Foreign Policy Issues That I Think Should Be Bipartisan

 

(This is the flag of the United States 🇺🇸. This is the newer one that I downloaded back in August. The file is just called “Flag_of_the_United_States 🇺🇸,” whereas the one I’ve been using since 2024 was called “Flag_of_the United States 🇺🇸_(DoS_ECA_Color_Standard).” I’m thinking of deleting that one, and replacing it with this one. So, if you click on any of my posts for the next few days that has an American flag 🇺🇸, or is supposed to have an American flag 🇺🇸, and it’s blank, that’s why, and I am working to correct it, and replace it with this file here.)

Remember in the foreword of my King’s Man ♂︎ review, I was talking about how I think that supporting Taiwan 🇹🇼 and opposing China 🇨🇳, and supporting Ukraine 🇺🇦 and opposing Russia 🇷🇺 should be bipartisan issues rather than partisan issues? Well, I was inspired by that paragraph to write a whole post about foreign policy issues that I think should be bipartisan, but for some reason, aren’t. Obviously, the big ones, Russia 🇷🇺  and China 🇨🇳 will be here, but there are some here that are lower on the totem pole, and are less of a priority. There are even some that you may not be expecting. I hope you enjoy reading this regardless, and you learn something along the way, and I can persuade you into agreeing with me on these issues if you don’t already. But first, a little bit of housekeeping.

There are some news topics and updates that I want to quickly get out of the way first before I really delve into the topic at hand. Not all of these are politically related, so please bear with me. I’ve talked about politics in posts that really had nothing to do with politics, so why I can’t talk about movies and pop culture stuff in a post that’s overly political? The Wikipedia page on the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾 has been updated to say that war did end in 2024, on December 8, 2024 with the fall of the Assad regime. So, the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾 as we know it is officially over, meaning that the war lasted for a total of 13 years, from 2011 to 2024, which is pretty long. A kid could’ve been born in 2011, when this war started, and then be in middle school by the time it ended. It’s crazy to think about it in that way, but that is kind of the reality. The reason why it took so long for the editors at Wikipedia to finally settle on whether or not the war was truly over or not is of course that ever since the Assad regime fell, violence has continued in Syria 🇸🇾; suggesting that the war was not actually over after all despite Assad being gone. But, they decided that the civil war was in fact over, and that what we’re seeing play out in Syria 🇸🇾 right now is something completely different. They created a completely new Wikipedia page for what’s currently going on in Syria 🇸🇾 called “the Syrian conflict 🇸🇾,” yeah, really creative name I know 🙄. 

 

But, I just wanted to give an update about this since I mentioned it in the foreword of my post about the 2023 Ankara bombing, and it’s been something I’ve been keeping up, and wondering, “Why haven’t they decided whether or not the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾 is over yet?” “Is the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾 actually over if there’s still ethnic and religious violence going on in the country?” Something that still annoys me is that the Wikipedia page on the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾 spells it with lowercase letters, like “Syrian civil war 🇸🇾.” Why is it spelt with lowercase letters? It is the only major civil war in Syria 🇸🇾, it should be spelt with uppercase letters because it is the civil war. What it does it take for the name of a war to be spelt with capital letters nowadays? How long ago does it have to be? Does it have the first or only war of its kind? 

 

I mean, with the current civil war in Sudan 🇸🇩, I understand why it’s spelt with lowercase letters because it isn’t the only civil war in Sudan 🇸🇩’s history, even though I think, for brevity’s sake, it should be called the Third Sudanese Civil War 🇸🇩 since it is the third major civil war in Sudan 🇸🇩’s history. Same thing with the current civil war in Myanmar 🇲🇲, it isn’t the only major civil war in Myanmar 🇲🇲’s history, in fact, there’s an ethnic conflict that’s been going on in Myanmar 🇲🇲 (formally known as Burma 🇲🇲), since independence, and many historians and experts consider that to be one long continuous civil war that has lasted to this day, and this current civil war is just one part of that; one phase of it. So what exactly do you call it? Same thing with the Gaza war, it isn’t the only war in Gaza, and there was another war called the Gaza War 14 years before this one that may or may not be over, and is spelt with capital letters; they changed the name on the Wikipedia page to “Gaza War (2008-2009).” At least, the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦 is spelt with uppercase letters on Wikipedia. 

The next bit of news is that Zohran Mamdani won the election 🗳️ on Tuesday November 3, 2025, and will now be the next mayor of New York next year. I edited the foreword to my post about the 2023 Ankara bombing to talk about Mamdani and the fearmongering about him coming from the Right. That was after he won the election 🗳️. Well, as it turns out, none of those fearmongering tactics worked, and Mamdani won in as close to a landslide as you can get. Trump and the Republicans talked about how they had a mandate last time when they won in 2024, but the person with the real mandate is Mamdani and every other Democrat who won the elections 🗳️ last Tuesday. Because Mamdani wasn’t the only Democrat who won last Tuesday. Every Democrat who was running for election 🗳️ on November 3, 2025 won. As many of the pundits and online commentators said, it was a clean sweep. The best electoral night for Democrats in many few years. They did better here in this election 🗳️ than they did in the 2018 midterms and the 2022 midterms. Besides Mamdani, the two other most notable Democrats who won in last Tuesday’s elections 🗳️ were two women ♀︎, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, who both won the gubernatorial elections 🗳️ in both New Jersey and Virginia respectively. Virginia straight up went blue 🔵 in this election 🗳️, it’s pretty crazy, but that’s what happens when you screw over an entire state made up entirely of federal workers. Virginia is one of the states that was hit the hardest by the ongoing shutdown, and the people made their voices heard, and rebuked the president and the Republicans as a whole. 

 

Speaking of the shutdown, apparently the Democrats in the Senate have come to some sort of agreement with the Senate Republicans, or at least the beginnings of a deal to end the shutdown. At the time of me writing this, the shutdown is still not over, and there is no guarantee that this deal will work out, or that a continuing resolution (CR) will actually pass. It still has to go through the House, and the House is still not in session because Mike Johnson sent them all on paid vacation because he doesn’t want to swear in Adelita Grijalva because she’d be the tie breaking vote to force a discharge petition for the Epstein files. This mostly just the first steps towards a deal getting made from what I understand. This effort was led by Chuck Schumer, and it has drawn a lot of criticism from progressives, both in the actual Democratic Party and in Congress, but also from the progressive commentator class. 

 

A lot of them see this was him capitulating, caving to Republican pressure, and that Democrats should still hold the line on healthcare and just agree to whatever bullshit seal the Republicans cook up. They argue that Republicans are lying about wanting to put Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to a vote in December, and that this whole thing is a trap; and if Schumer and other Democrats agree to this now, any momentum they may have gained as a party on November 3rd will be lost, and the whole argument behind the prolonged standoff will be null and void. They argue that this will just make it look like Democrat shutdown, and play directly into Trump’s hands. While Schumer and other Democrats who are on his side are arguing they’re doing to alleviate and prevent suffering caused by the shutdown, and they’re just trying to help their constituents and the American people 🇺🇸 more broadly. But, progressives do not buy it. 

