“China and Russia back Syria and Iran.”
Oy! They’ll be lucky to survive.
I used to work a desk for the Navy involved in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and North African intelligence. There is a reason that area comprising Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan, is known by historians as “The Graveyard of Empires”.
Syria has had the habit of playing both sides at the same time, and sometimes against one another. I can’t be more specific than that; it’s classified. Right now they’re caught between two crazed groups: the Sunni and the Shia. I expect the slaughter to be widespread and generalized with Christians and Jews suffering the most, as usual.
Iran is a tyranny, and the majority of folks living in that nation aren’t Persian. The Persian minority stays in power through terror and by using Arab mercenairies. The economy is in horrible shape and people in some areas are starving. Iran is ripe for revolt.
China and Russia are up to their necks in Muslim discontent at home in their own countries. If they’re lucky, they will get out of the ME without it all collapsing, taking them with it.
The U.S.A. is trillions of dollars in debt. This means we must change what we’ve been doing, change our way of thinking about the world, and soon.
Maintaining a deep water fleet is extremely expensive, and we must chose our main options carefully.
Worrying about a situation in the South China Sea when we live nearly on the other side of the world is a good example of America’s difficulty in recognizing its priorities.
I agree we are trillions of dollars in debt. Obviously. However I don’t think that defense spending is the reason. It is entitlements spending. Entitlements to people and to favored businesses. Both parties are guilty. Ethanol and crop subsidies weren’t strictly, or even mostly, democrat party ideas.
Entitlements spending has been growing on a linear scale for decades, which is troubling enough. However, under Dear Reader, it has gone on afterburners. We are past the tipping point where half the population doesn’t pay income taxes. We are fast approaching, and with another term for Dear Reader we will reach, the point where the majority of Americans don’t even work.
THAT will be death of us.