Quote (Goomshill @ 7 Feb 2024 06:33)
Iran, Russia and even North Korea are all relatively self-sufficient. It gives them a staying power and resistance to external pressures, that's for sure, but it doesn't make them competitive on a world stage. There's a big difference between isolationist world powers and those vying for influence.
If I pick subterranean democracy and camp out in a small corner of the galaxy map researching my way up to plasma cannons and zortrium armor before I'm ready to move out, I'm going to lose to someone expanding rapidly with their tolerant lithovores and taking over half the map
Its not necessarily just a measure of resources either. Germany could meet their own energy and food need, their policies have sabotaged that. America does meet its own energy and food needs, but it employs those resources in dominating the world.
Russia has been isolationist to a fault, ceded the baltic states and most of their empire in the post soviet era and hasn't wielded their energy exports as aggressively as even far smaller and less armed arab states have. Russia's only wars have been fought to hang onto territory in its own back yard, in checknya and ukraine, and they're barely able to keep the peace on their eastern front as the nagorno karabakh kept popping off. They stopped playing the expansionist game and NATO expanded right to their doorstep, and surprise surprise we put a foot firmly in their door and pried it open and tried to seize Russia's granaries by force.
The primary reasons all three nations aren't massive forces in the global economy boils down to the EU and US sanctioning them and preventing them from transacting on an equal footing. There is huge strength in being self-sufficient prior to dealing with the rest of the world. And it's no shock why both Iran and Russia are talking about upping their weapons and military gains in upcoming years.
How long does NATO believe they can keep their boot on the throats of hundreds of millions of people before it leads to war? And how stupid would it be not to understand that? The West has been pushing for another big war and wants it to be one that is relatively certain to end in victory. It's why there's no challenges vs china, Iran and Russia are the focus. The west has spent the last 30 years surrounding Russia with troops and weapons pointed directly at Moscow, and the last 10 years imposing sanctions to cut Russia off from global trade. Throw in a puppet government that will genocide ethnic Russians and POOF! War, caused by the west, blamed on Russia, and the perfect excuse to accomplish the goal the warhawks have sought for decades.