The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian Rebels

Re:The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms... by CapitalistCartr on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @11:50AM (#15239448)

Then why is it so many other countries don't act as we do? USSR under Joe did; that's hardly a ringing endorsement. Any Scandinavian country would be a good counter argument. Finland has withstood Soviet/Russian intimidation for more than seven decades without running around instigating insane, right-wing police states across the Globe.

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Re:The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms... by keldaris on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @12:18PM (#15239734)

> Then why is it so many other countries don't act as we do?

That's simple: they're weak and can't get away with it. The baseline conduct of nation states is basically that of fairly rational psychopaths, capable of evaluating what they can get away with. Deviations from that norm are mostly reminiscent of irrational psychopaths. Anyone who expects "moral", "just" or "trustworthy" behavior from a nation state is just out of their mind.

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Re:The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms... by dragonwriter on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @12:27PM (#15239842)

> Finland has withstood Soviet/Russian intimidation for more than seven decades without running around instigating insane, right-wing police states across the Globe.

Some would say “submitted to” rather than “withstood”; heck, accommodating a powerful neighbor out of fear and inability to effectively resist is called “Finlandization” for a reason.

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Re:The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms... by alrs on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @01:13PM (#15240342)

Finland's foreign policy was benign, but its domestic policies weren't pretty.

Eugenics: http://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/tree/530b988476f0db569b00...

Kekkonen and the collapse of democracy: http://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/18/archives/finns-extend-pres...

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Re:The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms... by anigbrowl on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @01:15PM (#15240367)

Inability, to a large extent. The relative youth of the US in cultural terms. the simplicity of dealing with a small biddable tyranny rather than a large messy democracy that might not agree with us. The Dictator's Handbook by Bueno de Mesquite & Smith does a good job of breaking down the utilitarian calculus of foreign policy decisions.

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Re:The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms... by refurb on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @03:09PM (#15241554)

Finland did align themselves with Nazi Germany early in WW2 in their effort to counter Soviet actions.

Only after they came to a stalemate and peaceful agreement with the USSR did they split from the Axis and align with the Allies.

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Re:The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2B on Soviet-Style Arms... by rebuilder on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @12:45PM (#15240039)

Most states lack the means to throw their weight around like the USA does.

Interstate relations are what anarchy looks like.

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