America's Dangerous Obsession With Invincibility

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Select footage from the AP Archive

[@PolyMatter]

Hi there - I've now made 6 full-length videos exclusive to Nebula. You can watch all of them (plus future exclusives and other Nebula Originals) for just $15/year curiositystream.com/polymatter After signing up to CuriosityStream with this link you'll get an email with access to Nebula. -Evan

[@pyeitme508]

Meh 😑

[@jeromenelson4093]

I subscribed for Nebula :-D to watch your other videos and have no more of your content to watch on it. Thanks for the informative content though it's great to watch

[@Verbierlover552]

You switched the icon of Iran with Iraq at 3:33!

[@giraffestreet]

10:58 Launching hypersonic missile from Russia or China through South Pole?

[@captainpiggz6391]

I had to cancel my subscription to nebula because of the pure amount of politically bias material on there

[@Palemagpie]

A man who builds ten foot walls, creates a market for 11 foot ladders.

[@nightshark1156]

I really like this, thanks.

[@jakehildebrand1824]

Great quote.

[@inksosadstonewell4831]

I was thinkin...1 2 Freddie's comin 4 u from Nightmare on Elm Street

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Luckily a smart person put landmines in front of the wall.

[@mastr-sf1jv]

@Infinity tell that to the slaves you sold me

[@robertjarman3703]

The Onion: Our National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is over.

[@wolvenar]

Yeah I mean who would want peace anyhow?

[@gothicgolem2947]

What do mean by that cause the Us hasn’t been at war since Afghanistan

[@zaurenstoates7306]

@@gothicgolem2947 prolly referring to our current proxy war with Russia via Ukraine

[@gothicgolem2947]

@@zaurenstoates7306 that’s not a proxy War that’s a full on Invasion of Ukraine by Russia

[@diego001]

@@gothicgolem2947 This was an Onion headline from 2000, when George W. Bush was proclaimed president by the Supreme Court.

[@Poxyquotl]

Describing Edward teller as a ‘scientist close to Ronald Regan’ does a disservice to actually how influential he was, he was the father of the hydrogen bomb and an integral part of the Manhattan project. Bro saw what happened to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and thought ‘we need to build bigger bombs’.

[@jakehildebrand1824]

The man was a genius, we were lucky to have him.

[@Kaz7.]

@@jakehildebrand1824 genius used for evil isn't something that should be appreciated

[@jakehildebrand1824]

@@Kaz7. no evil has come from his genius though. In fact, there is significant evidence that his creations are the only reason the cold war didn't turn violent, and that they have actually prevented multiple other violent wars. If you're referring to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they ended a war, saved lives, and brought to life the modern era of Japan.

[@blackmarszero6528]

@@jakehildebrand1824 Please read up on the Japanese Empires motivations for surrendering, while the atomic bombs were major factors they were one of many. Also, I'm unsure what you're referring to by stopping wars. While there have been no wars between nuclear armed nations, we've had plenty of other ones.

[@xiphoid2011]

@@jakehildebrand1824 yeah, the nukes on Japan saved an estimated 800000 American casualties and millions more of Japanese deaths. This is the estimate for operation Downfall, invasion of Japan set for November 1945. Had the bombs not existed, far more people would have died.

[@thebob5240]

I think the biggest reason this obsession with invincibility and setting the rules of the game is the fact that the US's home territory has NEVER been properly attacked minus the war of 1812 and a few desolate Alaskan islands during WW2, most other nations have always lived with this possibility with being neighbors with people that have hated them for centuries in some form or another the US never had that problem and then one day 3,000+ people almost all of them civilian's died American civilians again have never been under threat of anything for almost all of it's history then suddenly they were vulnerable and so the the idea of achieving invincibility was born.

[@davidexley2076]

Sadly, its more cynical than that. 9/11 was just the excuse to get democrats to ratify the insane security state they'd been building since the late 80s when they tricked Carter. They were always going to find(or create) a reason.

[@sampatkalyan3103]

USA will self-destruct.

[@SicilianSSFR]

I think you dropped your comma key. Here, this one is on me: ,

[@zagreus1249]

You hit it right on the nail, the “untouchability” of US is its best and worst boon.

[@austinhernandez2716]

It goes back further than that. The entire history of the US, from its founding to now, has played a role.

[@Thanatology101]

I remember being in high school arguing with classmates pre-9/11 because, essentially, they were convinced that we were missile proof in the US. I feel like the country kind of lost its mind after those towers fell - like the biggest toughest kid at school who was always posturing got a bloody nose from the scrappy poor kid during recess. Unable to accept his own vulnerability, he doubles down on the perception of his own strength.

[@StarSage66]

I know what you mean exactly. I was just getting into middle school when that crap happened and there was this crazed sense of disbelief that we weren't invulnerable. It got so bad we were willing to sell some of our most treasured freedoms and privacy just to soothe our wounded collective ego. I was always proud to be american and 100% convinced we were the good guys, but that all died for me with the war on terror.

[@ryanarthur1894]

Again it’s an emotional perception. While it may be accurate I think people fail to truly realize americas power.

[@DF-ss5ep]

@@ryanarthur1894 Being very powerful is not the same as being safe. The world's best boxer wins against the 5th best, but unless he wins by knockout he will be pummeled.

[@yu-ur8nh]

Once people become comfortable and feel safe, thats when they grow careless

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@yu-ur8nh This is the opposite problem actually. Not carelessness or complacency, but paranoia - leading to the very threats one is being paranoid about. It creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where your actions taken to supposedly guarantee your safety just end up looking aggressive and antagonizing even more people, leading to the emergence of ever more threats to yourself.

[@anthony-joewaked5139]

Very good video as always but from 3:28 to 3:44, Iran and Iraq’s central flag features are swapped

[@stoopidkiiDd]

Yup

[@PSIponies]

Was looking for this comment lol

[@eaterdrinker000]

Also, the Iraqi flag features should have had the three Ba'ath stars and "Allahu Akbar" in Saddam Hussein's handwriting, instead of the newer (2008-present) angular Kufic script.

[@TheDudeInTheWild007]

Who cares. Those are third world country’s anyways.

[@theevilmonk1472]

yep

[@GrantUsEyesenhower]

For those who haven’t seen it, Brain4Breakfast’s “America is on Easy Mode” is a good pairing for this video. Great stuff as always.

[@watema3381]

I'll check it out after this one. Thank you Brett Pinson

[@baronvonjo1929]

RIP

[@ladasodaexplains3355]

Damn, may him rest in peace

[@jacobnoelle8428]

@@ladasodaexplains3355 what happen to Brain4Breakfast?

[@robincray116]

RIP

[@stephen240]

The US's geographic location is a huge bonus with an ocean on each side and two friendly nations to the North and South.

