Traveling

I got a dose of Polish realism

I just had this conversation with two Polish podcasters in which we had real disagreements: from their points of view, they are a U.S. client state that the U.S. should treat better. They’re really happy that the U.S. (Intel) is going to build a chip factory in Poland. They live in a ‘bad neighborhood’ with bad actors and they believe that the bulwark here against Russia must be strengthened.

They believe that they have been the beneficiaries of a peace dividend and they are realistic about their sovereignty being guaranteed by the U.S,. and NATO and they also accept that China is their adversary because it is an adversary of the U.S.

I was pretty taken aback by this view assumed by people on the alleged Left.

I said that the U.S. domestic situation has been devastated by its budgetary commitment to building a military capable of fighting a two front war. Infrastructure is crumbling and public health and public services declining. It is possible that the U.S. may triumph on Pacific and European fronts, but the American working class and the public goods and industries that sustained it will be destroyed.

They didn’t seem to to care. And this is the reality of the situation: we can sacrifice the infrastructure of rural and urban America to our military adventures and our client states and destabilize and destroy our democracy and no one who is either our ally or adversary abroad really gives a s#@$.

Sobering.