10-27-2023, 04:56 AM
The odds are increasing that those who lament the loss of the Israel thread will effectively get to talk about all things Hamas and Israel in this thread as Russia is now embracing Hamas publicly, because of course they are. The U.S. punching Iran's forces in the nose overnight certainly ups the ante.
So on the democracy and free market capitalism side we have NATO, Ukraine, Australia, South Korea, Japan, as the major powers.
On the autocracy side we have Russia, Iran, North Korea, and maybe China as the major powers.
I put China here reluctantly because if you are China, do you really want to be on that side? I get it that they won't be on the democracy side, but FFS, how can you be a capitalist country with China's economic issues and piss off the other major capitalist countries? Perhaps there is some path for the western democracies to convince China to not ally with these other rogue nations, and be OK with them being communist, and to forget Taiwan?
I mean if China joins these three, the odds of World War III are very high, IMO. If we can convince China and India to stay neutral - which they would probably prefer - we will "only" have a regional war on our hands.
My question is how does Russia making friends with Hamas do anything to help Russia? I can see how it helps Hamas potentially, but what does it do for Russia? Their forces are already tied down in Ukraine, and they are already needing to borrow from North Korea. I can see Hamas asking Russia to help with online propaganda to stir up anti-Israel sentiment that creates more willing fighters to attack Israel while it is focused on Gaza.
So on the democracy and free market capitalism side we have NATO, Ukraine, Australia, South Korea, Japan, as the major powers.
On the autocracy side we have Russia, Iran, North Korea, and maybe China as the major powers.
I put China here reluctantly because if you are China, do you really want to be on that side? I get it that they won't be on the democracy side, but FFS, how can you be a capitalist country with China's economic issues and piss off the other major capitalist countries? Perhaps there is some path for the western democracies to convince China to not ally with these other rogue nations, and be OK with them being communist, and to forget Taiwan?
I mean if China joins these three, the odds of World War III are very high, IMO. If we can convince China and India to stay neutral - which they would probably prefer - we will "only" have a regional war on our hands.
My question is how does Russia making friends with Hamas do anything to help Russia? I can see how it helps Hamas potentially, but what does it do for Russia? Their forces are already tied down in Ukraine, and they are already needing to borrow from North Korea. I can see Hamas asking Russia to help with online propaganda to stir up anti-Israel sentiment that creates more willing fighters to attack Israel while it is focused on Gaza.