[@davidlee3499]

weak nations too at that

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

@Alexei Smirnoff yeah, remember the white house got torched in the war of 1812

[@jtgd]

@Alexei Smirnoff Brusing, but tbh we would take Canada in a heartbeat. Especially since the majority of the population closely borders our borders We’re too close now to think of that

[@karma9898]

@Alexei Smirnoff Canada is weak when compared to the us and any country can give the us a brushing Vietnam,Afghanistan even then it’s the public opinion that ends the war not because the us can’t keep going

[@dieguito3422]

>South On the meantime gringo, you just wait

[@kennyxkazuki713]

11:36 fun fact America actually created these first, it's called project Pluto and was made during the 50s, it was cancelled because the white house thought it would be too provocative and would lead the soviets to create their own

[@PW060284]

It's hard to confirm or refute the premise of this video, that the pursuit of primacy makes us less safe than otherwise. Because while adversaries come up with creative workarounds to our defenses, there's no guarantee that they wouldn't do that if we didn't pursue primacy. While one could argue that the pursuit of primacy pushes us into arm races, one could just as easily argue that the non-pursuit of primacy leads to an adversary developing superiority. We just don't know what we don't know and adversaries have no incentive to tell us the truth of their intentions

[@keshavparwal5919]

Finally, someone gets that this video makes arguments in bad faith and uses straw men constantly. I like this channel a lot but this crusade against missile defense lately has been very poorly argued.

[@keshavparwal5919]

First off, I like your channel a lot so don’t take this as an attack, just feedback. A lot of these arguments (especially in the last two videos about missile defense) are presented with little evidence to the converse. You claim it’s America at fault for attempting (and yes I buy that missile defense is a pipe dream) to defend itself because it encourages more vigorous attackers to enhance capabilities. This is just made in very bad faith without analyzing why they might be doing this, what alternative strategies we could have taken, and what we could change. This reads like bully logic- “maybe if you stopped defending yourself I wouldn’t have had to punch you!” Like, what reason do you give to say that had America not developed counter measures, we wouldn’t be in a much worse position? At least it’s “unclear” we’re defended. That’s still leagues better than definitely vulnerable. Overall, really try to work out the other angles of your argument, otherwise you risk becoming a hollow presenter who loses credibility. Your china takes are good but you’ve missed pretty badly with this missile defense crusade you’ve been on, and I’m not even going to go into how testing isn’t apples to apples comparable in a way that you can just draw the conclusion that “defense is a coin flip”. That “math” reeks of buzz feed level “analysis by vibes”. I love this channel but please do more research and lay your arguments out more clearly next time. Also, mixing up the Iran and Iraq flags is a very bad look and makes you way less credible.

[@kaiki8490]

Loook up The new atlas By Brian Berletic

[@PW060284]

@@kaiki8490 no thanks. I don't watch propaganda

[@kaiki8490]

First i agree with you pointing out the strawman premise. No i do not recommend propanganda. The google and utube recommendations are the one doing that.

[@Owlr4ider]

'He who tries to defend everything ends up defending nothing', Sun Tsu.

[@canadadelendaest8687]

It's like Rome conquering their neighbors to create buffer zones, then needing to protect the buffer zones with new buffer zones, then needing to protect those new buffer zones with new buffer zones etc, etc,

[@kolinmartz]

13:41 It doesn’t matter if a missile defense system looks like a ballistic missile launch. It’s going to be followed by a retaliatory strike anyways. The die for nuclear war isn’t cast because the US attempted to shoot down a missile. The die was already cast because someone launched a strike at the US. The existence of a missile defense system wasn’t gonna change the outcome coming from that. MAD is still king and everyone knows that. A missile defense system isn’t there to prevent nuclear war or win it. It’s there to lessen the blow.

[@victording6698]

The arms race never stopped. Those periods that gave illusions the arms race slowed down are purely because the enemies were incompetent or couldn't afford it.

[@ldIezz]

The weapons from the cold war are insane, no doubt today there are tools that are so powerful it would make god look weak...

[@Bluepizza1684]

Yeah like the naval arms race between Britain and Germany pre ww1 It slowed down some times but most was still an upward chart of weapons

[@Bluepizza1684]

Also today what might look like a small arming of troops in a nation is most likely a massive buildup in say the 1860’s standard of weapon production and capability

[@vanmeierjl4049]

whats the point of developing better weapons everytime while the nearest opponent is centuries behind? waste of money while the infrastructure is falling apart

[@thecactusman17]

@@vanmeierjl4049 The nearest opponents are decades behind at worst. And we can point back to decades old wars to demonstrate the harm those can do. The USA still uses the same standard machine gun that it did in WW2 and there is visual evidence that some Russian tanks fighting in Ukraine rolled off the factory floor in the 1960s. Go read into a concept called the Dreadnought Effect which forces a degree of military equilibrium to arise every few decades. The USA is always working on new weapons because it anticipates that the Dreadnought Effect could happen at any moment to limit the previous effectiveness of its military. The way to fight this is to always be designing new Dreadnoughts in response to the ones you've already designed. So when a Russian T-72 tank rolls onto the battlefield it's confronted by a man portable rocket launcher that was designed to fight the Russian tank that should have replaced whatever replaced the T-72. Because the Russians have been working on that tank, and Russia's allies and adversaries have been working to defeat the tank that would defeat THAT, etc etc.

[@enormouzyt]

Excited for a Polymatter video as always ❤

[@heidirabenau511]

Same

[@zsmith4853]

@@heidirabenau511 Exactly.

[@domidomi917]

As a nebula subscriber i wish there were updates on KZbin, maybe a community post on new episodes since yt is still a more comfortable platform to use. Also, every episode is worth waiting for, thank you

[@kingslushie1018]

How do you do the 15 dollars per month thing??)

[@domidomi917]

@@kingslushie1018 it's 15 US dollars per year. Any of the affiliate links you see, such as the one Polymatter pinned, will give you that discount if you sign up through there.

[@kingslushie1018]

@@domidomi917 it hasn’t been working right with me but I’ll try it again, thank you!

[@IrrelevantPride]

You did make it seem the military doctrine of fighting two simultaneous wars against near peer adversaries a bush policy but it has been a policy since ww2 when we did just that

[@user-jd1cy9gp3q]

Thank you for providing sources; It is always nice to be able to even look at the sources for such a video!

[@lexkoal8657]

An interesting view point and a great presentation. What else do you need for an excellent video!

[@YasserMaghribi]

3:26 small error, the "logo" of Iran and Iraq are inverted great video btw

[@heidirabenau511]

Was just going to say that

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

@@heidirabenau511 Don't know how he mixed it up

[@DhrubajyotiRaja01]

*Who the hell cares anyhow* !!!