 

They see this as cowardice on the part of Schumer. Political YouTuber and TikToker, J.S. Candid gave an impassioned rant about what Schumer is doing 🤬, and says that AOC should primary him, and get him out of there because he is the wrong guy for this fight, and he is not meeting the moment. A lot of progressives have that sentiment right now. I mean, progressives never liked Chuck Schumer that much to begin with, neither did anyone in the Never Trump coalition, but this decision yesterday on Sunday pushed them over the edge into downright hating him 🤬. Schumer is probably the most disliked figure in the Democratic Party right now. People think he should either be primaried, or he should resign and retire just like Nancy Pelosi did last week. But, we’ll see where this goes, I really hope that the Democrats don’t cave as easily as many are worried that they will, and they hold the line. We Democratic voters and supporters want to be able to believe in our party again, so don’t disappoint us, that’s all I ask. 

The last bit of news that I will cover here so that I can finally start talking about the topic at hand is that Predator: Badlands came out last Friday, on November 7, 2025, and So far, the reception has mostly been positive. A lot of people are digging this movie 😊👍. But  Predator: Killer of Killers also got a pretty positive reception and a lot of people liked that movie, and I didn’t particularly like it. So, I don’t know what I’ll think of this movie if or when I actually see it. The only people who have given this movie negative reviews as far as I’ve seen are anti-woke YouTubers like the Critical Drinker, or anti-woke YouTube users calling it “feminist propaganda” in comment sections, just because it has a female lead; co-lead technically since Elle Fanning’s character, Thia is not the main character, the Predator, Dek is. But, surprisingly, Mr. H Reviews hasn’t given this movie a negative review as far as I know. He actually likes the movie from what I’ve seen, and that’s despite him going down the anti-woke path in recent years. 

 

The YouTuber, the Pink King made a whole video about how the hatred for Badlands is forced. He made a similar video several months ago about how the anti-woke crowd was so quiet about Sinners when it came out, and how many of them refused to talk about it despite it being everything they supposedly wanted: an excellent film that stars primarily people of color, and is an original film that is not apart of any preexisting franchise. They said their problem with modern movies that they took preexisting franchises, and just made them woke. They either added more women ♀︎, people of color, and/or queer folk, or changed preexisting characters into one of those things to better fit with modern times. But they said they didn’t hated those things because they were bigots, they hated because it was changing something that already existed rather than making something new. And they insisted that if an original film came along that had any of those things (women ♀︎, people of color, and LGBT people 🏳️‍🌈), they would support it because it was its own thing. But then, Sinners comes along, and is an original film with a people of color majority cast (since it also has Asians), that explores themes of racism and oppression, does better at the box office than anyone expected, and received pretty much universal praise from critics and audiences, and yet these anti-woke people all of a sudden have nothing to say.  

 

Sinners exposed the phoniness of the anti-woke crowd and the hollowness of their whole argument that they’ve been repeated for pretty much a whole decade. The truth is that they complained about things being woke because they are just bigots, and they’re also grifters who are just doing this for clicks and for clout. That’s why they only talk about popular movies, and they only talk about already existing franchises, geek properties, because those get clicks, those are what draw in the most views; or at least, it used to. While Sinners was a popular film, and still is, given how relevant it has remained in the conversation and how people are still talking about it months later after it was released, it is not tied to any franchise, it is a purely original thing; and as far as we know, it’s own stand alone thing since Ryan Coogler, so far, has ruled out the possibility of making any sequels or spinoffs. So, it didn’t at all fit the mold of what these guys usually talk about on their YouTube channels. So, most of them passed on the opportunity to talk about that movie when it still fresh in people’s minds, when it was still the new hot thing and was the talk of the Internet 🛜. 

 

Sure, the hatred for Badlands from the anti-woke crowd maybe forced, but that doesn’t mean that anyone who dislikes the movie, or doesn’t like it as much as everyone else dislikes it or doesn’t like it as much as everyone else for the same reasons as the anti-woke crowd. Some may not like the movie for legitimate reasons, like the story or the characters. That’s why I didn’t like Killer of Killers, I didn’t like the story or the characters, and I didn’t like the additions or changes that the movie made to the lore surrounding the Predators AKA the Yautja, and that this movie, Badlands seems to be doubling down on; tripling down more like since this sort of rewriting of the Predator lore that Trachtenberg seems to be doing started all the way back with his first Predator film, Prey (2022). So, if I watch Badlands, and I end up not liking it, just know that it will be because of issues that I have with the actual film itself, with the plot, the storytelling, the character development, the creature designs, and the special effects, not because of any culture war stuff. 

 

I don’t care about that stuff anymore, I think it’s a waste of time and it doesn’t mean anything, and it doesn’t matter. If your only problems with a movie are culture war issues, then you don’t have your priorities in order and you were never in this for the art. You never cared about or respected film as an art form, you just saw it as a vessel to express your own political beliefs, or as a way to not have to hear about anyone else’s. So, you’re trying to force other filmmakers into only showing your political beliefs by criticizing any film that doesn’t, or not show any politics at all by criticizing any film that does; just so that you can feel comfortable, and feel reassured and good about yourself. And also because you’re a bigot, and you don’t like seeing people in movies who look different from you. So you feel like you have to complain about it, in hopes that studios and filmmakers will listen to you, and only make movies with people look like you. Alright, with that out of the way, let’s get on with it.

– 

 

1. China 🇨🇳/Taiwan 🇹🇼

 

 

(These are the flags of China 🇨🇳 and Taiwan 🇹🇼.) 

The first one is probably the biggest one of all. The one foreign policy issue that will continue to define the US 🇺🇸 for many decades to come…unless the communist regime in China 🇨🇳 collapse, which doesn’t very likely at the moment. A collapse of the US government 🇺🇸 as we know now it is more likely at the moment, but even that I don’t think is entirely likely either. Trump may have done a lot of damage to the US government 🇺🇸, and to the country as a whole, but he hasn’t done so much damage that the US 🇺🇸 is on the verge of collapse. At least, not yet. I hope not because I like the US 🇺🇸, I like living here, although my people would probably still continue to live here even if the US 🇺🇸 no longer existed. 

To be fair, I do think that opposing China 🇨🇳 is fairly bipartisan issue already, or at least it was until Trump came back into the picture, and made it a partisan issue again. And even then, that’s mostly because of the tariffs, and the harm that they’re doing to American agriculture 🇺🇸, particularly to soybean farmers. The soybean market in the US 🇺🇸 has completely collapsed because of the tariffs, and China 🇨🇳 is no longer buying soybeans from the US 🇺🇸, and is instead buying them from Argentina 🇦🇷 and Brazil 🇧🇷 I think. Trump is driving Latin America away from the US 🇺🇸 and more towards China 🇨🇳 because of his idiotic economic policies, and because he keeps threatening war with Venezuela 🇻🇪 and Mexico 🇲🇽. The Mexico issue 🇲🇽 hasn’t gone away, and recently, according to Farron Cousins, the Trump administration is planning an invasion of Mexico 🇲🇽, for what else? To eliminate drug cartels. That sounds well and good, I don’t like drug cartels either, but military action will not solve anything. Every expert knows this. If Trump goes through with that, it will just lead to more cartels springing up, and will lead to the proliferation of more drugs. In other words, it’ll just make the problem worse. So, hopefully, Trump and Hegseth don’t pursue this idiotic policy, and start a war in Mexico 🇲🇽 against the cartels. 

