[madwebness]

While understandable short-term - as someone from neither of those places: no, and bug off. But that's a short-term and emotional response. You want an arms race you'll get it. Eventually someone might press the red button indeed. Not too unlikely - and even then history will never learn the truth who really did it first (not that it matters).

As someone else pointed out above - this is going to be a surprising century for y'all promurica folks. Or for the the posterity, at least. Won't even be China to be blamed. Might not even be a state. Not seeing where this train is headed (and not just with the AI) - this is the biggest issue with the overall comprehension of the larger picture. But opening your eyes and learning to make sense of the world around isn't something you can learn by being lectured on HN, unfortunately.

It's a soothing feeling to have, though - this belief you're on the "good guys" team. Comfy. Also helps when you're arguing, doesn't it? OR when your passport allows you to travel to more places. Very nice indeed, but not a single a thought is usually given as to why, say, the latter, is the case. "Ignorance is our only ammunition".

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT hate America. It's given this world a lot of good things and personally affected my life through art, books, movies, music, language and other things. I used to visit, but I think I could've never enjoyed living there. I used to think it's the American movies that perpetrate lies about how life really is, but then when you see it, you realize the lies is anywhere but in the movies (even the bad ones). Lies not by the people... Just lies. Fake. Vanity. Madness. And the only true thing I found in America was my one and only love. For which I'm forever grateful.

[oh_sigh]

I'm guessing based on the OPs location, there is a very real possibility of being overrun by Russia if it weren't for America(or NATO). So this isn't some person shouting "America is #1" without having any idea of the outside world, it seems like a very pragmatic preference based on the alternative if the preference wasn't available.

[kps]

My father came from a town ten miles from the inter-German border, and people there were very, very happy that the Americans got there first.

[madwebness]

My father's family was from a village which when invaded by Germans, seen half its population shot (probably worse than just shot, I imagine). Shall we go back and back and back in history, and when exactly do we stop so that the question of who's the good guy and who's the bad guy is finally forever resolved? Please tell us. And even if resolved, what then? What exactly is your proposition? Teach the bad guys your good ways? Good luck.

[geoka9]

Let me guess, France? If Russians had come to "liberate" your village from the Germans, half of the population would have been deported to Siberia. You could argue that it's a better fate than getting shot, but nobody here is arguing for a nazi occupation either.

[madwebness]

I don't think guessing things implied not to be mentioned leads to a meaningful conversation. There's a reason I never mentioned where I'm from or where my father's family was from - it's because it would create bias that right now you are trying to artificially induce by this guess. And no, they were very much shot and dropped dead... in the end.

[madwebness]

May be. But words are words. We can't use deduction or metadata even to determine that. And who cares. It could've as well been written by a very real person.

[ceejayoz]

That scenario is both prevented by and worsened by American primacy.

The previous - and very possibly future - President openly espoused Putin-friendly propaganda and threatened to leave NATO. European dependence on American power worked for many decades, but may leave them in a very tough situation now.

[oh_sigh]

I am certainly no Trump apologist, but threatening to leave NATO was a classic "art of the deal" tactic to get some NATO countries to pay their fair/agreed upon share.

If Trump really is Putin-friendly, then Putin made a massive mistake by delaying his major military actions in Ukraine until Biden was in office.

I have no real proof of this but I suspect if Putin did delay his actions until Trump was out of office, it was because Trump was such a wild card that Putin might think that he could try to nuke the Kremlin if he didn't like what was going on in ukraine.

[XorNot]

Putin delayed his invasion because COVID-19 was rampaging through the world at that time, and Russia had no access to an effective vaccine while being well...Russia, so it went about as well as you'd expect for their military readiness.

Disease killed more people on the frontlines in WW1 then weapons did, and it is the foolish military planner who doesn't try to avoid it (the Russian lines are currently dealing with an outbreak of Cholera in parts, which is another problem partly as a result of training quality - effective military's drill field hygiene practices because it's a direct contributor to combat effectiveness).

EDIT: i.e. when there's a novel respiratory virus about, nothing will destroy your military faster then massing for an invasion in one place.

[oh_sigh]

At the point COVID was around and known, it would already be too late, because there would be less than a year left in Trump's first term. If I was Putin and I had a useful idiot in the White House, I would start planning that in 2016 before he was even inaugurated.