about Chevron's profits? Because it keeps gas prices down and anything related to gas cheap as well > Why should we care what currency Libya accepts in exchange for its own oil? Because it allows the US to keep spending with a deficit. Many American entitlements such as federal student loans, welfare, mortgage tax credits, and social security depend on the US being able to carry a deficit. One of the primary benefits of being the global reserve currency holder is that we can print money for longer before we have a hyperinflation situation like wehrmacht Germany > Do you suggest that Russia's preference for rubles or even renminbi is a justification for the current mess No. They prefer rubles because they are locked out of the global financial system. They also prefer it so they don’t have to pay conversion fees. This was also after the fact. Ukraine is Russia’s buffer zone, similar to NOrth Korea being China’s buffer zone. Before climate change melts the Artic, Russia’s main access to the seas is Crimea. They always want access to it. I highly suggest that you do a lot more reading. It didn’t take much to debunk your unfounded and highly illogical conspiracy theory |