 

Hopefully, they’re smart enough to know that starting a war in Mexico 🇲🇽 is not a good idea and will be the downfall of their government, though I’m not holding out hope. This administration has done so many stupid things already, so many self-destructive things, that a war in Mexico 🇲🇽 or Venezuela 🇻🇪 wouldn’t be too far out of the realm of possibility. At least, Brazil 🇧🇷 had the decency of getting rid of their right-wing populist leader after he tried to illegally stay in power after losing an election 🗳️. Brazilians 🇧🇷 actually care about their democracy, and want to see traitorous insurrectionists be punished and face the full consequences of their actions. They do not want to see such an insurrectionist be let free, and all to appease the childish frail, old, senile wannabe tyrant currently sitting in the White House. The Brazilian government 🇧🇷 is only considering doing this because of pressure from a foreign power. The people don’t want this, they’re taking to the streets and making their voices heard to make their government doesn’t do anything stupid just because Trump wants them to, otherwise they’ll give them hell ✊.

But, when it comes to opposing China 🇨🇳’s authoritarianism, their increasingly encroachment on the South China Sea, violating the territorial integrity of other nations that border the South China Sea, their oppression of the Uyghurs and the Tibetans, and their threats against Taiwan 🇹🇼, it’s fairly bipartisan; at least, here in America 🇺🇸. I don’t see liberals or leftists talk about Taiwan 🇹🇼 in relation to America 🇺🇸’s policy towards China 🇨🇳, with them, it’s always about the economic aspect of the relationship between the US 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳. Which, I mean, yeah, that is the main thing affects most Americans’ 🇺🇸 lives, their lives aren’t too affected by the oppression of the Uyghurs or the Tibetans, the fight between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government 🇨🇳 over the succession process, and who gets to decide who will be the next Dalai Lama after Tenzin Gyatso. 

 

But, Americans 🇺🇸 would be affected if there was a war between China 🇨🇳 and Taiwan 🇹🇼, not just because the US 🇺🇸 would have to get involved (or it should get involved), but because of the economic effects. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan 🇨🇳🇹🇼 would have devastating consequences for the global economy, everyone would be negatively affected, even if they are not geographically close to the conflict. So, I think both sides of the political spectrum, both parties here in the US 🇺🇸, the Republicans and the Democrats should support Taiwan 🇹🇼, and help them deter any aggression from China 🇨🇳. And if it does come down to it, assist them in any way we can to help them resist the Chinese 🇨🇳, and prevent them from taking the island, even if that means sending our troops there to fight alongside them. Taiwan 🇹🇼 is a democracy, and as still the most powerful country in world economically and militarily, we should do anything we can to support a democracy and prevent it from falling to an authoritarian state. 

 

The same goes for Japan 🇯🇵, in Japan 🇯🇵, supporting Taiwan 🇹🇼 and opposing China 🇨🇳 is still a fairly partisan issue, with most of the Japanese right-wing 🇯🇵 supporting Taiwan 🇹🇼 and opposing China 🇨🇳, and most of the Japanese left-wing 🇯🇵 not supporting Taiwan 🇹🇼 and not opposing China 🇨🇳. The revision or even repeal of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution 🇯🇵, and the growth of the military is a very partisan issue, with most of the Japanese Right 🇯🇵 supporting the revision or repeal of Article 9 and the expansion of the JSDF 🇯🇵 into a more offensive force, and most of the Japanese Left 🇯🇵 opposing those things. But, like I said in the foreword of my King’s Man ♂︎ review, I don’t these should be partisan issues in Japan 🇯🇵. Both the Right and Left in Japan 🇯🇵 should be on the same page that supporting Taiwan 🇹🇼 is a good thing, and opposing China 🇨🇳 when necessary is also a good thing. 

 

Obviously, China 🇨🇳 is so integrated into the global economy, and we so intertwined with them in terms of trade and manufacturing that we can’t go the way in opposing them like we did with the Soviet Union ☭ during the Cold War, but when China 🇨🇳 does bad things, and trust me, they do a lot of bad things, we should oppose them, and we should do everything we can to deter China 🇨🇳 from attacking Taiwan 🇹🇼 or any of the nations that border the South China Sea, and ensuring that Taiwan 🇹🇼 has everything it needs to defend itself, and that we’re ready to assist them if it comes down to it, and we have to get directly involved. I just don’t have much hope any of that will happen under Trump because Trump is so stupid and weak, and he doesn’t care about democracy, and would just as easily abandon Taiwan 🇹🇼 as he tried to abandon Ukraine 🇺🇦. China 🇨🇳 has Trump by the balls, and he will not do anything to actually resist them if push came to shove. Look at how weak he’s been towards Russia 🇷🇺. 

Luckily, the winds are shifting a bit, and it seems like more and more nations are turning against China 🇨🇳, at least as far as the Taiwan issue 🇹🇼 goes, and are siding with Taiwan 🇹🇼. And it looks a Chinese invasion of Taiwan 🇨🇳🇹🇼 is becoming less likely in light of recent developments in domestic Chinese politics 🇨🇳. I watched a video by Huey Li, yeah, yeah, I know, I said I wasn’t going to watch his videos ever again. I still don’t like his casual use of AI, and I never stop clowning on him 🤡 for using AI. But, occasionally, he’ll have some good points, when he actually uses his brain 🧠 rather than rely on a machine, a computer program that steals things from all across the Internet 🛜 and regurgitates its back to the user who typed it in the prompt  in the first place 😒. Can you tell I don’t like AI? Well, the video that I saw him that was about China 🇨🇳 was actually pretty good. He talked about the recent purge of the Central Military Commission, and how that may be a sign of the Communist Party ☭ taking back some of the control that they had relinquished to Xi in the past decade, since he took power in 2012. He specifically something to the effect of, because none of these positions have been filled, the party may pressure Xi to give up one of the positions he currently holds. He’s not just the General Secretary of the party and the president/paramount leader,  but he is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission. He holds too many titles and positions, and they may try to pressure him to give up one or two of them, thus loosening his grip on power, and slowly returning China 🇨🇳 to a collective dictatorship, rather than a personal one like it has been for the past 13 years under Xi. If Huey’s hunch is true, then it would bode well in preventing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan 🇨🇳🇹🇼. 

 

I think most of the Communist Party ☭ knows that invading Taiwan 🇹🇼 is a bad idea, and that it would not only lead to the destruction of the entire generation of Chinese people 🇨🇳 (just as the Russian invasion of Ukraine 🇷🇺🇺🇦 lead to the destruction of an entire generation of Russian people 🇷🇺), but it would also lead to the fall of the Communist Party ☭ and the regime itself; just as the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 could lead to fall of the Putin regime in Russia 🇷🇺, if Russia 🇷🇺 loses that is, which it’s looking increasingly likely that they will. And they know that if China 🇨🇳 remains a personal dictatorship rather than a collective dictatorship like it was before, the risk of Xi sending their troops to go to war over Taiwan 🇹🇼 only increases rather than decreases. Xi has made Taiwan 🇹🇼 a core part of his legacy, and he sees the acquisition of Taiwan 🇹🇼 as the thing that will secure his place in Chinese history 🇨🇳. It will be the thing that he is the most remembered for, and will be the thing that he is the most revered for. So, they’re doing everything they can right now to limit to Xi’s power after letting him act with impunity and unchecked for over a decade now, so that’s the whole party and the whole regime won’t collapse because of the impulses of one man ♂︎, one man ♂︎’s desire to build up his legacy through the acquisition of territory.

