What is going on with the world?

[evilbeepskyrim]

Russia invading Ukraine, China bullying its Asian neighbors and stopping full democracy in Hong Kong, Isis taking over Iraq, the immigration crisis still unsolved,Israeli-Palestinian battles, etc.

What do YOU think of all these things bubbling suddenly all over the world in 2014?

Should Europe be more threatening against Russia?

Should Japan, the Phillipines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and other east Asian countries form an alliance against Chinese Agression?

Should America become more Isolated from foreign affairs or be more supportave of other countries agianst tyrants?

What is your opinion?

[Phoenix Wright]

isolationism is outdated; the world is far too connected for a nation like the united states to be isolationist. that doesn't mean we meddle in others' affairs arbitrarily, but it does mean we don't intentionally alienate ourselves from real-world troubles. i don't think this is a popular opinion amongst people here, but i do think that sometimes intervention from other nations is justified (eg, if nato intervened in n. korea). justified though they may be to me, intervening in a country's affairs has consequences (n. korea & china allied), so it isn't always wise to intervene, even if it may be justified to a nation's people and government.

i'm in support of diplomacy over war, and i think it's at least possible in each of these situations noted. if hamas and israel can attain a ceasefire, this set of high-tension situations are 100% solvable without war.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Phoenix Wright

[MercyWalk]

what is going on in the world? nothing out of the ordinary, there's always been conflict and there always will be unless you want a total world wide government

I am not too educated on these current matters but I'll speak my opinion I guess

Europe is, from what I know, quite unpredictable in it's political stability, for example there have been anti-semitic riots in France recently, the EU union becoming any more threatening towards Russia will most likely provide even more turmoil and backlash

Of course China doesn't want Hong Kong to be fully democratic, it probably never will be until they sort out the insane corruption problems they have.

This "Chinese aggression" is no doubt scary but there have ALWAYS been disputes in asia especially when it comes with land/maritime ownership, forming an alliance against China would probably be the stupidest thing ever to do because that will only provoke more aggression, not to mention it could sabotage the vast list of multilateral and bilateral agreement chains based in the Asia-Pacific, even worldwide.

America has a hard time staying isolated, even moreso nowadays with the way the world is connected digitally. One thing it should learn is not to fuck with a countries own disputes and exert it's force through vast military deployment, (see: Indochina wars).

Like PW said, diplomacy over war.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Alb

[kingddd]

The Ukraine incidents with Russian take over has been going on for generations. The Russians and Ukrainians have always been fighting over each other for the Ukrainian territory. Its Farmland is vast and very resourceful and it would provide an even bigger access to oil and gas in that specific area. It's why Crimea was annexed to them.

The China bully other territories is a very complicated matter. Most of the asian territories that were established in history were many Chinese descendants that have escaped from China to rule their own states and territories. At the same time, many of the territories that were once China have been stolen or taken away by wars like British taking Hong Kong and the many islands that were taken from the Japanese. These lead to significant dispute on who claims which territories. At the same time, once the British gave Hong Kong back to China, they want to reestablish it back to the way China wants to rule it. Of course through those 100 years, cultures changes and ideals are different and therefore significant conflicts will occur as they have been under a democratic rule for so long they don't want to go to the way the current Chinese Communists rule.

The Middle East countries have always been at war with each other. This isn't really news.

Should Japan, the Phillipines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and other east Asian countries form an alliance against Chinese Agression?

This would be one of the worst decisions you can make right now. China is a very powerful country, they have a huge military, a significant economic influence of the world and huge production of goods and services that other countries in the world are demanding from that state. Asking to go against China is like asking for death on your country at this point.

Should Europe be more threatening against Russia?

Yes and they already are as NATO has been in conflict and dispute on what to do with the Ukranian crisis right now.

Should America become more Isolated from foreign affairs or be more supportave of other countries agianst tyrants?

