The US literally said “you don’t need weapons, we’ll protect you.” They weren’t asked to protect us, they strong armed us. And now we’re lacking arms because of them. Most Americans, including Hesgeth and Vance have never opened a history book.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 days ago
After the 20th Century it became clear that war could spread anywhere at any moment and destroy vast swaths of people and nature indiscriminately.
The world had no choice but to ally with really big baskets. The USA was the most obvious choice given their lack of hostile landgrabs unlike China and Russia.
starlinguk@lemmy.world 2 days ago
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They actually enforce that members of NATO spend percentage of GDP on weapons. As for individual other nations, hard to say, but it’s still no competition with the fucking dictatorships.
seeigel@feddit.org 2 days ago
Or they have and just pretend not to know.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Lack of hostile land grabs? West of the Mississippi, Texas, Hawaii and the Philippines would beg to differ.
ricecake@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
They specifically said 20th century, and were obviously referring to the post world war period.
After the wars, the US sought soft power, not territory.
Aligning with them was often a more safe move.
seeigel@feddit.org 2 days ago
Which were the Chinese and Russian 20th century post world war land grabs?
ricecake@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
en.wikipedia.org/…/Territorial_changes_of_the_Peo…
en.wikipedia.org/…/Military_occupations_by_the_So…
Image
en.wikipedia.org/…/United_States_territorial_acqu…
Notable examples would be places like “Tibet”, several Baltic states, and an attempt on Finland. Hell, Russia is currently trying to annex Ukraine.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Oh wow, 1848, great example of post-20th-century hostility. /sarcasm
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 2 days ago
They were part of a land grab that took it from the Spanish along with Guam and some other places. Gained independence in 1946.
match@pawb.social 2 days ago
puerto rico was in that and still hasn’t gotten statehood OR independence. incidentally puerto rico is more populous than 7 countries in the EU
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Greenland may be on that list soon. I’m not saying I like it, I’m just saying thats the direction we’re going.