 

2. Russia 🇷🇺/Ukraine 🇺🇦

 

(These are the flags of Russia 🇷🇺 and Ukraine 🇺🇦.)

 

 

 

You knew this one was coming. Much of what I said about China 🇨🇳 and Taiwan 🇹🇼 applies much the same here. Only here, it’s more pressing because there’s an actual war going on. A war that has now gone on for three years (11 years technically since the war actually started in 2014), and still no end in sight. Now, this is a lot more of a bipartisan issue than it appears because the vast majority of Democrats and the vast majority of Republicans support Ukraine 🇺🇦 and oppose Russia 🇷🇺, and agree that we should continue to support Ukraine 🇺🇦, and keep sending them weapons to defeat Russia 🇷🇺 and finally end this war; and supply them humanitarian aid to offset the destruction and suffering that the Russians 🇷🇺 have inflicted on the Ukrainian people 🇺🇦. And supporting Ukraine 🇺🇦 is popular amongst the American people 🇺🇸, Americans 🇺🇸 like Ukraine 🇺🇦 and do not like Russia 🇷🇺. Really, the only ones who seem to actually like Russia 🇷🇺 are Trump, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, and Steve Witkoff. Ever since he took office in January, Trump has been everything he can to help Russia 🇷🇺 win this war. Whether it was cutting off as much support for Ukraine 🇺🇦 as he could, using delay tactics by constantly giving fake deadlines for ceasefire negotiations, or meeting with Putin directly in Alaska, and trying and failing to get another meeting with him in Budapest. 

 

But none of it has worked, Ukraine 🇺🇦 is holding out, and is still going strong, hitting Russia 🇷🇺 where it truly hurts, their oil refineries and pipelines, and Russia 🇷🇺 has made very little progress on the battlefield. They still have not taken Pokrovsk. It turns out that the Ukrainians 🇺🇦 are a lot more resilient and cunning than he anticipated, and the Russians 🇷🇺 are a lot more incompetent than he originally thought. And of course, Putin refuses to negotiate, because he doesn’t actually want to end the war because he knows that if he ends it now, then it won’t bode well for him. Putin is keeping the war going for his own political survival, and for his personal survival, because if his regime goes, he will go, and he probably won’t be sent to prison, he’ll probably be killed just like Gaddafi was; or at least that’s his fear. Even though Trump said that he was going to start supporting Ukraine 🇺🇦 during the UN General Assembly 🇺🇳 in New York, he hasn’t actually made any such moves to start supporting Ukraine 🇺🇦 in a more overt fashion, and he still likes Putin, and still wants Russia 🇷🇺 to win. 

 

There’s a clip that was circulating on Twitter 🐦 AKA X of him in a cabinet meeting saying that Russia 🇷🇺 should’ve won the war in a week, that they should’ve taken Ukraine 🇺🇦 in three days like the Russians 🇷🇺 initially wanted; this was to be a quick and easy war, a special military operation, but the Russians 🇷🇺 are so incompetent and the Ukrainians 🇺🇦 are so strong and clever that it ended up lasting way longer. If it weren’t for Trump, both parties would be a lot more on the same page about Russia 🇷🇺 and Ukraine 🇺🇦, and we’d be more overtly supporting Ukraine 🇺🇦 than we currently are. Biden did a lot more to support Ukraine 🇺🇦 than Trump has, I know a lot of people in the pro-Ukraine 🇺🇦 community don’t like Biden and how he handled the war, but you can’t deny that he actually supported Ukraine 🇺🇦 and actually did more to ensure Ukraine 🇺🇦 had more of the stuff they needed to defend themselves. Was it always enough? No. Was it always on time? No. But, at least it was something. Trump has pretty much done nothing to support Ukraine 🇺🇦 since he retook office, and that’s because of his Russia 🇷🇺 and Putin sympathies. 

 

But yeah, I do think supporting Ukraine 🇺🇦 and opposing Russia 🇷🇺 should be a bipartisan issue. Like I said about Taiwan 🇹🇼, Ukraine 🇺🇦 is a democracy, the Ukrainians 🇺🇦 admire America 🇺🇸 and our democratic system and want to implement that in their own. They respect and admire the US Constitution 🇺🇸, way more than Trump even did. So, we’d be doing them and ourselves a disservice if we didn’t support them in their time of need, and help them defend themselves against an imperialistic aggressor, an authoritarian regime that wants to impose its dominance over its former territories, and regain some aspects of its empire that it feels it lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union ☭. And Ukraine 🇺🇦 really is the last line of defense in preventing Russia 🇷🇺 from threatening the rest of Europe, because as long as Russia 🇷🇺 is preoccupied in Ukraine 🇺🇦, they can’t threaten the rest of Europe, or try to conquer more territory. 

 

 

 

 

(This is the flag of NATO.)

 

 

 

 

 

Because let’s face it, NATO is not doing that much to resist Russia 🇷🇺, and isn’t displaying strength. Russian drones 🇷🇺 violated NATO airspace twice on the two separate occasions, and their response was to hold a meeting between the member states, in which they decided to do nothing about it. The only reason why NATO’s response to Russia 🇷🇺’s aggression in Ukraine 🇺🇦 and their provocations on the rest of the European continent has been pretty weak, is mostly because of Trump (because he likes Russia 🇷🇺 and hates NATO), and because Russia 🇷🇺 has nuclear weapons ☢️ and they fear a nuclear strike ☢️ against them by Russia 🇷🇺. 

 

The truth of the matter is that if Russia 🇷🇺 didn’t have nuclear weapons ☢️, NATO would have already gotten involved in this war. They would’ve been fighting alongside the Ukrainians 🇺🇦, and would’ve beaten back the Russians 🇷🇺, and forced them back to the border from whence they came; they would’ve absolutely mopped the floor with the Russians 🇷🇺. They might’ve even forced the Russians 🇷🇺 out of Crimea, and liberated Crimea. Ukraine 🇺🇦 would have all of its territory, and this war would’ve been over in less than a year; two years at most. It would’ve been the Gulf War 2.0, the Gulf War of Eastern Europe. But, because Russia 🇷🇺 has nuclear weapons ☢️, NATO has mostly stayed out of this war, and has only limited its involvement to just supplying Ukraine 🇺🇦 with weapons, and this war has been allowed to drag on for three years, going on four. 

 

3. Israel 🇮🇱/Palestine 🇵🇸

 

 

(These are the flags of Israel 🇮🇱 and Palestine 🇵🇸.) 

This is probably the most controversial one on this whole list, but it’s one that I feel should be on this list. Sure, Israel 🇮🇱 was justified in retaliating against Hamas for killing their people and taking their people hostage on October 7th, but everything they have done in Gaza since then, they have had no justification for whatsoever. There is no excuse for what many people are rightfully calling genocide and ethnic cleansing. Even if you initially believed that Israel 🇮🇱 had the right to respond to the October 7 attack, you have to admit that Israel 🇮🇱 has gone about in absolutely the wrong way. This war didn’t improve Israel 🇮🇱’s security, it worsened it, it didn’t eliminate Hamas, it arguably strengthened it because they’ve created even more resentful Palestinians 🇵🇸 who will join Hamas or other groups like Hamas, and violently resist them. Meaning that Israel 🇮🇱 will never truly be secure. 

