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Difficult to defend America as reality-based when it's going around renaming bodies of water that do not belong to it.

Also I'm not sure people understand what Swiss (or for that matter Irish) neutrality means.

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"Difficult to defend America as reality-based when it's going around renaming bodies of water that do not belong to it."

I didn't claim that Trump was reality-based.

"Also I'm not sure people understand what Swiss (or for that matter Irish) neutrality means."

It's a moral facade that allows them to dodge responsibility. The US has given far more than Switzerland, and also gets blamed far more, for not giving yet more. How does that make sense? As I said, the European worldview is not typically reality-based.

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With great power comes great responsibility, it's not that complicated a concept.

Switzerland doesn't have any aspirations to be the global hegemon, so they don't get graded on the global hegemon scale.

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Another saying is: "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

The US sent billions to Ukraine, and what did we get in return? Europeans telling us that "the last time the US did anything good for the world was WW2".

It's not about hegemons vs non-hegemons either. China sends war supplies to Russia and Europe barely complains.

How about this: Consider our loss of support for Ukraine as an abandonment of aspirations of hegemony in Eastern Europe. Bingo, now we no longer have "great power" in that region, nor "great responsibility". Ukraine is your problem now.

Ultimately, you're just playing language games. There's no reason a Swiss taxpayer should be less responsible than an American taxpayer. This is all just anti-Americanism.

People like to scapegoat the US whenever they're dissatisfied regarding anything, virtually anywhere around the world. There's frequently a creative way to blame the US. And because people are impossible to please, and they are always dissatisfied, the US is always blamed. I'm sick of it.

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The thing is, if you don't help us in Eastern Europe, you don't just lose hegemonial status there. You lose all of Europe and with that the very foundation of your power.

It's not Anti-Americanism, but if you want to go out with the belle of the ball, you actually have to try.

You don't get to date her by default, and she is getting increasingly tired of your entitled attitude.

Ukraine already is our problem, the vast majority of support comes from Europe. It's your continued insistence that you don't even have to try while expecting us to stay by your side that is the issue. A friend that keeps asking for more while not helping in need is not a friend at all.

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>The thing is, if you don't help us in Eastern Europe, you don't just lose hegemonial status there. You lose all of Europe and with that the very foundation of your power.

If that means you're going to stop blaming us for everything, it sounds fantastic.

BTW if you think Europe is "the very foundation" of American power you're delusional.

>You don't get us by default, and we are getting increasingly tired of your entitled attitude.

As I stated in another comment thread:

"For years our leaders told you to be less dependent on us. Now you're speaking as though your dependency on us was some kind of favor you were doing for us. It's mind-blowing how out-of-touch you guys can be."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49574103

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You basically started the whole thing by creating and supporting Maidan (like sooo many "revolutions" in the world), so please just shut up and take care your insane clown posse doesn't start WW3...
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I doubt that. But there's a broader lesson here. Many critics of US foreign policy assume, without justification, that any US foreign policy involvement means the US is entirely to blame for any suboptimal outcome. Positive outcomes (for example, a long, unprecedented period of peace and prosperity in Europe) are conveniently excluded from the analysis.

Of course, it's always possible to raise your expectations so that every outcome counts as "negative", so you always get a chance to blame the US.

The Swiss are very clever. By staying quiet they avoid responsibility for anything or blame for anything. When the US stays neutral, we are told we are "complicit" or "abandoning allies".

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Euromaidan was (a) good (b) organic (you cannot pay people enough to get shot in the street) and (c) to the extent that there was "US" sponsorship, it was mostly by the Open Society Foundation, which is run by a Hungarian Jew who fled the Nazis and therefore knows what oppression looks like, and has donated the majority of his fortune to the freedom of Eastern Europe. He's 96.
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