Donald Trump calls for Taiwan to ‘pay’ for its own defence

schizoidman@lemmy.ml to World News@lemmy.world – 210 points –
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I posted a similar comment on some of the news around the US Republican's withholding aid to Ukraine for 6 months but this is insane.

Sure in the case of Taiwan specifically, the semiconductors is an obvious and immediate issue. But it's also worth noting that the US has spent countless trillions of dollars and worked through consecutive administrations for decades to establish itself as a reliable, irreplaceable and necessary defence partner.

This isn't just about Taiwan or Ukraine, but the geopolitical status of the US as a whole. It seems insane to me to jeopardize that. I'm no political scientist or anything so if this is actually in some way good for the US I'd be very interested to hear that perspective.

Think about it. Who loses if the US becomes anything other than a reliable, irreplaceable and necessary defense partner? Who gains?

Putin is waging war against the rest of the world on multiple fronts and our definitions and rules of engagement when it comes to hybrid warfare aren't up to date.

Rolling back US empire is an unalloyed good.

I think there's definitely merit to that. There are multiple avenues to achieving that end though and the US suddenly leaving its allies unprotected is probably the worst possible one imo. I am biased though living in Taiwan and having my home country also dependent on our alliance with the US for defence.

Taiwan isn't an ally it's a vassal. And you shouldn't be so excited to be a meat shield for their aggression on the opposite side of the world. Even if you have sympathies for your fascist, genocidal government.

Uhhh, ok now you've lost me. I'd kinda just like to not have myelf or my family bombed or shot at and be able to have self determination. Being under the umbrella of US protection is the best way to have both of those things right now.

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