 

All because of the vanity of one man ♂︎ ☝️, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his desire to stay in power and stay out of jail, and because he and his far-right coalition tried to use this war to commit genocide. Even after that ceasefire was broken back in October, violence still continued, Israel 🇮🇱 kept violating the ceasefire agreement and killing more Palestinians 🇵🇸 in both Gaza and the West Bank. But, unfortunately, the Right/Left divide about Israel 🇮🇱 and Palestine 🇵🇸 has remained mostly intact. The Right mostly supports Israel 🇮🇱, and the Left mostly supports Palestine 🇵🇸; Republicans support continuing to give weapons to Israel 🇮🇱, and Democrats increasingly do not. The AIPAC is one of the most powerful and influential lobbies in Washington, and they aren’t even the only Israel lobby group in the US 🇺🇸 either. 

 

But, there are signs that paradigm is starting to crack, and the Israel/Palestine issue 🇮🇱🇵🇸 is becoming a lot more bipartisan than it used to. At least as far as supporting Palestine 🇵🇸 and opposing Israel 🇮🇱 goes. Especially since it came to light that, during the war in Gaza, Israel 🇮🇱 was bombing churches ⛪️ and Christian monuments ✝️, and Evangelicals inside the Republican Party really got upset about that 😡. There’s even a small group now within the conspiratorial far-right that think that Israel 🇮🇱 is responsible for Charlie Kirk’s murder. And I guarantee you that had Kamala Harris won the 2024 election 🗳️, she would’ve joined the myriad other nations in the UN 🇺🇳 that voted to recognize Palestine 🇵🇸, which was important step in showing solidarity with the Palestinian people 🇵🇸, and sidelining Israel 🇮🇱, isolating them, and reducing them to nothing more than a pariah on the world stage.

To me, this should be a bipartisan issue with both sides agreeing that what Israel 🇮🇱 is doing is wrong, and that we should actually exercise our power and influence over them to put pressure on them when they start going down the wrong path, and start doing bad things. Israel 🇮🇱 is only able to carry out these military operations in Gaza, and through the Middle East and North Africa because we keep giving them weapons. We are their #1 arms supplier. If we cut off that military assistance, their war machine would stop. They wouldn’t be able to carry out offensive actions. So, when they start doing things that are both illegal and morally wrong, we should put pressure to stop by threatening to cut off military aid if they do not stop what they’re doing, and they will quickly correct their behavior. Then, on the Palestinian side 🇵🇸, we must do our part to provide humanitarian aid to them, help them rebuilt what Israel 🇮🇱 destroyed, and to work towards a two-state solution, which is the only solution, and the only thing that will actually work in the long run. Otherwise, the cycle of violence that Israelis 🇮🇱 and the Palestinians 🇵🇸 have been caught in will continue, and more people will die. We certainly cannot allow the Israelis 🇮🇱 to succeed in wiping out all of the Palestinians 🇵🇸 and conquering all of their territory, stealing all of their land.

 

4. North Korea 🇰🇵

 

 

(This is the flag of North Korea 🇰🇵.) 

This is probably the most simple one on this whole list. North Korea 🇰🇵 is an authoritarian state, it’s more than just an authoritarian state, it’s a totalitarian state. It oppresses it own people, keeps them in abject poverty, and makes it difficult for them to move up the social ladder because there is a whole class system in North Korea 🇰🇵 that the majority of the population is at the very bottom. They’re called the Hostile Class, and if you were born into the Hostile Class, then there’s no hope for you. You’re going to stay poor for your entire life, and your living standards will be absolutely abysmal. If try to flee North Korea 🇰🇵 for a better life, the regime makes it extremely difficult for you to escape, and even if you do escape, and the regime find out, then try to trace you back to your family and them to punish them for your escape and send them to a prison camp, where they’ll all be horrifically tortured. There is no freedom of speech in North Korea 🇰🇵, you can’t criticize the government openly, otherwise you’ll be sent to a prison camp and be tortured, there is no free press, every media outlet is state owned, and all they do inundate the TV viewing public with propaganda. The regime intentionally keeps the country isolated and in an information bubble 🫧, where no information gets in or out, so that they can control the narrative, create their own reality, and prevent the people from learning about the outside world. It’s called the Hermit Kingdom for a reason. 

 

And of course, for our purposes, North Korea 🇰🇵 threatens its neighbors with nuclear weapons ☢️ (which are mainly used for regime security purposes), and often conducts tests that violate the airspace of its neighbors. Needless to say, North Korea 🇰🇵 is no good, and they should be opposed whenever possible. This is actually a fairly bipartisan issue already, both parties and both sides of the political spectrum kind of know that North Korea 🇰🇵 sucks, and no body really likes North Korea 🇰🇵 except the absolute fringes on both the Left and the Right. Yes, even some people on the far-right like North Korea 🇰🇵, mostly for its authoritarian political system and its conservative social views; the regime is very misogynistic and very anti-LGBT 🏳️‍🌈; if you’re LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈, North Korea 🇰🇵 is one of the last places where you’d want to live, and staying in the closet is your only chance of survival. And of course, Trump likes Kim Jong-un, he has a man crush on him 🥰, and the two have a bromance that’s even stronger than between Trump and Putin. 

 

That’s another thing too, North Korea 🇰🇵 has been assisting Russia 🇷🇺 in the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦, sending its own troops to go fight and die in Ukraine 🇺🇦, pretty much being used as cannon fodder by the Russians 🇷🇺. So, the fact that North Korea 🇰🇵 is supporting Russia 🇷🇺 in the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, and is an active belligerent in it on the Russian side 🇷🇺, shows that North Korea 🇰🇵 is an enemy of the democratic world and should be resisted and opposed at every turn. The only thing is, short of going to war, I’m not sure what more you could do to North Korea 🇰🇵 to punish them or put pressure on them since North Korea 🇰🇵 is one of the most sanctioned countries on Earth 🌏. And they have found ways to work around the sanctions, and keep themselves afloat, by funding the government and the military through increasingly illicit means. 

 

The Kim regime is straight up a criminal organization masquerading as a government. Much like the Russian government 🇷🇺, the North Korean government 🇰🇵 is pretty much a mafia organization with a flag. But, if not sanctions, we can at least maintain and strengthen our alliance with South Korea 🇰🇷 and Japan 🇯🇵, and make sure they have everything they need to defend themselves in the event of a war, and use our presence on the peninsula and our military power to deter North Korea 🇰🇵 from taking any action against them. One of the best things that Biden managed to accomplish during his presidency was to bring Japan 🇯🇵 and South Korea 🇰🇷 closer together, to put aside their differences, and work together to bolster each other’s security, and deter both China 🇨🇳 and North Korea 🇰🇵; which are the two biggest foreign policy and national security issues for both South Korea 🇰🇷 and Japan 🇯🇵. 

 

 

 

 

(These are the flags of Japan 🇯🇵 and South Korea 🇰🇷.) 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s better for the stability of East Asia if they’re working together rather than against each other, which they have been for many decades. No thanks to numerous Japanese governments 🇯🇵 denying or downplaying the crimes they committed against the Korean people during their colonization of Korea, and during World War II. Japan 🇯🇵 did Korea wrong, and their government hasn’t owned up to it, or shown any real sign that they feel sorry for it, and the South Koreans 🇰🇷 have every right to be upset about that 😠. I think we’d all be upset if we went through what the Koreans went through, and the government of the nation that did this to us never fully apologized for what they did, or did much of anything to repent or reconcile, and that they know what they did was wrong and they genuinely feel bad about it. But, Biden managed to get these two nations to work past their differences for the betterment of each other’s security and opposing common threats. Much of that work got little praise or appreciation, and much of it has been undone by Trump’s shenanigans 😒.

