@7 if it's the first of its kind they'd have to do it between their two nations, otherwise the logistics would be incredibly complex to ship/supply Chinese forces to/in Ukraine and vice versa
@7 we're in 1930 not 1938 and Ukraine is China, if I had to guess
@skells I think that would be correct if Russia weren’t deadlocked in the Ukraine, and if it weren’t done as a PR campaign. Two birds with one stone, to be sure, but look at what’s between them – it’s not that great of terrain to be practicing in considering their interests. The BRICS nations will appreciate it, certaily.
@7 Russia doesn't need the commodities Japan did, what it wants is BRICS to break from the West/multipolar world
US wants Ukraine to be another Afghanistan
Russia wants to show cajones in resisting US hegemony
place your bets
@7 my hope is that neither sides have it in them for a world war and a relatively peaceful, natural devolution of centralised state power occurs
tbh I think most everyone other than the upper echelons (and their respective NPCs) of US and EU are hoping for that outcome.
If it came to it both could swing hard - the historical precedent (read Franks/Crusades) is for the West to sweep all before it in decisive battles while bleeding out strategically
@skells I spend a lot of time looking at what could happen, and a problem with that, with general alt-history stuff, is that reality tends to be quite boring. I can’t say I’d be surprised if something like you describe here came to be – attrition in Russian factories, major losses like the Moskva, trade deals that have to be worked out as fast as possible to recover from this decision or that decision, and eventually everyone starts running out of munitions, the war gets even less civilized, and the negotiating table becomes the subject of pop discourse. Or something equally bland and steeped in thousand-page documents.
@7 it's more financial I think, US can't support the EU and I can't really see the US forcing anything upon China or Russia except nuclear war
commodities beats printer, AWACS or no
@7 god forbid the nuclear war bit
@7 like, Ukraine could kick Russia out. OK. What's US gonna do, unfreeze their funds? That ship has sailed and everyone knows it has.
@skells Definitely, I didn’t mean to discount that. I was mostly just rambling. I had thought about, after hitting enter, the EU’s dependency on the US and how that was essentially Woodrow Wilson’s dream so uh, yeah, nice going there everyone, but I couldn’t fit it smoothly into the paragraph.
@7 there's a good piece by Rothbard, Wall Street, The banks and American Foreign Policy that's very germane to the discussion - spoiler, investment in China makes wwiii a bit of a nono
@skells I just cannot imagine that the investments in China will not turn out like, well, investments in China always do. This is the part I never see people mention.
@7 on a long enough timescale (10-20 years) I don't see how it's gonna go anywhere but up
whether your investment reflects that with all the CBDC bullshit is another matter, I agree
@skells Oh 100%, the long-term is still optimistic despite how dark this decade looks in specific, and for everyone, which is why at times my tone regarding the war can seem… tasteless.
@7 if you don't gloat over battlefield causalities you're basically landed nobility at this rate
@skells Heavens no. When I read that there were teenagers on the Moskva, I was sick. Kids, with proud parents, who can’t know whether their kid is alive or dead.
@skells @dubh they take gold, they perform a chemical procedure to layer a precise thickness of atoms to a binder, they laminate that and put a pretty shiny picture on it, and it’s a money that’s legal in a few states now. https://nevadagoldback.com/
@7 also good fucking luck invading the US lol no one would try it