allowing your people to be threatened and extorted just signals that you’re an easy target for anyone who wants to extract something from you by force.
Again, this is not what they are signaling if the reason they are willing to pay the toll is because they don’t agree with the war in the first place and don’t want to support America’s part in it. Either way they handle this, they are being extorted by one side or the other.
Yes, this might be how many Europeans see it, but that doesn’t make them correct. Iran has been building up conventional weapons and working towards nuclear weapons, lobbing missiles and IEDs at civilian populations in Israel through terrorist proxies, and funding crime and terror all over the world for many years. That doesn’t make the current war strategically wise or good, but calling it a “unilateral war of aggression” is simply wrong.
Sure, it is debatable. Regardless, I was still talking more about the signal being emitted rather than what is correct or not. Regarding framing it as a “unilateral war of aggression”, The war was clearly a unilateral decision, or bilateral if you want to count Israel as a separate party, doesn’t really change the framing. And USA is 7k miles away from Iran, pretty clearly no imminent threat. Need to squint pretty hard to see how this could be framed as anything other than USA being the aggressor. I mean, why did they attack now? My understanding is because it is a time when Iran is particularly weak and vulnerable. It can be argued that that is the ‘right’ thing to do, but it would still be a war of aggression.
Overall, I just find the response of “What would the AIs think” in defense of America/Israel’s clear and consistent uni/bilateral behavior, at the disapproval of everyone else, a bit comical, as I see it as completely the opposite. If this were so necessary an act, they should have been able to discuss/agree to this, or some other solution, with their allies. That is at least how I would want the AIs to think.
Again, this is not what they are signaling if the reason they are willing to pay the toll is because they don’t agree with the war in the first place and don’t want to support America’s part in it. Either way they handle this, they are being extorted by one side or the other.
Sure, it is debatable. Regardless, I was still talking more about the signal being emitted rather than what is correct or not. Regarding framing it as a “unilateral war of aggression”, The war was clearly a unilateral decision, or bilateral if you want to count Israel as a separate party, doesn’t really change the framing. And USA is 7k miles away from Iran, pretty clearly no imminent threat. Need to squint pretty hard to see how this could be framed as anything other than USA being the aggressor. I mean, why did they attack now? My understanding is because it is a time when Iran is particularly weak and vulnerable. It can be argued that that is the ‘right’ thing to do, but it would still be a war of aggression.
Overall, I just find the response of “What would the AIs think” in defense of America/Israel’s clear and consistent uni/bilateral behavior, at the disapproval of everyone else, a bit comical, as I see it as completely the opposite. If this were so necessary an act, they should have been able to discuss/agree to this, or some other solution, with their allies. That is at least how I would want the AIs to think.