 

 

 

5. Iran 🇮🇷

 

 

(This is the flag of Iran 🇮🇷.)

Much of what I said about North Korea 🇰🇵 applies equally to Iran 🇮🇷, but less so because as authoritarian as Iran 🇮🇷 is, as much of a scary dictatorship that it is, it’s still as repressive as North Korea 🇰🇵. The only other nation in the world that matches North Korea 🇰🇵 in terms of repression, totalitarianism, and absolute isolation and control over the population and the flow of information is Turkmenistan 🇹🇲; a country that most Americans 🇺🇸 have probably never even heard of, and probably couldn’t point to on a map 🗺️ if you asked them to. Turkmenistan 🇹🇲 is arguably weirder than North Korea 🇰🇵, the Berdimuhamedow regime there is stranger and more decadent than even the Kim regime in North Korea 🇰🇵. But, Turkmenistan 🇹🇲 is not a foreign policy priority for the US 🇺🇸, it is not even on America 🇺🇸’s radar, so I will not be including it on this list. But still, I oppose the Berdimuhamedow regime in Turkmenistan 🇹🇲, I do not think it’s a good government, it’s a horrible government (one of the worst governments in the world), and I hope one day, the Turkmen people 🇹🇲 will have a better government in the future. Hopefully, that regime falls, along with the Kim regime in North Korea 🇰🇵. 

Another thing that sets Iran 🇮🇷 apart from North Korea 🇰🇵 is that Iran 🇮🇷 does not have nuclear weapons ☢️…yet. That’s part of the reason why the US 🇺🇸, and many of its allies (including Israel 🇮🇱), oppose Iran 🇮🇷 because they do not want it to get a nuclear bomb ☢️, so long as the current regime is still in power. Back in the day before the 1979 Islamic Revolution ☪️, the US 🇺🇸 was actually trying to help Iran 🇮🇷 get a nuclear weapon ☢️. They poured a lot of money 💵 into Iran 🇮🇷’s nuclear program ☢️, and were providing them expertise on how to build nuclear weapons ☢️. Because Iran 🇮🇷 was an ally of the US 🇺🇸, it was one of its strongest and most trusted allies in the Middle East, second only to Israel 🇮🇱, and that was back when it was still under the Shah, when it was under a monarchy, and still a fairly secular state. The calculus for the Americans 🇺🇸 was that if Iran 🇮🇷 had nuclear weapons ☢️, it would be able to defend itself, and deter any form of aggression, particularly Soviet aggression ☭ because Iran 🇮🇷 once shared a direct border with the Soviet Union ☭, and was once invaded by the Soviet Union ☭ and the UK 🇬🇧. It was kind of the same reason why the US 🇺🇸 was fine with Israel 🇮🇱 having nukes ☢️ because it now had a form of deterrence, and no country in their right minds would ever think of invading it. 

 

Speaking of which, as hard as it to believe now that the US 🇺🇸 and Iran 🇮🇷 were once allies, it’s even harder to believe that Israel 🇮🇱 and Iran 🇮🇷 were once allies, but they were. They were very close, so close in fact that Israel 🇮🇱’s intelligence agency, Mossad worked hand in hand with Iran 🇮🇷’s intelligence agency, the SAVAK, which doubled as a secret police, but the Israelis 🇮🇱 didn’t necessarily care about that part. They just cared that they were helping them take down and undermine their enemies. They even made a movie about how close Mossad was with the SAVAK, it’s about a secret mission they conducted together. I don’t know the name of it, but it’s out there. I think the reason why Israel 🇮🇱 favored Iran 🇮🇷 back then is that the Iranians 🇮🇷 are not Arabs, they’re own separate ethnic group called the Persians. And Arabs are the ones that the Israelis 🇮🇱 actually hate, even when you strip away the religion they believe in, they’re just racist towards Arabs. So, as long as you aren’t Arab, and you’re not overtly Islamic ☪️, Israel 🇮🇱 will work with you. 

 

Unfortunately for the US 🇺🇸 (and Israel 🇮🇱), even after the 1979 revolution, Iran 🇮🇷 still continued to pursue nuclear weapons ☢️ under the new Islamic theocratic government ☪️ led by Ayatollah Khomeini (and later, Ayatollah Khamenei) and the Shia Muslim clergy. Because they made the same calculus as the North Koreans 🇰🇵, they see nuclear weapons ☢️ as a form of regime security. If they possess nuclear weapons ☢️, no one will able to topple their regime from the outside, or even the inside. They want to prevent their own people from rising up against them just as they want to deter the US 🇺🇸 or anyone else from invading them. But, the US 🇺🇸, and by extension Israel 🇮🇱, doesn’t Iran 🇮🇷 to get these nuclear weapons ☢️ so long as this government is in power because they see it as a hostile regime, and they will have a tool to threaten their neighbors with, and once that nuclear weapons ☢️, it’ll be a regime that’ll be almost impossible to get rid of, without starting World War III; a lot of people that starting a war with Iran 🇮🇷 would lead to World War III anyway, even without nukes ☢️. Again, just like what happened with North Korea 🇰🇵. These are unstable nations, and once you throw nukes ☢️ into the mix, you’re asking for trouble. The Iranians 🇮🇷 insist though that their nuclear program ☢️ is not to develop weapons, but to develop reactors for energy ⚡️, so they can end their dependence on oil 🛢️, and can truly diversify their economy. But, no one’s buy it. The people who are actually fooled by that are the most gullible among us. 

Of course, Iran 🇮🇷 has caused all sorts of chaos throughout the Middle East, especially in recent years, with the use of their proxies and their so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which many experts believe had a destabilizing effect on the region. The most notable examples of Iran 🇮🇷 trying to expand its influence in the Middle East through the use of proxies was of course, Hezbollah in Lebanon 🇱🇧, which they had a huge hand in creating. Hezbollah was created in part by the IRGC 🇮🇷, and even their flag is similar to that of the IRGC 🇮🇷, showing a pretty clear connection there. There’s also the Houthis in Yemen 🇾🇪, who currently control the capital, Sana’a and most of the northern half of Yemen 🇾🇪. There’s the various Shia militias in Iraq 🇮🇶, which have exerted a lot of influence over the politics of that government, and even the Iraqi government 🇮🇶 is very Shia majority, and has a lot of ties to Tehran. 

 

There’s the Assad regime in Syria 🇸🇾, Iran 🇮🇷 supported Assad through much of the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾, until he was ousted by HTS. And even Hamas, the Palestinian organization 🇵🇸, became an Iranian proxy 🇮🇷, and many people accused of Iran 🇮🇷 of having a hand in the October 7 attack. The common denominator between all of them is that most of these proxies and governments are Shia because Iran 🇮🇷 is a Shia state, so obviously they’d want to support groups and governments that follow the same sect of Islam ☪️ that they do. The only exception to this is Hamas, which is a Sunni organization, Hamas is really the only major Sunni group that Tehran supports, and that’s because they’re against Israel 🇮🇱; so they’re willing to put aside their differences in religion to oppose the same enemy. 