[@YasserMaghribi]

@@DhrubajyotiRaja01 if you don't care, stfu

[@eaterdrinker000]

Party foul! Also, the Iraqi flag features should have had the three Ba'ath stars and "Allahu Akbar" in Saddam Hussein's handwriting, instead of the newer (2008-present) angular Kufic script.

[@timmilder8313]

The 2 separate wars doctrine dates back to WW2. You know, when we actually had to fight two separate wars.

[@aze4308]

This video is amazing! I am so excited for the rest of the series!

[@drscopeify]

His video is very wrong because #1 China already has an active missile shield and Russia has the same it is just mobile and ready to deploy and currently as we speak it is right now being deployed around Moscow, also Israel has the Arrow missile shield that is 100% active and reported to be able to deal with Hypersonic weapons and also India and Pakistan are doing the same so why is he against the USA having the same? Makes no sense. The USA is behind Russia and China both in advancements in nuclear weapons, hypersonic weapons and a missile shield. Playing innocent does not win you any points in this world and if people like this channel think that Putin won't dare press the button then you need to think again, he said it himself, if Russia fails then the rest of the world fails. That is as clear as it gets, be ready because Russia can fail even without any US involvement but it will take everyone down with them.

[@EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

13:00 Are we assuming that China or Russia fired the initial missile in this instance? If yes, I don't see why they would fire just the one? If no, how would they not detect the initial missile, but be able to detect our intercept missile?

[@wei270]

they still may assault instead of 100% defense interception launch, some counter launch are conducted as well.

[@travis9841]

I just wanted to mention that the closest we ever came to nuclear war was when a radar suffered an error and showed a missile nuke being launched by the USA that was ignored due to a fact that it only showed one missile heading towards Russia and the person who held the power to return fire believe that if nukes were being fired it would be dozens at the very least.

[@overloader7900]

He assumes NK launches initial missile, and russia identifies interceptor as attacking missile

[@kaiki8490]

China clearly and frequently state they will not use nuckear weapons first. American had never state that

[@kaiki8490]

Check out this channnel by an ex-marine The new atlas Brian berletic

[@ohgodnobob3772]

3:33 made a bit of a mix up there bud. Great video as always

[@gtbkts]

Thanks for the awesome content and great video!

[@duitk]

While of course the missile shield is far from perfect, quoting the same statistic about the 44 percent success rate is misleading. Older tests were much more innacurate but newer ones have had far better success rate. It's why the tests are done, you expect problems and failures first then improvements over the years. So in this case the modern tests are a much better indicator of the systems capabilities, the older tests were done with worse technology. Not that I think that the missile defence system could stop Russia or China, but it could probably stop Iran or north korea.

[@Moses_VII]

Moving averages could help

[@gravegamer8577]

yes! because a lot of missile interception technology has only recently become possible because of advances in computing technology over the last decade. there absolutely are ways of discriminating decoy nuclear weapons from real ones mainly by the radiation real nuclear weapons emit passively. the 44 percent statistic is also only for one type of missile. those tests are also just that tests. these tests are designed to challenge weapon systems so that you can identify and correct weaknesses. it is the same for the F35. in a test environment, the F 35 and F16 were put in visual range of each other to engage in dog fighting. in this situation, the F35 is at a disadvantage to the lighter more maneuverable F16. in the real world the F35 wouldn't be in visual range of a 4th gen aircraft and it wouldn't be detectable on aircraft-based radars. but the dogfighting test allows the Air Force to better prepare its F35 pilots if they were ever put in a worst-case scenario. the F22 was also beaten in a dogfight by a Eurofighter. in a real-world scenario the Eurofighter wouldn't have even known where the F22 was before it got knocked out of the sky. the reason the success rate is so high for short-range interception systems like Iron dome is that they are using real statistics from real deployments of the system. the way I see it if your weapon systems pass every test you give them. your tests are too easy.

[@RK-um9tu]

Thanks for all that data you shared...lol

[@RK-um9tu]

@@gravegamer8577 Thanks for all that real data you shared...lol

[@gravegamer8577]

@R K yeah let me cite my sources in a youtube comment dipshit

[@zacharywong483]

Well-explained video here, Polymatter team!

[@adamvifrye2690]

this is how everyone treats safety now tho... any tragedy or accident, must have the entire world thrown at it, to make sure it never happens again. we cannot accept that bad things occasionally do happen, and we want that line to go down, it will never be zero... we've all gone insane with this, nobody is able to accept that things wil never be perfect.

[@phormioofathens4774]

Yes I agree, this is not a uniquely American thing. And I don’t think that a good portion of the world would be so comfortable in their meager defense budgets if the US lacked a gargantuan one.

[@realdreamerschangetheworld7470]

@@phormioofathens4774 one of the greatest points made in this comment section. Social opinion may be whatever, but Allies of the US are not so found when they try to pull out or reduce troop count in host nations.

[@caleballen1330]

8:37 Perhaps it's too optimistic but an anti-nuclear defense system would be a project with the highest level of secrecy that enemy nations and the public would only find out about on a dreadful day MAD kicks off. A nuclear defense system would defeat its own purpose if its existence was common knowledge.

[@sampatkalyan3103]

LOL

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

But on the flip side, that policy also pushes enemy nations to constantly up their offensive capabilities on the assumption that you've possibly got a defense against what they have. They can't afford to find out on D-Day. So they assume the worst and therefore make things worse for you. A more open policy would allow nations to more calibrate their responses, instead of going all out.

[@hydra70]

No. The only thing better than being able to intercept enemy missiles is deterring them from launching those missiles in the first place. Why risk being forced to actually use your defense system when instead you could let the world know it exists so they don't even try to attack in the first place? This is exactly why countries don't hide the fact that they have nuclear weapons. The whole point is to never have to use them. It defeats the purpose if they are kept secret. The same applies to defenses against nuclear weapons. I see this a lot. So many people hope that there is some top secret defense that could shoot down hundreds of incoming Russian missiles. That's nothing but naive wishful thinking.

[@TheHorseshoePartyUK]

Oh yes. Related: If China and Russia have Hypersonic ICBM, then the USA absolutely will have them, and they'll be BETTER. This all needs to stop. I'm sick of people playing Red Alert 2 in real life using the entire world as an 11D chessboard. I prefer NATO to the reprehensible Russian authorities and Jinping, but I don't think many people realise... It is just utterly wrong that humanity has arrived Nuclear NATO vs Nuclear Russia / China. There is no need whatsoever for things to be like this. As of this time, Humanity really does stand on the brink between greatness and ruining the planet for nearly all life on earth. If so, I wish the Rat People better luck when they emerge in a million years.

[@redrosie7498]

People really think that the army is not hiding defenses for the sake of the element of surprise

[@Choppo4177]

brilliant video as always!

[@miguelbenigno772]

This is a brilliant video. Thanks PolyMatter!!!

[@patrickjarvis631]

A genuinely excellent video essay with a strong and compelling argument, thank you.

