{"id":99366,"date":"2025-12-01T03:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T08:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=99366"},"modified":"2025-12-02T10:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:11:08","slug":"the-united-states-is-not-and-should-not-be-the-arbiter-of-all-the-worlds-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2025\/12\/01\/the-united-states-is-not-and-should-not-be-the-arbiter-of-all-the-worlds-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States is not – and should not be – the arbiter of all the world’s conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the social media site formerly known as Twitter<\/em>, Devon Eriksen<\/a> responds to a demand that the United States intervene directly in the Russia-Ukraine war:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

America is not special. It’s just a country. <\/p>\n

Yes, it’s the best country, but it is not the god of all other nations. <\/p>\n

A lot of people like to point this out when saying that America doesn’t have special rights, but those same people very rapidly and conveniently forget that phrase when they want something from America. <\/p>\n

Because no special rights means no special obligations. <\/p>\n

We don’t have to rob our own citizens to keep African AIDS patients alive, or feed nations that overbreed while they are unable to feed themselves. <\/p>\n

We don’t have to stop the genocide in East Ethnicklashistan. <\/p>\n

We don’t have to accept refugees from anywhere, much less from the worst failed states on the planet. <\/p>\n

We don’t have to cooperate with, fund, host, or even participate in the United Nations. <\/p>\n

And we don’t have to take sides in ethnic conflicts on the other side of the planet. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The assumption that any conflict is between the good guys and the bad guys, and that the US must help the good guys is the assumption that America is god, responsible for bringing peace, justice, and prosperity to the planet. <\/p>\n

Are you ready to be ruled by us as if we were gods? <\/p>\n

No? <\/p>\n

Then don’t demand justice from us as if we were gods. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The responsibility of America, as just another nation, is to look after the interests of Americans. <\/p>\n

Look, we all know that Russia is dogshit at warfare, because wars are not won by being tough. They are won by being organized, coordinated, trained, and equipped. <\/p>\n

And Russia is an extraction economy, not a high-trust, high-tech first world state. <\/p>\n

So, yes, we could easily beat Russia in a war. That does not mean it is in our best interests to do so. Lots of costs, no benefits. <\/p>\n

And while we are wealthiest nation in the history of … everything … we still have a severe overspending problem, mostly because we’ve been the wealthiest nation for a long time, and have developed some bad problem with political corruption, and throwing money at ever grifter with a sob story and an outstretched hand. <\/p>\n

I know you think your cause is just. I’m not trying to tell you it isn’t, because I don’t need to decide if it is or not. <\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter. <\/p>\n

America’s responsibility is to Americans, and if that responsibility is not being discharged, taken care of, thoroughly handled, then support of any other side quest, regardless of its merits, is dereliction of duty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update, 2 December<\/strong>: Welcome, Instapundit<\/em> readers! Please do have a look around at some of my other posts you may find of interest. I send out a daily summary of posts here through my Substack<\/em> \u2013 https:\/\/substack.com\/@nicholasrusson<\/a> that you can subscribe to if you’d like to be informed of new posts in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Devon Eriksen responds to a demand that the United States intervene directly in the Russia-Ukraine war: America is not special. It’s just a country. Yes, it’s the best country, but it is not the god of all other nations. A lot of people like to point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1119,13],"tags":[726],"class_list":["post-99366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military","category-russia","category-usa","tag-ukraine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-pQG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99391,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99366\/revisions\/99391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}