They really should not be isolated from foreign affairs. Especially in the age of globalization and economics, nationalizing all your goods and services and politically is a recipe for disaster. Corporations and other countries have been relying on international businesses more than ever before and this is not stopping any time soon. Unfortunately the idea of isolationism is still in many american citizens minds as many are still unaware of many problems and issues outside of their own country. They really can't stop any foreign affairs at this point. What if a country comes in and asks for help and the Americas respond by saying no we can't help you? That would damage America's reputation very easily. Foreign aid would halt and humanitarian donations would cease if they do this.

On the issues of against Tyrants this is REALLY debatable and they can cause even more problems than before. You have to remember before the 2003 Iraq War, although it was run by a Tyrant, the country itself was relatively stable. When America went fought the war they immediately placed democracy right into the country immediately. This is problematic as you're causing an immediate change to political policies in which countries and cultures are not used to for generations. Change is great but if it's too radical or implemented too fast, you'll get significant protests and cultures that don't want this kind of policies to be enacted. The thing is, the world has a very conservative mind. No matter how good your ideal seems it won't always work for other cultures and countries. You're breeding more problems than it is solving it by all of sudden implementing a completely different system that the people of the country haven't experienced in generations.

A lot of these issues have been constantly occurring for generations in history. It's just that now information can be spread so fast in the world with the Internet and other communication devices that these events are being reported like they are bigger than ever before.

Edited September 5, 2014 by kingddd

[dondon151]

japan and taiwan are already anti-chinese anyway.

(the best way to annoy a taiwanese person is to claim that taiwan is part of china.)

[Naughx]

Humanity being humans... Nothing new under the light.

The thing is we LOVE killing each others.

[Passionfruit Cappuccino]

what is going on in the world? nothing out of the ordinary, there's always been conflict and there always will be unless you want a total world wide government

Yea, pretty much, It (almost) cant be helped

The only one i feel like putting my opinion into is America's one. I think that they should continue their support if they want to keep a good relation with their allies as well as try and help the situation. However, they are killing many innocents (or at least helping to kill) and should refrain from joining in conflict that is already in a bad state

Also. the U.N really needs to be able to do more these days. They're seeming to be as effective as toothless tigers in the current events

[Magical CC]

Russia invading Ukraine, China bullying its Asian neighbors and stopping full democracy in Hong Kong, Isis taking over Iraq, the immigration crisis still unsolved,Israeli-Palestinian battles, etc.

What do YOU think of all these things bubbling suddenly all over the world in 2014?

Should Europe be more threatening against Russia?

Should Japan, the Phillipines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and other east Asian countries form an alliance against Chinese Agression?

Should America become more Isolated from foreign affairs or be more supportave of other countries agianst tyrants?

What is your opinion?

The world has always been a mess. It seems to be serious now just because the media did a a good job hyping up everything this time.

Vietnam and other East Asian countries have already form a certain alliance against Chinese aggression and made COC (but China doesnt give a freak anyway). Japan and Australia are going to have a military alliance against China.

Israel and Palestine has their conflict going for more a long time. I followed the conflict since when I was a kid. Nothing has changed.

Either it's Russia or US to make a mess in Europe. I still remember that last time when Russia invaded Georgia (right?)

I have to say, China is kinda soft this time. Back in 1988, they invaded some of Vietnam's islands and killed everyone. Russia, despite having military contract with Vietnam, did nothing to stop that. Back in 1979, they tried to invade the north border of Vietnam but failed. And back in 1974, after Us retreating from Vietnam, they took the chance and took away a small island in South Vietnam territory too.

The China bully other territories is a very complicated matter. Most of the asian territories that were established in history were many Chinese descendants that have escaped from China to rule their own states and territories

False. China claimed many lands that didnt even a part of their ancient land.

However, I am not very surprised if a big war is going to happen. I mean, take a look at the history of the world. We used to have several hundred years of peace (mostly) for almost all of the Europe. There has been empires that last several thousand years. But nothing last forever, war still happen, empires still fall. Look, how long has the America exist?We only archived the peace for the world for about 70 years. It's so short, so fragile. Either we experience the fall of this world in our generation or our next generations will experience it, simple.

