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https://www.truthdig.com/articles/goodbye-to-the-dollar/
The inept and corrupt presidency of Donald Trump has unwittingly triggered the fatal blow to the American empire—the abandonment of the dollar as the world’s principal reserve currency. Nations around the globe, especially in Europe, have lost confidence in the United States to act rationally, much less lead, in issues of international finance, trade, diplomacy and war. These nations are quietly dismantling the seven-decade-old alliance with the United States and building alternative systems of bilateral trade. This reconfiguring of the world’s financial system will be fatal to the American empire, as the historian Alfred McCoy and the economist Michael Hudson have long pointed out. It will trigger an economic death spiral, including high inflation, which will necessitate a massive military contraction overseas and plunge the United States into a prolonged depression. Trump, rather than make America great again, has turned out, unwittingly, to be the empire’s most aggressive gravedigger.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday February 05 2019, @01:15PM (1 child)
Oh quite. I don't hold up the politics and ideology of the Soviet Union under Stalin as something to be admired or emulated. It was Hitler who tore up the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Operation Barbarossa, although the Soviets had not fully respected it beforehand, so it was 'under strain'. Nonetheless, attacking the Soviet Union was a strategic mistake, and evidence of well-formed plans by Stalin for invading the German sphere of influence agreed as part of the pact is still argued hotly>/a>. [wikipedia.org]
The behaviour of the Red Army is well documented - the depths to which parts of humanity will sink when given power without responsibility are truly horrifying. The Wehrmacht weren't exactly angels during the invasion of the Soviet Union, so a wish for revenge by the Red Army is understandable.
It was by no means guaranteed that the USA would enter the war. Roosevelt had a significant non-interventionist lobby to deal with [wikipedia.org], and from a pragmatic point of view, a war that diminished the power of the British Empire without noticeably affecting the USA served the USA's interests greatly. If anything, the USA was more concerned about constraining the expansionist tendencies of the Soviet Union under Stalin - once Hitler had started a war against the Soviet Union, it was in the USA's interests to ensure that if/when he lost, that all of Europe didn't become Sovietized. Had Hitler been able to wait until he had finished beating the British, he would likely have got support from the USA to prevent Soviet influence increasing in Europe. Realpolitik, and the USA doggedly pursuing its own interests, as it continues to do, often to the apparent surprise of allies who think special relationships count for something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @01:39PM
If hitler hadn't invaded russia then russia would have invaded him. Stalin was going to stab him in the back. Crazy dictators can't hold a peace. Rest is history.