OT aggression [was Re: Lies in education [was Re: The "loop and a half"]]

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Thu, 5 Oct 2017 02:54 pm, Chris Angelico wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 2:22 PM, Steve D'Aprano
> <steve+python at pearwood.info> wrote:
[...]

>> In the East, while Japan did take the first overtly military action against
>> the US, the US had (in some sense) first engaged in hostile behaviour
>> against Japan by unilaterally imposing, and enforcing, sanctions on Japan.
>>
>> (I make no comment on whether such sanctions were justified or not, only
>> that they can be seen as a form of aggressive economic warfare.)
> 
> Economic warfare is different from military action, though. Economic
> sanctions may be a precursor to war but they are not the first blow in
> warfare.

I carefully choose my words: I spoke of *the aggressor*, not the first country
to fire shots. Nor is the aggressor necessarily in the wrong.

There are many ways to be aggressive. On a personal level, you don't have to
throw the first punch to be the aggressor -- if you crowd somebody, getting
right in their face, blocking their exit and forcing them to back up into a
corner, you are the aggressor even if they are the first to throw a punch.

The US of course is a military superpower, with enormous sea and land borders
and control over its airspace. Nobody could successfully blockade them. But
if somebody choose to enforce a blockade of (lets say) Iceland, forcing back
all planes and ships, that would rightly be seen as an act of aggression.

Likewise, if (say) North Korea were to flood the US with billions of
counterfeit $100 notes, I don't think anyone would fail to consider that an
act of war.

Its a sign of just how dysfunctional US politics has become that the
revelations of just how much Russia manipulated the last federal election,
and how deeply the current administration is under Russia's influence, has
failed to make any practical difference to US federal politics. Had the USSR
done in 1976 what Russia did in 2016, at the very least the government would
have fallen and the replacement government threaten reprisals.


> However, that's off topic for this list.

Since when does that stop us? :-)



-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.