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Yes, but we still took thousands of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. People also were prepared for the 1991 Gulf War to be significantly worse than it was for the US. Trump did not bother to sell this war like Bush did. Not clear how effective he'd have been without 9/11, but he didn't even try.

In this instance, yes.

Even more so when your beloved slain boy is greeted by a guy in a baseball cap grifting off the coffin

bsky.app/profile/jsar... Here you go.

*elements of soft power.

One's own casualties are one aspect. The other is that many of the decisive victories of the past, from antiquity to the colonial age, were made possible by killing a huge proportion of the enemy civilian population. That's not politically feasible anymore, and I hope it stays like that.

Shia-majority government is indeed a new regime. But reducing the US intervention to regime change and ommitting wmd, anti terrorism, state building/democratisation... Long story short, it failed.

If Trump cared about soft power he wouldn’t have binned USAID Soft power likely too woke for his taste

Just like it bent Vietnam to its will? Iran is a big country. Fighting a war on the opposite side of the world is difficult and takes a lot of resources. When the army's leadership was above an IQ of 55, that leadership's recommendation was "don't do this".

The USA hasn’t won a war since 1945, and that was with major allies. Don’t fall for their propaganda: they’re great at spectacular war crimes and terrorism but that’s it.

When Vance asked him "why haven't you said thank you" I almost threw my phone across the room, because I read Zelenskyy's daily briefings, and that's something he does *every single day*.

And if soft power doesn't work, and you do find you have to resort to hard power, it should be done within a framework of international law, not an uncontrolled free-for-all, defying human rights and any kind of independent justice system.

5/ In real world international relations you constantly need other countries to do things for you that are important but not so critical that you'll bomb their cities or blockade their ports to get it. It's a big, complicated planet! You need people's cooperation and soft-power helps you get it.

It's like Brexit all over again Dmitry, you just don't believe in it hard enough. The full benefits are just around the corner.

watching the US of all people do this is bizarre, but then I've also spent most my life face palming as successive UK governments have denigrated, defunded and abused every single thing the country does well, allows it to punch well above its weight and be thought of fondly by people around the

Shame, would easily destroy these fascist idiots at SC2.

No one has said it loud but it describes Germany under Merkel and the idealistic parts of left wing parties. It was a return to thinking like before 1914 when so many people said that a great war would be stupid and against the interests of countries to attack each other.

The one really bright spot of all this has been to see how the public globally, including the US, are more anti war than ever in my lifetime.

Seems as though you can’t actually use your hard power without precisely delineating its limits, which is something your enemies will enjoy

There was a period, when Wagner were acting up and the Ukrainian farmers had stolen all their AFVs when Russia was only the 4th best army *in Ukraine*

Make that 1533 days for Putler's Supremely Muckedup Operation.