Let me take a quote from Deus Ex:

This is not the end of the world. But you can see it from here.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Magical Amber

[Alertcircuit]

isolationism is outdated;

The problem about isolationism is that the U.S. is going all these places and doing all these things, but the other countries usually don't move at all unless like directly threatened. So it's very much a problem of "We broke from this mold, can't you too?"

Russia and Ukraine doesn't really seen a problem, at least not one the U.S. should fight about. The cold war has always been about flexing muscle anyway.

The China thing isn't like surprising but I have no idea what should be done there.

ISIS is really scary. Those people aren't sane. I'd say Obama should team up with the other nations to kill them since their acts are almost worthy of being called a holocaust, but I'm also afraid of more terrorist attacks or even nukes showing up. I mean we have enough to worry about with those 11 planes that went missing.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Alertcircuit

[Naughx]

ISIS is really scary. Those people aren't sane. I'd say Obama should team up with the other nations to kill them since their acts are almost worthy of being called a holocaust, but I'm also afraid of more terrorist attacks or even nukes showing up. I mean we have enough to worry about with those 11 planes that went missing.

If we do that, they'll get even more people to fight for them against the "Western agression".

Polarization is bad... in a way we created ISIS.

"we" = Western countries

Edited September 5, 2014 by Naughx

[MercyWalk]

Vietnam and other East Asian countries have already form a certain alliance against Chinese aggression and made COC (but China doesnt give a freak anyway). Japan and Australia are going to have a military alliance against China.

I dunno about being against China specifically, yes, it is definitely a factor in the alliance but on the other hand Australia has been co-operating with China heavily in the past year, military wise but most definitely trade wise (worth $125.2 Billion) and China has kept its mouth (sort of) shut in criticizing Australia. Australia has always been the bitch of powers, it's in such a prone (politically and geographically) position that any conflict between major powers puts it in a very fucked up position.

I think China is doing a dumb move in provoking it's neighbours atm, it's economic divide is predicted to become worse and the real estate bubble is going to burst, which unfortunately will fuck up a large portion of Australia's natural resource export industries. Not a very smart time to start pissing everybody off.. Anyway, not trying to argue here, just stating my opinion on the alliance matters.

ISIS is really scary. Those people aren't sane. I'd say Obama should team up with the other nations to kill them since their acts are almost worthy of being called a holocaust, but I'm also afraid of more terrorist attacks or even nukes showing up. I mean we have enough to worry about with those 11 planes that went missing.

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that. Teaming up with other nations, especially those with large islamic/muslim populations for example UK, France, Australia, Germany, is going to cause a lot of problems on the homefront. The leftover embers of islamaphobia do not need to be aggravated again, on top of that, we don't need more ISIS sympathizers in our own countries. Yes, people are more educated now (i'd say so anyway) but that can easily all crumble when violence comes into play.

There will be a bunch of people who can't tell the difference between radicalism and just plain religion. I don't exactly trust our countries to stay politically stable if we decide to lay war against ISIS (meaning the countries they have significant power in), especially with all the wikileaks stuff going on recently and the intrusion of security from the five eyes. Monitoring our own citizens will most likely increase in intensity tenfold once we decide to "kill them" causing even further distrust between countries and civilians.

Since ISIS are so spread out it will be a guirella warfare situation, similar to that of the Vietnam war where you're in a foreign land where you can't tell who's the enemy and who's not, not a great place to fight.

I grew up/still live in a predominantly islamic community so of course i'm going to have a little bias towards them but from what i've seen, a mix of low socioeconomic backgrounds, islamaphobia and it's height in the early 2000's and a whole group of kids growing up in that era, well, it's going to cause an absolute shitstorm. The Cronulla Riots was relatively tame to what it could have turned out to be, I can't imagine what happened in the U.S at the time of 9/11.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Alb

[Excellen Browning]

Meh.

i don't pretend to know the Russian goal for interfering with the Ukrainian rebellions, it seems to me like Russian high command wants to reinforce their sphere of influence over eastern European countries. I just don't understand what the Russian Ukrainian rebels are thinking to get out of it. Their more major point has been anti-corruption, but it's not like things are better in Russia, so i wonder what they hope to get out of annexation.

