Russia loses to Ukraine, and the US to Iran
Russia has lost to Ukraine, the US is bleeding itself dry against Iran, and Europe is picking up the bill. An analysis of the two defeats shaping today's geopolitics.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Russia has lost to Ukraine: the geopolitical reckoning
Russia has lost the war. Put that bluntly, it sounds like an exaggeration, but the facts on the ground point to a level of attrition that no official narrative can paper over: years of fighting to conquer a handful of flattened cities and a front line that barely moves. Russian propaganda, however hard it tries to prop up its version with YouTube videos, no longer sells victory as an imminent outcome.
On the other board, the United States is not faring any better. Against Iran, the defeat is not military but financial: the stock market and public debt chart a vertiginous course. Some argue that Washington is merely the executing arm of interests that are not its own, and that the real beneficiary of war is always the same: the financial complex that funds it.
While the two powers tangle in their own contradictions, Europe watches with its wallet in hand. The bill for both wars ends up in European budgets, whether in energy, defense or reconstruction. The irony is that those who had the least say in the conflict are the ones paying the most.
If current trends are not reversed, the likely outcome is that Russia still cannot proclaim a real victory, and that the US discovers that sanctions and military spending also burn the one who imposes them. But wars have an infinite capacity to surprise. The only certain result, for now, is that someone else foots the bill.
Russia has lost the war. Put that bluntly, it sounds like an exaggeration, but the facts on the ground point to a level of attrition that no official narrative can paper over: years of fighting to conquer a handful of flattened cities and a front line that barely moves. Russian propaganda, however hard it tries to prop up its version with YouTube videos, no longer sells victory as an imminent outcome.
On the other board, the United States is not faring any better. Against Iran, the defeat is not military but financial: the stock market and public debt chart a vertiginous course. Some argue that Washington is merely the executing arm of interests that are not its own, and that the real beneficiary of war is always the same: the financial complex that funds it.
While the two powers tangle in their own contradictions, Europe watches with its wallet in hand. The bill for both wars ends up in European budgets, whether in energy, defense or reconstruction. The irony is that those who had the least say in the conflict are the ones paying the most.
If current trends are not reversed, the likely outcome is that Russia still cannot proclaim a real victory, and that the US discovers that sanctions and military spending also burn the one who imposes them. But wars have an infinite capacity to surprise. The only certain result, for now, is that someone else foots the bill.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (13 replies).
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