[@DragonHuman00]

What was his argument?

[@TheEntireCircus05]

@@DragonHuman00 That the modern method of achieving invincibility for the U.S' citizens has only lead to more and more holes within the defense system as (rival) countries are more incentivized to ramp up their military spending in response to America's threats of global dominance, along with how all of this essentially puts America at a disadvantage on the international stage. Positive feedback loop.

[@DragonHuman00]

@@TheEntireCircus05 What's a realistic alternative?

[@TheEntireCircus05]

@@DragonHuman00 There really isn't one except for either increasing defense spending to not have the fail rate at optimal levels be 44-fucking-percent, or maybe make a peace deal with other countries to agree to cool it with the militarization (unlikely but relations with countries like NK has bettered recently). I honestly don't think that Russia or NK is incentivized as much to wage war on America since that means waging war on NATO as well, so I don't think that advocating for a more peaceful world is entirely out of the picture. Iran/China could be an issue, though. Or, comparatively, we just continue with the spending until a war breaks out and America explodes.

[@DragonHuman00]

@@TheEntireCircus05 Deals with China and Russia aren't worth more than the paper they're written on. The only realistic option is to continue improving defensive systems.

[@nolanwilson5652]

I want to learn more about this subject, particularly the defense policy and geopolitics of this

[@itsbeyondme5560]

Same. There are a few videos similar to this topic. I highly recommend it to find it and watch these videos

[@longrobosa-kfpawacs9051]

This might be a place to start (www.youtube.com/@PerunAU) This video at 38:00 touch on this subject (kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zp-Wl52llsh_aJI) yt keep deleting my comment

[@TheGoodrog]

Not really the point but hypersonic missiles are not ballistic missiles, in fact loads of ballistic missiles travel fast enough to be considered hypersonic. Hypersonic missiles are cruise missile (which fly more like airplanes) that achieve hypersonic speeds

[@AALOOBADA]

you guys are incredible... good work! 👍

[@OverlordZephyros]

What scary is not war... Its that people forgets what war means

[@PrograError]

@۞ عبد الله ۞ INB4 chinese finally starts the war footing on taiwan...

[@NeostormXLMAX]

@@abdAllah_as-Samad amerimutts are stupid please understand

[@lugi25]

@@abdAllah_as-Samad that's it.

[@TikkaQrow]

The issue is, while we fully have defenses against short range and even medium range weapons, intercontinental weapons are different because they are orbital weapons, they fly up into orbit, out of reach of anything, and slam down on a target going 15,000 Mph (24,000 KpH). It's very very very hard to intercept something going that fast mid flight. Current strategy is to try and intercept them as they launch. The secretive X-37B just got back from a 2 and a half year mission in orbit for the US military, i would not be surprised if they are trying to see if orbital drones or platforms could be used to make a missile defense system.

[@tylerclayton6081]

The US has THAAD and Aegis to protect from ICBM’s. THAAD has an altitude range of 150 km and Aegis SM-3 Block 2A missile has an altitude range of 1100 Km Both have hit to kill capability and have demonstrated over 95% hit probability. Patriot system can also be used against ICBM’s but it only has a altitude range of 40 km since it’s meant more for intercepting short range ballistic missiles rather than ICBM’s. But Patriot also has very accurate hit to kill capability and could intercept an ICBM

[@drgabe2908]

"I'M FUCKING INVINCIBLE!" -Sundowner

[@jackeroo_sundown]

I've said no such thing!

[@strykenine7902]

Some Brit: You know what would be really great? What if we could project our air force across long distances? Then we would have the tools to engage in combined-arms warfare almost anywhere in the world. We would never be *without* at least parity in the air. We could put our planes on boats and float them around wherever we wanted. I'll call it...an aircraft carrier! USA: I'll take a dozen. USA: Actually, make it a bakers dozen.

[@colour_bloo]

Ifl Polymatter vids so much, never change mate - your videos are a beacon of light on this platform

[@senrogas387]

Interesting take, imo you guys should double the defence budged

[@xanderunderwoods3363]

I live in Alaska and we have new high energy defense systems that just came online that can hit targets with accuracy and over vast distances, it works. However the strong feeling for independence here might be our safest bet on a long term future.

[@Stinger522]

Alaska wants independence?

[@user-cx9nc4pj8w]

Alaskan independence isn't a great idea. Just look at the population compared to your neighbours.

[@jonasdatlas4668]

Hey, watching this as a European it could be very interesting, considering our somewhat mixed relationship to the US’s claim of being basically in charge of the free world.

[@melvinch]

The problem is Europe countries aren't very united and are all heavily dependent on US for their defense.

[@KevinJohnson-cv2no]

It's not a claim, it is the truth. American hegemony is, for the moment at least, a fact.

[@ferdinandkraft857]

Sure, let's put China in charge of the free world...

[@jonasdatlas4668]

@@KevinJohnson-cv2no I meant "claim" in the "to a title" sense, not the "claiming to make a factual statement" sense. You're not wrong in your general statement though, unfortunately.

[@genghiskhan5701]

Because they are in charge

[@alexandruursu3323]

Very interesting new perspective for me on how we got to the new arms race of the past decades. Thanks for all the great stuff!

[@satyakisil9711]

I feel like Americans have what I like to call "climber's fright". If you reach the top of the mountain then by barely looking down you'll get scared without doing anything. While those who are risking their lives are not as terrified.

[@stephenpickering8063]

I would say its not just the military however. There is a large vested interest in boosting military spending, both economic in terms of the defence industry and political in that arguing for stronger defence and highlighting threats can win votes in people think that there's a real threat that can be fully countered. As such industrial and political elements are also in on the problem.

[@The_North_Star_of_Wall_Street]

Thx u ❤

[@Sheinhtetnaung]

I learned a lot from your videos for China. It would be great if you create a series for USA as well as I want to learn more of the perspective you have on the country, whether it good or bad. Thank you so much as always. May be you will pay some attention to the hill to die on as well.

[@tritium1998]

It must feel great for you thinking you're so smart about the country when you hear the news you wish.

[@StevieFQ]

While I do understand the logic behind it. As someone from an EX soviet country I can comfortably say that I wholeheartedly disagree with the conclusion. The stains of a dictatorship are not easily to wash off as the decades go by. Between being nuked and being an ex soviet puppet state I think Japan got a much better deal.

[@udhayakumarMN]

Condolences to you for Soviet past.. BUT , japan is not a country, it is a mindset.... One cannot simply recreate japan economy or culture ...

[@andrewsheek]

@@udhayakumarMN West Germany also prospered. As did all Marshall plan recipients. It was definitively better to be in the west than in Soviet states.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

@@udhayakumarMN modern japan is a shell of itself, its mindset slowly corroding by is occupation

[@tritium1998]

So you became poorer without Soviet aid, and other European states are poorer than Japan.