The EU is currently as involved as it is allowed to be with regards to the situation. Although a member state is more or less being invaded (it's really sending forces for separatist rebels to use) the EU does not have a mandate to answer that with military force. Not to mention, a trade war between the Russians and EU (and US) will be very painful for Russians. Russia will face food shortages as well as large hits to the gas sales, which are keeping the Russian economy afloat.

[Ansem]

lol ISIS stole jets from Russia, they're also decapitating US journalists. I believe its a matter of time before ISIS croaks.

[Alertcircuit]

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that. Teaming up with other nations, especially those with large islamic/muslim populations for example UK, France, Australia, Germany, is going to cause a lot of problems on the homefront. The leftover embers of islamaphobia do not need to be aggravated again, on top of that, we don't need more ISIS sympathizers in our own countries. Yes, people are more educated now (i'd say so anyway) but that can easily all crumble when violence comes into play.

There will be a bunch of people who can't tell the difference between radicalism and just plain religion. I don't exactly trust our countries to stay politically stable if we decide to lay war against ISIS (meaning the countries they have significant power in), especially with all the wikileaks stuff going on recently and the intrusion of security from the five eyes. Monitoring our own citizens will most likely increase in intensity tenfold once we decide to "kill them" causing even further distrust between countries and civilians.

Since ISIS are so spread out it will be a guirella warfare situation, similar to that of the Vietnam war where you're in a foreign land where you can't tell who's the enemy and who's not, not a great place to fight.

I grew up/still live in a predominantly islamic community so of course i'm going to have a little bias towards them but from what i've seen, a mix of low socioeconomic backgrounds, islamaphobia and it's height in the early 2000's and a whole group of kids growing up in that era, well, it's going to cause an absolute shitstorm. The Cronulla Riots was relatively tame to what it could have turned out to be, I can't imagine what happened in the U.S at the time of 9/11.

That's true, I guess my statement wasn't really thought through.

[EricaofRenais]

I really think a lot of the problems are coming from people not paying attention in history class because it looks like the cold war is coming back, plus if the UN had listened to T. E. Lawrence about how the Arab world wanted to be separated in to countries and not done it the way that they did there would not be so many problems in the middle east. I think the U.S. needs to stay out of most of the things going on right now, but I do think that we should support our allies if and when they need help to keep their countries safe from harm.

[Julius Nepos]

Meh.

i don't pretend to know the Russian goal for interfering with the Ukrainian rebellions, it seems to me like Russian high command wants to reinforce their sphere of influence over eastern European countries. I just don't understand what the Russian Ukrainian rebels are thinking to get out of it. Their more major point has been anti-corruption, but it's not like things are better in Russia, so i wonder what they hope to get out of annexation.

The EU is currently as involved as it is allowed to be with regards to the situation. Although a member state is more or less being invaded (it's really sending forces for separatist rebels to use) the EU does not have a mandate to answer that with military force. Not to mention, a trade war between the Russians and EU (and US) will be very painful for Russians. Russia will face food shortages as well as large hits to the gas sales, which are keeping the Russian economy afloat.

This is actually a really complicated matter, not just "OMG, evil Russians r invading Ukraine!!!" (I know that's not what you said, and I don't intend to be condescending towards you, but it seems to be more or less the public opinion). What we have to remember is that the Donbas region (the region now controlled by the separatists) has a large if not predominant population of people of Russian descent (mainly immigrants from Soviet times). Yanukovych was from the Donbas, and when he was ousted by extreme nationalists, the people there were indignated that "their" president had been ousted, and also felt threatened by the nationalist coup. Russia didn't start interfering until Yanukovych, who is still the legitimate president of Ukraine by the way, came there to ask for help. Russia's point of view seems to be: "Well, the EU is supporting the rebels who seized power in Kiev, so why can't we support the rebels who are seizing power in the Donbas?"

