We wouldn’t want our president to be kidnapped by another country, so why should we be able to kidnap Venezuela’s? Shouldn’t we treat others the way we want to be treated?
It’s not possible to set the principles governing a relationship unilaterally. Other countries aren’t kidnapping our president and dropping bombs on us not because they decided not to but because they can’t. That’s the only true reason. And the only way for us to avoid them becoming capable of it is to be preemptive and extremely strong.
Look at what happened to Ukraine, which by the way is the largest country in Europe. Thirty years of trying to be nice, crawling on their stomachs, looking kindly and imploringly into everybody’s faces. Thirty years of trying to ingratiate themselves. No, we don’t need borders, whatever you say. No, we don’t need nukes. No, we don’t need an army. Let us disarm to show our good will. Let us hire Russian citizens for every important position in defense and intelligence to show how sweet and open-minded we are. Let’s elect a president who promises to lick the Russians’ paws. Great results that brought Ukraine. Getting bombed into the ground is the reward for all that niceness.
Of course, in our private lives we should all follow the Christian principle of do unto others. But that only works on an individual level. You can turn your other cheek. But it’s not OK to turn the cheeks of millions of people. An administration that refuses to engage in an aggressivy pursued foreign policy turns the cheeks of its citizens.
This does not mean that every aggressive foreign action is justified. Neither does it mean that none are. There’s a sea of options between “let’s do nothing” and “let’s do everything.” These two options are exactly the ones taken respectively by Ukraine (until February 2022) and Russia. Don’t they both suck? I’d say they really do.
Clarissa's Blog 
To extend the thought–in your view, wow many people do you need to have in a group before the Christian principles of kindness and charity break down and become irresponsible?
Should families turn the other cheek to other families that wrong them? Associations? cities?
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This is an issue I had with my parents. My mother once donated my winter coat to charity. Mine! She kept hers. She got the accolades for being charitable while I shivered with cold. It was a constant issue in our lives. My father always explained it as following Christian principles but it sounded wrong. It’s only as I grew much older that I figured out what was wrong with this approach.
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I had this issue with my parents too, with attention/time as well as material objects. Still working through all that and figuring out a better approach for my own family, but it’s not always obvious how to do that.
-YZ
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There’s always the typical Soviet strategy of forcing a child to share her toys with other children. The parent would never share her favorite possessions, of course. Only the child needs to carry this burden.
I told mine that she should do whatever she wishes with her property. It’s not mine to manage. Performative sharing is unnecessary. Instead, I let her witness some of my works of charity.
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I completely agree with you Clarissa. China and Russia took so much advantage of the West, Trump is the only person to really fight back in any meaningful way against their abuse.
We simply can’t be constrained by a rules based order that china and Russia don’t follow. And ultimately massive force is the only thing that China and Russia will listen to.
I was just thinking the other day what a massive pussy and failure Jake Sullivan was. Making us act weak and scares just made everything worse.
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“what a massive pussy and failure Jake Sullivan was”
That is far too kind.
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God, I still break out in nervous hives when I remember Sullivan. What a loser. And what a loserish foreign policy we had with him.
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By contrast I have to say I’m incredibly impressed with Peter Hegseth. I had such low expectations and he’s just been fantastic. Probably the best DOD head we’ve had in a very long time.
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I agree. It’s very pleasing to see the Armed Forces not be incompetent for a change. Turns out they could be effective and impressive this whole time. I’m honestly shocked.
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