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A comment on Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap. Parent comment

Re:Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices... by onlyrealcuzzo on Monday April 03, 2023 @09:31AM (#35423247)
Yeah, but the popular narrative now is that China is the real super power because they have a strong autocratic leader and aren't bogged down by democracy, and don't have to deal with other people's uneducated opinions.

Not that they have a mountain of shadow debt built upon the biggest housing bubble the world has ever seen (by far) and an absolute demographic time bomb about to blow up their future...

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Re:Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices... by Iwan-Zotow on Monday April 03, 2023 @10:00AM (#35423684)
> and aren't bogged down by democracy, and don't have to deal with other people's uneducated opinions.

well, looking back at the Iraq WMD invasion - were US bogged down by democracy?

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Re:Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices... by ceejayoz on Monday April 03, 2023 @11:26AM (#35425356)
Very likely; US public opinion puts massive constraints on what's considered acceptable troop losses and deliberate infliction of civilian casualties. Given how China's treated the Uyghurs, I suspect a Chinese invasion of Iraq would've looked... different.
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Re:Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices... by AnnikaL on Monday April 03, 2023 @12:26PM (#35426673)
Before the war, a solid majority (66%) favored using military force to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Once the war started, a similarly large fraction of the American people thought it was the right decision. Public opinion didn't shift into the negative until quite a bit later, a while after Abu Ghraib.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/03/14/a-look-back-...

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