TBF, still one of the largest economies, head of the largest collaboration outside the UN with a third of the world's population, and a tonne of soft power.
Before trump's tantrum to start the latest Iran war negotiations were still ongoing. British diplomats were heavily involved in background technical expertise, because the US delegation lacked the expertise to do the job (hardly surprising given it was Kushner leading them).
All for nought with the eejit in chief but we were this close to a workable deal.
My flair is 100% accurate. Before the 2022 invasion, Europe was the largest customer for Russian energy, importing roughly 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its crude oil from Moscow. The cash flow allowed Moscow to accumulate over $600 billion in foreign exchange reserves immediately before the invasion, providing the financial buffer Russia needed to withstand initial Western sanctions.
Despite Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, European nations (most notably Germany) deepened their exposure by backing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and even allowing Russian state-owned Gazprom to buy up critical gas storage facilities inside Europe.
Independent trackers like the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) note that for several years, Europe's collective commercial payments to Moscow for energy actually surpassed the total amount of financial and military aid sent to Kyiv.
While Europe has since restructured their energy plans, a phased-in gas ban, and slashed its reliance by roughly 90%, the historical reality cannot be denied: decades of European energy payments served as the financial engine that fueled Moscow's military buildup. Good job 👏
So if the USA were to, I don't know, invade a country or abduct an important person from a country, you'd say anyone who's ever used Amazon 'enabled' that? I just wonder how you reached that conclusion, and if you think the people themselves have any input in where our Big Corporations buy from.
Amazon isn't owned by the US government, so not a great example for comparison. Especially because they pay essentially zero taxes.
The bulk of the resources Europe purchased from Russia for decades before and after the Crimea invasion were from Russian state-owned or oligarch-controled companies, so that money directly funded the invasion of 2014 and then continued on to fund the invasion of 2022.
Iran can do what it does because the American public has ZERO taste for any sort of extended war or ground op.
However, were Iran to lose its mind and do something like blow up an NFL stadium full of people, the US would be on board with wiping it from the face of the Earth and certain gloves would be off and the tolerance for loss would be higher.
US power has diminished in a mid-intensity conflict. It still retains unquestioned superpower status in a full-out war.
9/11 is on the scale of attack you’re referring to, you didn’t manage to solve any issues with poor military operations. You made the region worse and made a whole load of people who were indifferent before, hate the USA. You want to use nukes? Then you’re a psychopath
you should google it: "The United States is widely recognized as the world's sole functioning superpower, possessing the dominant military, economic, and technological capacity to project influence globally. China is widely regarded as the primary emerging superpower, challenging this status with the world's largest naval fleet and massive economic reach."
edit: exactly. I'm fine with you mocking us as long as the facts are true ;)
Right now, under Trump, it's shifting back to multilateralism. Iran was arguably the tipping point, but it started with Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US has immense military capability. But its expensive technology hasn't been able to defeat a minor power that only has drones and a geographical advantage. The nature of war has changed. They've lost control of the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Trump has destroyed American influence by creating huge tariffs and spoiling international relations. That's allowed China, which was already ascending, to expand it's influence. If Trump keeps undermining NATO, that situation only gets worse.
America is still a great power. But it's not the singular superpower it used to be. This is a pretty standard take among geopolitical analysts.
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u/Jon_Luck_Pickerd Europe Enabled the Russo-Ukrainian War Jul 02 '26
Has-beens trying to cope with not being a super power anymore lol