[@sotch2271]

@@andrewsheek dude marshall plan didn't help at all, it represent not even 5% of the french budget from 1947 to 1951, Do you think 150 billions in TODAY money separeted between more than 10 country is a big amount , with 20 billions you don't even rebuild half the country

[@smalltime0]

Leaving the ABM treaty is actually really bad, not just because Nuclear Missiles became harder to track and intercept - but the lessons learnt there got copied onto conventional missiles too.

[@carrioncrow8191]

Always a good watch

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

3:28 You got the logos for Iran and Iraq the wrong way around

[@eaterdrinker000]

Party foul! Also, the Iraqi flag features should have had the three Ba'ath stars and "Allahu Akbar" in Saddam Hussein's handwriting, instead of the newer (2008-present) angular Kufic script.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

The US should now consider making an Ion Cannon.

[@PhilHug1]

Perhaps if you had one Napoleon, you wouldn't have lost

[@JR-gp2zk]

Who says we don't already have one ;)

[@sethabdul7824]

The US should now consider dissolving itself.

[@agustinustheoo]

Very well said!

[@StephenRayner]

Love this channel

[@olishant]

Was there a reason this video ignored the development of newer missile defense technology such as targeted energy interception? The argument against trying to lob the missile into another missile, particularly one flying at hypersonic speeds, is a strong one and is well made here. Despite that I believe that the development of the new systems mentioned above will be a game changer in territorial defense.

[@KevinsArmory]

laser systems cost $3 per shot, missile intercept missiles cost thousands per shot. It has to offer something unparalleled to really justify its redundancy

[@andrewthomson]

You seem to be confusing hypersonic and glide vehicles. One is related to speed and the other is a controlled flight/descent system.

[@laracroft938]

For clarification, the GBI missiles that had a 44% failure are not in the silos at the moment. The missiles that are in active service are more advanced and the lessons from failures were implemented into them. Also, navy didn’t boast to congress about the GBI which is operated by the air force. Navy was testifying about the SM-3 Block IIA missile which has a near perfect success rate.

[@hughmungus2760]

still doesn't change the fundamental fact that there aren't enough GBIs or SM3s in the world to defend against a full scale nuclear exchange.

[@Sam-pn5yf]

Great video.

[@MoritzvonSchweinitz]

Just imagine if half of that enormous military budget would have been spent on buying goodwill.

[@ianshaver8954]

Countries just don’t stay bought.

[@Pwn3dbyth3n00b]

I'm pretty sure the US has extremely good air defense in places that are important like the DC area or large population city's like NYC. The US military goal isn't there to protect the civilians, its goal is to carry out whatever the government tells them to do good or bad. An attack on Washington would probably be mostly blocked but an attack on somewhere like Pensacola Fl would destroy the city. The retaliation from the US from an attack on its territory would mean that other country that attacked wouldn't exist anymore. Unless it was China then both the US and China would become a nuclear wasteland.

[@h.c5750]

Nah man ballistic missiles have to be intercepted in the boost phase while they're over their launch sites so if that button is pushed everywhere is equally stuffed

[@giantWario]

Did you even watch the video? Even in rigged tests where they are made to succeed, the defense system fails 50% of the time. So against a real threat or hypersonic missiles? Yeah no, Washington isn't any safer than any other place in the US.

[@ethereal-pupil7638]

There are 3 military bases in close proximity to Pensacola FL, it's probably not as exposed as you think. But I do get your point.

[@ToriKo_]

Man I love ur videos

[@rebelblade7159]

Good video but it ignores another side of the issue completely: the disaster capitalism complex. A state of perpetual war or hostility can be advantageous as it allows certain things to be done which would not be possible in times of peace. And with crisis comes opportunities for profit. A state of constant war or the thought of being constantly threatened allows for more investment in companies that develop security measures like the creation of anti-missile systems. Plus overseas conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan are very profitable for PMC's and other private ventures. If such a state of tension and war can be profitable, then why bother pursuing a state of peace when it won't allow such profits? I'd highly recommend reading Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine as it explains this matter much better with more detail.

[@dradenlol8667]

One thing of note: the notion of ‘safety’ was propaganda to excuse the invasion. It was for resources, active use of the jobs-program-military, profits of American weapons manufacturers, and expansion of American power.

[@jonathanryan9946]

This is why the US it trying to field laser defense systems. They're super cheap compared to the missile defense systems we currently have... But no way it hell it would stop nuclear torpedoes. Further, yes, clouds will affect them, but that's why the US wants these lasers on loitering drones.

[@BadPracticeAutomation]

at 11:04 he states that Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles could bypass American defenses via flying over the south pole. Is there any sources for this claim? I was only able to find claims that Russian Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles have a range of 2000km and Chinese DF ZF having a range of 2500 km it self and 12,000km if fired in conjunction with a ballistic missile. These ranges are insufficient to reach the mainland United States. Could anyone provide me with a source with hypersonic missiles claiming the ranges needed to fly over the south pole and still hit the mainland?

[@mmcion1]

I was surprised how well presented this video was, and how accurate with little to no fluff. Thanks.

[@2Links]

Really liked your analysis here - essentially the dynamic of an arms race on display. And arms races never turn out well.

[@happyelephant5384]

I am not sure that got your logic. It's like saying that antivirusese should stop trying to develop anti-malware tools because it makes hackers develop more advanced viruses. It just doesn't work that way.

[@__goat__]

Of course it works that way. Antivirus was invented because the security model of Windows was absolute garbage and Microsoft never bothered to fix it. Antivirus works by keeping a database of malware and checking if the file you just downloaded is in this database. That means software the AV hasn't seen before is considered safe, and it gives users a false sense of security. Secure operating systems don't suggest using Antivirus software (Linux, Chrome OS, iOS, Mac OS, ...). Apple for example fixed malware on iOS by applying strict sandboxing and reviewing software before putting it in it's AppStore. Is that perfect? No, but it's a lot smarter than playing the cat and mouse game with attackers. That's why companies pay millions of dollars for iOS security vulnerabilities, while undetected malware for Windows is worthless because it can be programmed by a 14 year old kid.

[@happyelephant5384]

@@__goat__ so, you think that people would have been more secure if Microsoft didn't develop it's antivirus and hackers could just send malware to computers which wouldn't have any defence?

[@happyelephant5384]

@@__goat__ and do you argue that apple users less safe because apple has better security?

[@baceniracun4494]

Hackers don't get a virus in response to their own one. Nobody wants to throw a nuclear weapon because it guarantees his own destruction.

