ironpony wrote:
Oh okay, I see, thanks. Well it seems so far, the biggest thing that NATO wants to do sanctions, hoping that will work, but will it really stop Putin though? I mean if sanctions stop terrorist dictators, why didn't the US just use them on Hitler, or Hiroshima, instead of actually fighting, if sanctions are enough?
Japan was provoked into attacking Pearl Harbor by sanctions, but economies were simpler in those days and also Japan made the strategic calculation that it basically now or never, that the sanctions would weaken then relative to America so they might as well strike right away.
What I mean by economies being simpler is think of how many items you own are made all over the world. Now think of how many items you own that are made with parts from more than one country, besides the one it's made in. That level of interconnectedness didn't exist in the '40s.
Sanctions don't always work, there's a lot of factors in play including how self-sufficient a nation's economy is. Russia isn't self-sufficient enough because just like every other advanced economy they rely on imports of things they depend on and don't do well themselves. Much of what they do well depends on imports of things they don't do well.
Russia doesn't make computer chips, they also don't make the sorts of industrial robots common in a lot of manufacturing. There's all sorts of oil and mining related equipment they don't locally manufacture. There's subsystems on a number of Russian airplanes that aren't made locally. Some of it those things can probably slowly be started to be built locally, but it'll take awhile. Some of it might not be replaceable and that will have serious impacts on the Russian economy.
The west believes that will be enough to exert pressure. Whether or not it will has yet to be seen. It hasn't caused the Iranian government to fall, for example. Same with North Korea. That said, those aren't exactly replacement trade partners for many of the things Russia needs to import in order for their economy to function and grow.
I'm not entirely certain they will work, although it's not impossible. They will have impacts for Russia's ability to rebuild their military too, so even if they don't cause a change in Russian leadership they will weaken Russia that way.
Oh okay, but why is NATO still using sanctions when after Pearl Harbor and all these other past failures, they now think it will succeed maybe, just because of some differences maybe? It seems to me that the cannot accept that fact extremists do not listen to sanctions. It just seems me he coul take over all of Ukraine possibly, before the Russian economy bleeds dry.
30 Mar 2022, 3:24 am