 

But, a lot of Iran 🇮🇷’s allies and proxies have been either eliminated or severely weakened and militarily crippled by a combination of Israel 🇮🇱’s own military efforts since the October 7 attack and the start of the Gaza war, and by internal politics. Hezbollah in particular got it the worst, they were severally crippled by Israel 🇮🇱’s bombing campaign (including the pager bombing 📟) and the ground invasion of Lebanon 🇱🇧. Hamas has also got weakened by two years of bombing and ground combat against the IDF 🇮🇱 in Gaza. Hamas currently does have much of an ability to fight, but given an organization such as them, they could very easily bounce back, and regroup, and reconstitute its forces to go at it again. And of course, Assad was overthrown by the rebels, led by the Islamist group ☪️, HTS, who were all supported by Turkey 🇹🇷. Turkey 🇹🇷 was the one factor that finally turned the tide of the war, and brought down the regime. The only ones really left standing are the Houthis and the Shia militias in Iraq 🇮🇶, and the Iraqi government 🇮🇶 itself to a certain extent. 

 

The Axis of Resistance has completely fallen apart, Iran 🇮🇷 has lost much of the means it had to expand and exert its influence in the Middle East. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t still a threat that we shouldn’t still oppose it. I mean, for one thing, Iran 🇮🇷 has targeted those who it deems its enemies abroad, and has sent assassins or has paid people to assassin their political enemies in other countries, or in the case of what happened in Australia 🇦🇺 a few months ago, hired a bunch of random people to paint antisemitic graffiti on synagogues 🕍 and Jewish homes ✡️, and vandalize Jewish vehicles ✡️. They infamously issued a fatwa against John Bolton, because he’s an outspoken critic of the regime and has called for regime change on multiple occasions. And now because of Trump, John Bolton has no Secret Service protections, and is at risk of being assassinated by Iranian agents 🇮🇷 or hired hitmen at any time. 

But unfortunately, opposing Iran 🇮🇷 is still very much a partisan issue, with most Republicans and conservatives strongly opposing Iran 🇮🇷, while most Democrats, liberals, and progressives don’t oppose Iran 🇮🇷. It’s not that they necessarily like Iran 🇮🇷, they know it’s led by a bad regime, and they agree that Iran 🇮🇷 should not have nuclear weapons ☢️, but they aren’t as hawkish about it as a lot of Republicans are. Most Democrats do not support any military action against Iran 🇮🇷, like they strongly oppose an invasion of Iran 🇮🇷. Which, yeah, an invasion of Iran 🇮🇷 is a terrible idea, and it’s overwhelmingly disapproved by the American public 🇺🇸. But, I do think that even Republicans know that invading Iran 🇮🇷 is a bad idea, and thus have not seriously pursued one. They take about military action against Iran 🇮🇷, but they’ll stop short of an invasion because the invasion and occupation of Iraq 🇮🇶 ended so badly; soaked so much money 💵 and resources, and led to the deaths of thousands, and almost nearly brought down the Bush administration. Like, they’re fine with airstrikes like the ones saw back in June, but no invasion, they know it would be the death of them politically. 

 

But, I think opposing Iran 🇮🇷 should be a bipartisan issue. I think both parties should be equally against Iran 🇮🇷 and what it does, and should do everything they possibly can to resist it. Maybe not through military action, but through diplomatically means. One of the best diplomatic efforts by Democrats to prevent Iran 🇮🇷 from acquiring nuclear weapons ☢️ was the JCPOA, or the Iran Nuclear Deal 🇮🇷☢️ as it’s more commonly known, which Obama pushed for and did successfully get signed. But, like a lot of things, Trump undid that, he tore up the JCPOA during his first term, and now there’s nothing stopping Iran 🇮🇷 from acquiring nuclear weapons ☢️, short of military force, which has proven to be ineffective. They could support the opposition, which we did a little bit of in 2022, with those women led protests 🪧♀︎ which started in the fall lasted into the spring of the following year, 2023, over the death of Mahsa Amini. 

 

It looked like something was happening in Iran 🇮🇷, and things were changing. The Iranian people 🇮🇷 seemed fed up with the regime, and wanted it gone. Ultimately, it didn’t lead to anything, but it was important step in the right direction towards ending the Islamic Republic, and regime no longer seems as unbreakable as it did before. Now it seems fragile, and all it would take is for one more explosion 💥 to go off for the entire system to just crumble into nothingness. They could do sanctions, but along with North Korea 🇰🇵, Iran 🇮🇷 is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, and like North Korea 🇰🇵, the regime has found ways to work around the sanctions to find funding elsewhere, and keep itself afloat; mostly through oil revenues 🛢️. So, sanctioning Iran 🇮🇷 at this point is kind of ineffective, and pointless, and what more can we sanction them for that we haven’t already sanctioned them on already? So, don’t do sanctions, and don’t use military force unless you really have to. The other two methods are far more effective. 

 

6. Sudan 🇸🇩

 

 

(This is the flag of Sudan 🇸🇩.) 

I mentioned Sudan 🇸🇩 earlier in the intro, Sudan 🇸🇩 has been embroiled in a brutal civil war for the past two years. It started the same year as the Gaza war, and didn’t garner anywhere near the amount of attention that war got. This has had negative consequences for the people of Sudan 🇸🇩, as their suffering, unlike the suffering of the Palestinians 🇵🇸 in Gaza, has gone largely ignored. There’s a famine going on, with millions of Sudanese 🇸🇩 going hungry, civilians have been displaced by the fighting between the SAF and the RSF, and either fled into other countries as refugees or they’re huddled together in refugee camps inside the country itself with no where else to go. And of course, civilians are killing by the fighting that’s going on, they’ve been caught in the crossfire, and in a lot of cases, civilians have been directly targeted and massacred. This is especially the case in the Darfur region, which is a RSF stronghold, the Darfur region and much of the western half of the country is the RSF’s power base. 

 

And recently, they captured a city in the Darfur region called El Fasher, which was previously held by the SAF, and immediately after the RSF took the city, they started killing everyone in the city; killing as many people as they could. Thousands of people are reported to have been killed by the RSF, so far the estimates range from 2,500 to 10,000+, with the highest estimate being 68,000+. A lot of outside observers consider this massacre to be the worst mass killing in Africa since the Rwandan genocide 🇷🇼 in 1994, making this the deadliest massacre of the 21st century so far. It’s certainly the deadliest massacre in my lifetime because I was born in 1998, 4 years after the Rwandan genocide 🇷🇼 happened. So, it’s pretty safe to say that the RSF is committing a genocide in Darfur once again, 20 years after the previous Darfur genocide of 2003-2005. All of that suffering has mostly fallen on deaf ears. Foreign powers have gotten involved in this civil war, as they often do, and both sides have their own backers. 