[@user-fs6ft9uo4v]

谢谢.视频真不错

[@culturedealer4464]

Former American grand strategist Brzezinski said: “It is IMPERATIVE that no Eurasian challenger emerges capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America”. Because America has just 4% of the world’s population, and it’s isolated from the Eurasia continent which has 70% of the world’s population, or 87% in the Eurasia-Africa Supercontinent. Defensively, it’s an advantage to America, but economically, it’s a handicap. That’s why economically, Eurasia is a competitor to America and the Euro is a threat to the dollar. How does America with an isolated and just 4% of world’s population maintain its position as the world’s biggest economy? The dollar must stay as the world’s reserve currency. This allows the size of the US economy to be highly scaled up, instead of being sized according to the fundamentals. To be the world’s reserve currency, the dollar must be circulated in the world. America created a huge consumption-based economy, so that dollars flow out of America to product suppliers like China or Japan. To make products, China and Japan need energy. And since oil is only sold in dollar under the Petrol-dollar scheme, dollar is circulated to Saudi. With the US stock and financial market much more lucrative than other countries, the dollars from Saudi are attracted back to America. Money printed in America to exchange for goods from outside eventually ends up with the Wall Streets, where the rich gets richer. And that completes the cycle of circulation of the dollars. The American Dream attracted top talents around the world to strengthen the US’ science and technology sectors, and a technological gap is maintained between the US and other major economy like China, so that the US can focus in highly lucrative high-tech product exports and patent licensing, while low profit manufacturing sector is outsourced to China and Vietnam. This is why high tech companies like Huawei are banned in 2019 and Toshiba’s two executives were jailed when Japan dominated DRAM markets in late 1980s. If China or Japan bring back all the dollars and exchange to the local currencies, it inflates the local currencies, making their exports expensive. So, China and Japan use some of the dollars to buy US debts (treasury bonds). That’s why America, a rich country, is in-debt to China which has just 1/5th of America’s GDP per capita. This reinvestment into America further boost America’s economy. If the US prints $100 and exchange for $100 worth of goods from Vietnam (assume cost = $80), and if Vietnam reinvest $40 in US treasury bonds (assume 3% interest) and the Central Bank make $10 profit from the $40, then Vietnam gain $100-80+1.2=$21.2 on paper, but the actual amount in Vietnam economy is $21.2-40= -$19.8. While the US gain a net $100+8.8=$108.8 worth of goods+money or $148.8 of goods+money in the US economy. I.e. Vietnam subsidizes the economy of the US. And by holding US treasury bills, China and Japan have to support the US dollar, for if the US dollar collapse, their hard earned money would become worthless. After Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”, China diversified its dollars into the Belt and Road Initiatives to reduce the risk, and hoping after these countries are developed, they have more trades with China. With a huge population, if Asia and Africa develop rapidly, the share of America’s economy shrinks, then the Euro could replace it as the world’s reserve currency. When that happens, the USA would no longer be able to print money out of nothing without a hyper inflation like Venezuela. Then the size of the American economy has to fall back to the fundamentals, which today is quite a lot smaller than the inflated economy. That’s why no country in Eurasia is allowed to catch up the US economically. When Japan was catching up fast on America in the 1980s, they were knocked down to a three decade stagnancy by appreciating the Japanese Yen. And in the last 30 years, the US created wars and color revolutions in the Middle East and Central Asia to destabilise the Eurasia continent. When America prints a lot of money, other countries’ foreign reserves in dollars shrink in value. Furthermore, to prevent exports to America becoming expensive, these countries have to print money too, which devalues the savings of the people, and causing inflations in these countries. It’s estimated that our savings devalue by 6-9% per year after the abolishment of the gold-backed Bretton Woods system, after which America prints money based on just the creditability of the dollar. North America is relatively easy to defend, yet America has a military budget equal to the total of the next 10 countries in the top 11, to protect the dollars with its 800 military bases worldwide. For the record, USA had no mercy on threats to the dollar: * In 2000 Saddam Hussein said he would start selling oil in Euros not Dollars. >>Saddam was hanged by the US. * In 2009 Gaddafi made Libya export oil in Gold Dinars, not in dollar or Euro. >>Gaddafi was killed by US-backed NTC. * Syria had an independent Central Bank NOT under Federal Reserve controlled Bank of International Settlements. >>Obama attempted to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. * Iran has been trading oil in currencies other than US dollars since 2011. >>Iran was being sanctioned by the US. * After being sanctioned in 2014, Putin started to trade in non-dollar. In 2019, Putin (1) completely ditched dollars in oil trades, (2) sold almost all the US treasury bonds, (3) is now the forerunner in de-dollarization. >>America tried to topple Putin by supporting Alexei Navalny. And now the Ukraine war to weaken Russia. * China (1) introduced the BRI in 2013 which helps many countries to develop and speed up the integration of Eurasia, (2) used non-dollar in oil trades with Iran and Russia, (3) introduced the CIPS, an alternative to the West’s SWIFT system which has been weaponized by America, (4) China’s economy and high technology are catching up fast. >>China has become America's #1 target. If a country supports the dollar, it’s being looted; if a country doesn’t support the dollar, the government is changed by America. This is financial slavery. After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, US President Bill Clinton had two choices: (a) to integrate Russia into Europe and abolish NATO, OR, (b) to slowly alienate Russia to keep Russia and Europe divided. Clinton chose the latter, because if there’s no more Russia “threat”, there would be no more NATO to control Europe. As the first NATO Secretary General, Lionel Ismay described: “To keep America IN, to keep Russia OUT, to keep Germany (Europe) DOWN”. With a 30 trillions debt and a global rising urge to diversify into non-dollar reserves caused by US sanctions, the dollar is in a creditability crisis. The proxy war in Ukraine: 1.Divided Europe from Russia and divided Eurasia. 2.Killed Nord Stream II and German firm Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg has signed up for gas from America Venture Global LNG for 20 years. >>The US gained control over energy supply to Europe, and the US tightened grip on Europe. 3.Continuity for the Military Industrial Complex after pulling out of Afghanistan. 4. Most importantly, the war strengthened the dollar. Dollar against Euro is now the highest since NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 (shortly after the introduction of Euro which threatened the dollar). A strong dollar together with the Fed’s interest rise in 2022 cause capitals from all over the world to flow into the US economy, while collapsing other economies, like Sri Lanka. Else where, two months after ignoring a warning from Washington against his visit to Moscow, highly popular Imran Khan was ousted from the PM post of Pakistan on 9 Apr 2022 by vote of no confidence by the opposition. A month after ignoring Biden’s request to increase oil production, secretary-general of OPEC Mohammad Barkindo died unexpectedly on July 6 2022. Since Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” in 2011, the US has shifted its focus to containing China. In 2018, Trump started a trade war with China. Huawei was banned, and its CFO Meng Wanzhou was detained. TSMC, Samsung and ASML were banned by the US from exporting high end chips and EUVs to China. The US got Australia into a trade war with China. AUKUS was formed in 2021 to counter China. In 2019, right after a legitimate protest against an extradition bill, the CIA and the Mi6 started a Color Revolution in Hong Kong. In 2021, a small country Lithuania with little trade with China, was bailed out by the US to establish a tie with Taiwan. In Jan 2022, Kazakhstan, a neighbor of Xinjiang along the BRI corridor, suffered riots instigated by the US. In Aug 2022, Pelosi visited Taiwan to start a series of provocation to a civil war in China. And it goes on……

[@italktoomuch6442]

Starting a nuclear war with the overreaction to a balloon release? Someone should write a song about that.

