I mean Russia would continue doing trade with Cuba regardless of what the US says. And if US started sabre rattling then Russia would send armed ships to escort its cargo ones. Even the US wouldn’t be crazy enough to directly attack Russian ships trading with Cuba.

no worries, and I appreciate your perspective on this as well

lol yeah

Yeah, I don’t think Vietnam counts as any sort of occupation. It is an instance of a war of aggression by China though. I do consider it to be a mistake on the part of Chinese leadership, but the reality is that every society makes mistakes. Societies run by communists aren’t immune from that, and that’s just life.

In my view, the question is always how these societies compare to other real world alternatives. Even if we take the most critical view of China in cases of Vietnam, it’s clear that there is no comparison with the US. The path of development China took is overwhelmingly peaceful, and one that helped improved life both in China and in many other nations around the world.

This is definitely not a hill I’m going to die on. I’m willing to entertain the notion that Tibet had notional independence, but it was a nightmarish place that had to be liberated. I think the important point is whether China did the right thing here, and the answer is unarguably that yes it was.

Well I was going with the whole it was a very good thing that China intervened and liberated Tibet. It is was an intervention though. But yeah, to be clear, I think it was absolutely the right thing to do.

yeah that’s fair

also https://www.historicly.net/p/tibet-china-and-the-violent-reaction

I imagine Russia would. Not because they want to defend communism in Cuba, but because they would want to show that they can’t be bullied by the US. We already saw an example of this with Russia doing naval exercises with Cuba just recently. I also can’t imagine that the US would dare attack Chinese ships going to Cuba. As long as there are nations that can’t be bullied by the US who are willing to trade with Cuba there’s nothing the US can do.

This is why the financial system is such a big factor. When everybody was using SWIFT for international trade, the US didn’t have to threaten military conflict. They could just do sanctions or cut countries out of SWIFT. That was enough of a deterrent to make trade with Cuba unappealing. Now that more and more trade is happening outside the dollar, that threat is no longer there.

a self referential comment if I ever saw one

Would be a real shame if something happened to all your assets that are stored in our financial system.

That would be risking WW3, even during the Cold War the US didn’t dare blockade Soviet ships coming to Cuba.

Plenty, lobbyists, health insurance industry, and advertisers would be a few off top of my head.

Good news is that US can get fucked at this point. Cuba can trade with BRICS completely outside the dollar. Meanwhile, the burger empire can seethe and cope over it.

Cuba is being punished because it’s a threat of a good example for the rest of Latin America. How long do you think US puppets would last if Cuba was allowed to be prosperous.

BRICS payment system can’t come online fast enough. Dollar based trade was the worst thing to have happened to the global economy.

Yup, that’s what I think is happening. Now that the US can’t shoulder the entire burden of the MIC for NATO, the other members need to start pitching in.

Not sure if sanctions were explicitly mentioned or not actually. If they have then it would certainly provide a strong legal basis.

But now we’re at the point where it’s no longer possible to pretend otherwise.

And now I’ve clarified for you specifically what I meant. The original comment I was replying to was asking how a military alliance could function when all members aren’t pitching in. And I’ve explained what that translates to in practice. If you have hard time understanding that, then I really can’t help you further.