Subject: Re: Starmer chooses his side: Iran
Did someone call for an invasion by us?

Why do we need our planes to use their airbases, if we aren't going to invade Iran's airspace and conduct military attacks within their country? This isn't some big secret. You can't engage in even limited airstrikes without invading their airspace.

How is it in Germany's real interest to build pipelines to Russia and make them the sole supplier of their energy? How is in their "interests" to de-induitrialize?

How is it in Germany's real interests for us to impose punitive tariffs on their goods? How is it in their interests to disrupt longstanding trade patterns that entire industries within their economy have been based on for decades? How is it in their real interests for us to signal that we won't support them if they're attacked? How is it in their interests for us to tell them that domestic policy matters that are normally the purview of the electorate of Germany instead must be aligned to what our government decides they should be? Etc.

It's the old "this is for your own good" claim - which has been used to justify things that are both good and bad for time immemorial. But I don't understand how you can make it in good faith, because the whole point of Trump's changes to the global economic system was to change them so that they were better for us and worse for them. That's the stated purpose! He claimed that the then-existing system favored them, so that it had to be changed so that it stopped favoring them. By definition, he's acting against their interests in favor of our own. And so it's not at all surprising that other countries will respond by no longer cooperating with the U.S. on things we want.