[@Redactedredacted5837]

"99 Luftballons"

[@dROUDebateMeCowards]

I love taking the hypersonic cruise missile hype at face value, when the only evidence of any actual efforts are an apparent failure in Siberia.

[@DaybreakPT]

It's better to take it at face value before it can catch you unprepared, not after.

[@duitk]

Yeah, it's better to think your enemy is ahead and prepare for that and then be pleasently surprised that they are not as good, than to underestimate them and die.

[@hughmungus2760]

there are over a dozen hypersonic missile programs in the works around the world, most of which in countries hostile to the US, even if one doesn't pan out someone somewhere is going to develop a system that can penetrate existing US defenses

[@duitk]

@@hughmungus2760 I do have to point out that hypersonics are not invincible super weapons either, they are powerful tools but they are not unstoppable, due to their insane speed, AWACS and high altitude radars can see them from very far away, hypersonics are the opposite of stealthy.

[@hughmungus2760]

@@duitk hypersonics are stealthy relative to ballistic missiles and potentially have 'plasma stealth' which may or may not reduce radar signatures significantly. Having a weapon that has a significant chance of evading interception greatly complicates defenses, even to the point where it becomes economics unfesable to build thousands of interceptors to stop a few hundred missiles.

[@LordOfDaCyborgMOOSE]

Well said

[@joshsaidddd]

3:32 lol, just wanted to point out how u switched iran and iraq’s symbols, great video as always

[@localblackman427]

"Our very strength incites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict breeds catastrophe." Vision, Captain America: Civil War

[@thor123952]

@3:30 you mixed up the logos for iraq and iran...

[@hdhwkq]

exactly

[@forzaflash]

"Our very strength incites challenge, challenge incites conflict, conflict... Brings catastrophe"

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

This is why the Shogun Executioner is the best neutral super weapon.

[@wedmunds]

And the Black Tortoise is the best naval siege platform

[@johnnysupreme5718]

At least half of our defenses aren't tesla coil based or we'd be fucked

[@Ravi9A]

Transforming aircraft carriers now!

[@satyakisil9711]

The best option is going to that one place that hasn't been corrupted by capi....uh, oh.

[@Blox117]

cnc 4 is the best cnc game

[@KarlGutowski]

Dude, @12:21 you sound like you're quoting all those bright minds who in the 1930s talked about not provoking Hitler by stepping up armament. In 1936, France could have squashed Hitler after his army occupied Rhineland. By 1939, nobody could stop Germany and it took 4 years to get the western allies ready for conflict. America wants its enemies to know that it will go to no end to destroy them, should they attack its territories or its allies. Its international military presence deterred several hot wars and gave it several advantages and benefits in trade. Its one of the reason it became the most prosperous superpower, beloved by so many people living under oppressive regimes. You can talk about how insane were some of the ideas around using nukes because you have the benefit of applying modern knowledge to history. But, in 1945, Stalin annexed half of Europe, was rumored to have murdered 5 million of its own citizens over ideology, and the people charged with protecting USA had to come up with every possible scenario for how a hot conflict with the USSR would play out.

[@TheRageng]

Beautiful video.

[@kirandeepchakraborty7921]

Excellent Analysis

[@zarakitube]

3:36 error on Iran and Iraq above symbols

[@shinchan-F-urmom]

This was the video i was waiting for a long time as an amateur geopolitics watcher!

[@thesun6211]

By the definitions provided in this video, pursuing (or achieving) Primacy (as opposed to preserving Strategic or Tactical Supremacy) would increase the Probability of an Irrational Actor doing something irrational wouldn't it?🤔

[@arenio]

glad i saw this

[@richardjohnson4344]

Neither russia or china have the type of hypersonic missile that can subvert midcourse interception. Nobody has *operational* SCAMJET hypersonic missiles in 2022 (though lots of tests are taking place), the type that work like cruise missiles and can't be shot down midcourse in space. The only working "hypersonic" missiles are boost-glide, which means that rather than a regular conical warhead shape, they have an aerodynamic shape that allows them to maneuver during the terminal phase. Counter-intuitively, hypersonic boost-glide missiles are actually much slower than regular ICBMs, going only about mach 5-10 instead of mach 15-20 in the last 30s or so. The first of these boost-glide vehicles was the NATO Pershing-II missile, which was operational in 1982, so not exactly a new technology. That's not to say that midcourse interception works -- it absolutely doesn't. It's the easiest place to have MIRVs and decoys, as said in the video. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypersonic_glide_vehicle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pershing_II#Flight en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneuverable_reentry_vehicle

[@yes-vy6bn]

ok chinaman

[@richardjohnson4344]

@@yes-vy6bn thank you for this productive contribution.

[@Ark--fn8my]

The thing is though, this line of thinking "America should stop it's military build-up" Always leads to the counter-argument of "Better prepared than sorry". USA doesn't believe major threat such as North Korea, Russia and China will stand down (They don't, Taiwan, Ukraine and also North Korea ambition in the south). While they also believe that USA is trying to hinder their goal of being a global power as USA sees them as a potential threat (Which you know, America does do) At the end of the day, USA rather than think idealisticly, by thinking maybe they should talk to them, they choose to take the route of which they know they will win in the long term and high chance in the foreseeable future. Zoom forward so fast and so early that its adversary has no hope of catching up.

[@rexthewolf3149]

Here’s the thing though for as many time as diplomacy there are the few times where it hasn’t. And those times have lead to far more devastating. Idealism is nice but most of the past 300 years has been fighting wars or preparing for the next one.

[@andriod8014]

Yup, finally someone knows. If US backs down their miltiary, it will hurt our allies more than it will hurt us. We seen how Europe relies us more for miltiary thanks to the Ukraine invasion. What would've happened if we were a lot weaker. Will Putin invade more? Probably. China had tried to invade Taiwan 3 times, each time they backed off because of US navy there. Even North is too scared to invade South because of US. US military is not just for defending Americans, we have the best defense, its for protecting US interest and its allies who also share the interest.

