Putin apparently claims a right to act on behalf of ethnic Russians in the 'near abroad' even when they are not Russian citizens.
Israel has long claimed a right to act to protect oppressed Jews anywhere in the world.
Ukrainian War Developments
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Israel has long claimed a right to act to protect oppressed Jews anywhere in the world.
When you camp fire on the cold night and forgotte that the Tb2 Bayraktar is watching from above
Russia isn't as isolated as the west thinks it is. This war is a watershed moment in geopolitics. From this point on, it's the west vs. the rest.
"The Freedom of Morality"
"How Ukraine's Outgunned Air Force Is Fighting Back Against Russian Jets"
"The Ukrainian air force is operating in near total secrecy. Its fighter jets can fly from air strips in western Ukraine, airports that have
been bombed yet retain enough runway for takeoffs or landings — or even from highways, analysts say. They are vastly outnumbered:
Russia is believed to fly about 200 sorties per day while Ukraine flies five to 10.
Ukrainian pilots do have one advantage. In most of the country, Russian planes fly over territory controlled by the Ukrainian military,
which can move anti-aircraft missiles to harass — and shoot down — planes."
"“I only have to use my skills to win,” Andriy said. “My skills are better than the Russians.
But on the other hand, many of my friends, and even those more experienced than me, are already dead.”"
It’s not. Alliances will continue shift.
Especially when morality is being encouraged only on highly selective basis, encouraged specifically when it would weaken those who practice it, and strengthen those who don’t.
China isn't Russia or Israel but perhaps could learn from their successful examples.
Except the main problem for a US led Western World is that the comparative power/prestige/advancement of this Western World is quick diminishing compare to the rest of the world. When you have such a situation, you will have many sporadic points of failures happening all the time, that it would be very very very difficult for one set of "morality (based on) highly selective basis" to offer a concrete and fool proof standard/foundations for people to rest on.
In simpler worlds, the West can NOT afford to play this "morality is being encouraged only on highly selective basis" game any more, because this game is based partial truth (which is essentially lies), which can NOT stand the test of ever more frequently occurring "sporadic failures" that rose out of the decline of the relative power of the West. And since these are "sporadic", it is difficult to come up with a set of rational guidelines that will be able to "explain" all of them and still be consistent.
For example, in the old Western led "Morality" implies:
1. Capitalism respects contracts (communism doesn't)
2. Capitalism respects personal liberty and the separation of individuals and state, (communism doesn't and will prosecute and hurt your family.)
3. Capitalism respects the ownership of private properties (communism doesn't)
......
When the West is relatively strong, they can hold these moralities in place, or at least can deter Others from ever challenging them to a point where they (the West) have to make the choice of whether to obey or break these moralities.
However, if the West weakens to a point where Others start challenging them. In order to show their strength, they will need to act with all-in full-force, in order to show that their authority/order is NOT to be challenged (in simpler words, to scare the remainder of the Others, in the case of Ukraine conflict, to deter China, Iran, etc.). But since they neither have the true strength to deter the challenge, nor the full resolve to go REALLY all-in without considering consequences, they would need to abandon all restraint in all non-critical (in this Ukraine conflict case, "critical" would mean full military intervention, regardless of the risk of nuclear war) arenas. Thus they will inevitably start damaging their own reputation and people's trust in them (that they the West will uphold their own ethics/moralities).
The moment people start realizing that what the West profess to be or implied by their reputation to be is NO LONGER undoubtable, they will start getting off the "Wagon of the West" and start looking for alternatives.
This is really difficult for the West.
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