Czech president Petr Pavel warned that Donald Trump’s recent comments questioning the role of Nato have damaged the alliance’s credibility more than the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has done in several years.

Pavel, a retired Nato general and former chair of the Nato military committee, also said that Trump’s criticism of the alliance over the Iran war was “to put it mildly, unfair”.

“The moment we begin to question the alliance as a single, united entity, ready to act together and very decisively then, of course, its role is lost,” he warned.

He said that Trump ‘s criticism appeared to miss the fact that Nato is a defence alliance, and “not an alliance that will automatically help in wars waged outside its territory”.

  • bearboiblake@pawb.social
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    4 hours ago

    Taking wealth through force is not necessarily an act of imperialism, and that is not how the term is commonly understood - the term for such an act is pillage.

    Pillage is often a part of imperialist endeavors, but not necessarily so. Imperialism can take place without a single act of pillage.

    I’m not “giving into” anything. I have been calling out and arguing against US imperialism for decades. Everyone else is catching up to me, finally, and thankfully.

    If you want to continue to deny it, that is very much your prerogative, but again, I think you’ll find yourself on the losing side of that argument more and more as time goes on.

    • CanadaPlus@futurology.today
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      4 hours ago

      If there’s been no shift in how the US is acting, which seems to be what you’re saying, the rest of the world is just being sensitive, like America’s diplomats are fond of saying. You’re unwittingly advancing the same propaganda line.

      People don’t catch up, at most a person can. Old idiots die and new idiots are born, and the total stays the same.

      (If you’re trying to break this off, thanks for being pleasant to talk to)

      • bearboiblake@pawb.social
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        4 hours ago

        There is definitely a shift in how the US is acting. Donald Trump is persuing imperialist ambitions in a brazen, vulgar way, which has exposed those ambitions far more undeniably than ever. It has been a real wake up call for many people around the world.

        In the past, US leaders have acted with a veneer of plausible deniability, but that is now completely out of the window. The propaganda machine of the US empire is now on full display for everyone to see, and with the surge of independent media coinciding with all of this, suddenly, all of the cards are revealed.

        If the US government and mainstream media are so clearly and obviously lying now, people are more willing to seriously consider that they may have lied in the past. All it takes is for people like myself to point it out to them, and they don’t even argue much anymore.

        It’s over. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. The US empire’s collapse is now inevitable. Sit back, and enjoy the show.