[@AeneasGemini]

@@andriod8014 First: Putin couldn't invade another country even if he wanted to. The invasion of Ukraine not only exposed the weakness of the Russian war machine, it in fact weakened it even further by devastating the Russian population and economy. At this point, the fragmentation of Russia is more likely than another invasion. Second: Don't act as if the US supporting Taiwan is somehow altruistic, the US would economically collapse if Taiwan (and it's chip industry) were controlled by China. In the end, the US military is *always* about defending Americans, directly or indirectly. Third: Backing out of Europe wouldn't harm your allies more than the US, it would be equally bad for both. If Russia or China ended up dominating Europe this would inevitably end up with the US also becoming China's bitch long term. US resistance on China is inherently reliant on it's allies as much as vice versa.

[@andriod8014]

@Alexei Smirnoff "The US relies on Europe for its defence. Europe could easily defend itself. Europe has enough weapons in stockpiles, a strong enough domestic factory power to easily defend itself" for economic and political interest than yeah but not overall. Europe is close to their axis powers (Russia, Iran). Plus they rely heavily on Russian and North Africa energy. That weakens their defense, we seeing it right now. "defend itself, but if Russia launches an attack on the US, the US can't respond because it has no bases" don't get this, like launch an attack on US mainland? How does that correlate to US European bases, we got missile defense systems on shores, no one knows because why should they tell their enemies where they are. One example, Iron Dome, look up how much US invested into this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome

[@maxtyson9035]

@@andriod8014 USA likes to act as a bully. They always decide what happens in the world. Whether by blackmailing to take oil from Saudi or Iran.

[@LordTelperion]

Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System can defend us from all but hyper-sonic missiles... next phase to work on.

[@muffinandme1]

I highly recommend the 1964 movie "Seven Days in May" starring Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. In the movie a group of highly placed military officers plot to start a war with the USSR, believing that the US would be the victor.

[@R.-.]

Can't agree with you on that. I don't think anyone has ever claimed they're invincible to nuclear strikes. Building better defenses like the US rather than more (China / NK) or better (Russia) offensive nukes is the more civilised (less threatening) strategy. So you'd rather the US prioritied building new nuke delivery methods like Russia? The next step would be militarisation of space - nukes from space would be even harder to defend against.

[@Marco-wz3pz]

I hope he addresses the problems with “The Missile Defence Problem” video he made

[@alexanderwu]

I kept waiting to see if there's any comment correcting issues in this video, but fortunately or looks like this video is more on the mark

[@hydra70]

What problems?

[@alexanderwu]

@@hydra70 Go to that video and look at the top comments

[@hydra70]

@@alexanderwu All I see is a bunch of wishful thinking about secret defense systems and false claims about the current state of SM-3 Block IIa, not actual problems with the video.

[@Marco-wz3pz]

@@hydra70 A pretty incorrect video using wrong/old publicly available data and missing key points. The comments on that video actually explain it WAY better than me. Plus, he didn’t really address the criticism in the comments.

[@alexullrich5694]

This is my favorite video of yours so far, a high bar to clear

[@kairon156]

As someone who get's annoyed with 9/11 talk around my birthday I want to say thanks for uploading this video in November. I wasn't born on 9/11 just in september some years earlier.

[@ghost21501]

The problem with great powers is that they always fall at some point. The only thing a country can do is try and be invincible until it is not. At least historically. The alternative is to weaken our defenses and hope for the best.

[@BigBoss-sm9xj]

That's very true

[@SterbsMcGurbs]

I think your hypothesis kind of implies America's adversaries wouldn't be building weapons to counter America without the US increasing the defense spending post 9/11. I think that's a stretch to imply.

[@MrCoolbanna]

I think it's more they wouldn't be building as many or spending as much

[@Lucavon]

Does anyone know where that place at 2:58 is? Looks amazing.

[@mattiskardell]

10:22 i dont know if this aged like fine wine or fine milk

[@shotelco]

America's "Defense" is inextricably tied to America's position as the _Global Exchange Currency Issuer._ The U.S. can print/conjure up currency without limit, and _force_ the rest of the world to absorb the resultant value depreciation - as long as she has the military might and lack of humanity towards others to do so. This is the logical end stage of _Triffin's dilemma._

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

Finance and politics

[@danz1182]

That isn't a function of defense policy, it is a function of being the world's biggest market. All the world has to do to change it is to invest its money elsewhere.

[@shotelco]

​@@danz1182 I submit your comment misses the key component: The U.S. AS is the global exchange currency issuer. it's best to understand this from the perspective of a criminal enterprise. A mobster runs an extortion racket, where all the small shops *must use* the mobsters FIAT script as their currency for exchange between themselves. The mobster provides the FIAT paper (or digital) currency it simply prints up - and in exchange, the shop owners must give the mobster something of _Real Value._ Such as whatever it is they manufacture, mine, or grow. If a shop owner makes the fatal mistake of using some other currency - the mobster just makes up some lame excuse his tribe is all to willing to accept; ...I dunno... like the shop owner has Weapons of Mass Destruction - or any such nonsense. Then the mobsters "family/tribe" makes an example out of the shop owner by "knocking off" the shop owners wife and children in what the mobster calls a "preemptive" strike. The hard reality is you can not explain away Iraq. Where the U.S., unprovoked, eliminated the lives of at least 300,000 _Civilian Women and Children,_ under the guise of "WMD's. Where the reality was that Iraq's leader, who the the U.S. was in bed with previously, attempted to trade his Countries oil for something other than the Petrodollar - in this case the Euro. The U.S. had to defend its Global Exchange Currency Issuer position. Even to this moment, Americans are unrepentant, unapologetic, and unremorseful for their participation in this military slaughter. The hard reality is you can not explain away Libya. When it's leader attempted to create an alternative to the Petrodollar, the Golden Dinar - by trading her oil for gold to other African Nations- The economic Colonizer stepped in and destabilized the Country, as it continues to destabilize most of Africa. (After all, the U.S. MUST maintain the AFRICOM MILATARY bases in Africa because ""All the world has to do to change it is to invest its money elsewhere." It's sooo easy) The hard reality is you can not explain away Iran (twice). America overthrew a _Democratically elected Government,_ and replaced it with with a brutal, murderous puppet dictatorship, all in order to maintain the petrodollar. The hard reality is you can not explain away Venezuela. Where the Country decided to sell its own natural resources to China in exchange for currency NOT denominated in U$D. The hard reality is you can not explain away any of the other Sovereign nations that the U.S. has subdued in one form or another just in the past 70 years based on Exchange currency. You _Can_ (and probably will, but hope you won't stoop that low) suggest that these "coincidences" were the result of inherently/biologically evil sub-humans getting what they deserved by the hands of the the supreme society as divined by some god. "All the world has to do to change it is to invest its money elsewhere.???" Yeah, and have their children _Permanently_ eliminated by the West.

[@hughmungus2760]

considering recent geopolitical events and the rise of BRICS, the US reserve currency status is under enormous threat. There is ever less reason to use the US dollar for transactions between soverign countries especially when the US has abused its reserve currency status so brazenly