Also, we (western countries) may feel threatened by Russia's expansion, but I believe Russia feels threatened by western expansion. We've got to remember that the region which is now Ukraine was a for a big part of its history part of Russia, and that Kiev was the birthplace of the Russian nation (being for a long time the major city of the medieval country of Rus). But now that Ukraine is turning ever more away from its ties with Russia and is seeking closer ties with the European Union and the NATO, Russia may feel threatened by what it perceives to be western expansion into territory which is ultimately Rus.

Also, on a side note, Ukraine is neither a member state of the EU nor of the NATO.

I really think a lot of the problems are coming from people not paying attention in history class.

This is basically the root of most problems in the world. If people actually learned from history, our current world would enjoy much more peace and welfare.

[Alertcircuit]

I really think a lot of the problems are coming from people not paying attention in history class because it looks like the cold war is coming back, plus if the UN had listened to T. E. Lawrence about how the Arab world wanted to be separated in to countries and not done it the way that they did there would not be so many problems in the middle east. I think the U.S. needs to stay out of most of the things going on right now, but I do think that we should support our allies if and when they need help to keep their countries safe from harm.

I wouldn't say it would fix a lot of them, but I do agree that people should learn more. I learned that a lot with Ferguson, that maybe those police officers wouldn't have been as harsh to the protestors as they were if they remembered events like Kent State, and it could apply to bigger things maybe if people just paid attention. People blow social studies off but after taking my advanced US History class as a freshman my teacher inspired me to the realization that there's a possibility that it's going to be the most relevant class to your life probably after you graduate. No matter what career you take, whatever you do, everyone has at the very least some inkling of a link to the news and current events.

[Rehab]

I'm still mad about Syria. That some paranoid asshole could do so much to destroy and forcibly radicalize a relatively prosperous country so thoroughly, and get such halfhearted and procrastinated material pushback internationally, even as the people he waged war on were desperate for help, that's nightmare fuel to me.

Also Christ am I personally peeved by hearing U.S. officials talking about things in terms of "American interests." We've gotten ourselves "interested" in some bloody awful things over the years while allowing ourselves to remain disinterested in no small number of avenues that would lead to a better world, you're kinda rubbing it in here imo

[General Seth]

Russia invading Ukraine? No. Where photos with russian army of invaders?

About Crimea: itially in accordance with The Crimean Constitution of 1995 they (Crimeans)on referendum have decided to withdraw from Ukraine... And only then they (Crimeans) to had another referendum, by result of which Crimea became part of Russia.

Peace all.

[Julius Nepos]

Russia invading Ukraine? No. Where photos with russian army of invaders? About Crimea: itially in accordance with The Crimean Constitution of 1995 they (Crimeans)on referendum have decided to withdraw from Ukraine... And only then they (Crimeans) to had another referendum, by result of which Crimea became part of Russia. Peace all.

Amnesty International has taken satellite photos that show artillery of Russian type. Questions have been raised as to how the Ukrainian separatists have managed to get their hands on the advanced weaponry they're known to use, suggested is that Russia supplies them with it. As for Crimea, the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea states the following in article 1:

"The Autonomous Republic of Crimea shall be an integral part of Ukraine".

And the Constitution of Ukraine states in article 134:

"The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is an inseparable constituent part of Ukraine".

[General Seth]

Russian artillery... Kalash too often falls into lens, so what? Russian in Siria and Iraq? No.

That's it! Autonomus Republic! So has right on secession. Why Europe Union and US not want to see obvious?..

[Julius Nepos]

I agree that the claim on the artillery being Russian is a bit doubtful, but I'm skeptical of both sides. But Crimea does not have the right of secession, as stated in its own constitution and the constitution of Ukraine.

[General Seth]

Fuck! Java-scripts is down. Sorry for unreadble text.

[General Seth]

I agree that the claim on the artillery being Russian is a bit doubtful, but I'm skeptical of both sides. But Crimea does not have the right of secession, as stated in its own constitution and the constitution of Ukraine.

It's Autonomus Republic, but nobody cares

[Julius Nepos]

It's Autonomus Republic, but nobody cares

What do you mean?