 

The RSF is primarily being backed by the UAE 🇦🇪, because the UAE 🇦🇪 has an economic interest in the conflict due to the RSF having access to all the gold mines in the country. The UAE 🇦🇪 is buying gold from that was mined in RSF controlled territory. That’s why Hemediti is so rich and powerful 🤑, and why he’s so influential, because he pretty much controls the entire gold supply of Sudan 🇸🇩. But, the RSF has other backers like Chad 🇹🇩, Ethiopia 🇪🇹, Libya 🇱🇾, and even possibly Kenya 🇰🇪, though that’s not been confirmed. The Russian PMC 🇷🇺, the Wagner Group also been a backer of the RSF for a while, mostly because of the gold, the Wagner Group wants access to the gold. The SAF, which is the regular Sudanese military 🇸🇩, has a few international backers like China 🇨🇳, Egypt 🇪🇬, Eritrea 🇪🇷, Ukraine 🇺🇦, and Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦. So, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 and the UAE 🇦🇪 are supporting opposite sides in this civil war. There are even countries that have supported both sides like Russia 🇷🇺, Iran 🇮🇷, and Turkey 🇹🇷. Ukraine 🇺🇦 is only involved and supporting to SAF to oppose Russia 🇷🇺, by going after the side that Russia 🇷🇺 supports and undermining Russia 🇷🇺’s foreign policy interests in Africa. So, it is kind of a proxy war for Russia 🇷🇺 and Ukraine 🇺🇦. 

The US 🇺🇸, and much of the international community has done nothing to stop the war in Sudan 🇸🇩, to stop the killings, and to alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people 🇸🇩. They’re just letting this atrocity continue unabated, and drag on for two years, soon to be three years next year in April if the war doesn’t come to an end by then, which I highly doubt that they will. Letting more and more people die each day that this war continues. That massacre could’ve been prevented if steps had been taken earlier to mediate talks and bring both sides to the negotiating table, and end this war with a sustained ceasefire and a peace agreement of some kind. Even now, after the massacre, the US 🇺🇸 and the international community could do something but they aren’t. For all his talk about being a peace president and ended a gazillion wars, or whatever made up number he comes up with to make his nonexistent record sound impressive, Trump has no interest in ending the war in Sudan 🇸🇩. It’s a war between brown people (the darkest skinned Arabs you can imagine), and it’s black people who are suffering the most, why would he care? 

 

Hell, the only reason he did everything he could to get a ceasefire signed between Israel 🇮🇱 and Hamas is that he wanted a Noble Peace Prize, and he saw ending the war in Gaza as his ticket to getting one, and he was personally embarrassed by the war and by Netanyahu. He likes Israel 🇮🇱, he likes Netanyahu, and he wanted Israel 🇮🇱 to win, he still wants Israel 🇮🇱 to win, but he saw that they weren’t actually achieving much on the battlefield, this war was just dragging on with no clear goal in mind, other than the destruction of the Palestinian people 🇵🇸. And he saw that Netanyahu are being increasingly isolated and humiliated on the world stage; most of delegates at the UN 🇺🇳 walked out when he showed up at the General Assembly to give a speech. And Trump doesn’t like being associated with people who he deems to be losers, even though he is one himself. And Netanyahu was starting to look like a loser. So, he pressured him to end the war, so that he can get his prize and can stop being embarrassed, and the war can end and he doesn’t have to think about it or talk about it again. It’s just like with Russia 🇷🇺. He likes Russia 🇷🇺, he likes Putin, and he wants Russia 🇷🇺 to win and has wanted Russia 🇷🇺 since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion. It’s that he’s just upset with Putin, and his stubbornness and refusal to negotiate, and he’s upset with Russia 🇷🇺’s incompetence and very slow progress on the battlefield. He’s upset that the war has lasted longer than a week like the Russians 🇷🇺 initially planned and promised to their simps in the West, and has gone out for three years. He, like many other people, overestimated Russia 🇷🇺 and underestimated Ukraine 🇺🇦. 

 

But, with Sudan 🇸🇩, there are no such incentives for Trump to end it. In fact, there’s every incentive for him to allow to keep going as long as possible. The RSF is being supported by the UAE 🇦🇪, and Trump has been bought and paid for by the UAE 🇦🇪, like he is deep in their pockets, and they’re deep in his. He and his family have been engaged in some corrupt shady deals with the UAE 🇦🇪, and the other major Gulf states, except for Yemen 🇾🇪, and maybe Oman 🇴🇲 and Bahrain 🇧🇭. So you know, the Emiratis 🇦🇪 went up to Trump, and were like, “You better not put pressure on the RSF, we get all of our gold from them, and we’d like to keep that revenue steam open. So you better stay out of this, and let the RSF do its thing, otherwise we’ll take all your money 💵 away and end all those shady deals we’ve made with you and your family.” Not only that, but Elon Musk eliminated the main mechanism that could’ve provided humanitarian aid to the people of Sudan 🇸🇩, and was probably providing it, USAID 🇺🇸. 

If Trump wasn’t president, I hope that whoever was in office would do the right thing, and try to end the war in Sudan 🇸🇩 in any way they can, by bringing both sides to the negotiating table, providing humanitarian aid to the Sudanese people 🇸🇩 through USAID 🇺🇸 (which would still be around due to Elon not being in government and DOGE not being a thing), holding both sides accountable for the war crimes they’ve committed, and putting pressure on all the countries that have supported one or both sides, especially those who are exploited the conflict for financial gain 🤑. This should be a bipartisan issue with both sides agreeing that genocide is bad, famine is bad, and neither the SAF and the RSF are not good for Sudan 🇸🇩 and probably should go. I mean, the SAF can stay, but it seriously needs to be reformed, and needs to kept as far from politics as it can. And both Hemediti and al-Burhan need to go, they should be in any position of power, and probably should be arrested and sent to The Hague to be tried by the ICC ⚖️, like the previous Sudanese dictator 🇸🇩, Omar al-Bashir was. 

 

 

7. Myanmar 🇲🇲

 

 

(This is the flag of Myanmar 🇲🇲.) 

This will be the last one unless I decide to add more to this, or make a continuation of this later on. Much of what I said about the Sudanese civil war 🇸🇩 in the Sudan section 🇸🇩 could easily apply to the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲 as well. This one means the most to me and kind of infuriates me the most because of all the major wars that have gone on in the 2020s so far, the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲 is the one that is the least talked about. Like, while the civil war in Sudan 🇸🇩 doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦 or the Gaza war, it still gets talked about more than the civil war in Myanmar 🇲🇲. Like, people are at least aware that there’s a civil war in Sudan 🇸🇩, whereas almost no one knows that there’s a civil war in Myanmar 🇲🇲; unless they live in Asia, or they follow Asian politics. Probably because most people don’t know the country by the name, Myanmar 🇲🇲 and probably know it better by the other name, Burma 🇲🇲, which used to be the official name of the country until it was changed to Myanmar 🇲🇲 in 1989. But, many people in the West still refer to the country as Burma 🇲🇲 and still know it by that name. 

 

Same with the Burmese city 🇲🇲, Yangon, it used to be called Rangoon, but the junta changed the name to Yangon in 1989, same year they changed the country’s name. But, a lot of people in the West still refer to that city as Rangoon. In fact, calling the country Burma 🇲🇲 and that specific city Rangoon is sort of used by some as an act of defiance against the junta, because those were changes they decided to make without the consent of the people. The people of Burma 🇲🇲 didn’t ask for the country’s name (or the city’s name) to be changed, it was something the junta did on their own because they felt like it. Just like Erodğan changing the name of Turkey 🇹🇷 to Türkiye 🇹🇷, even in English language documents 📃; more and more people in the West are referring to the country as Türkiye 🇹🇷 instead of Turkey 🇹🇷. But, even though it isn’t talked about nearly as much as any of those other conflicts, the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲 has gone on the longest. It was the first, it started in 2021, before the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, the war in Gaza, and the war in Sudan 🇸🇩. 

 

It has gone for a total for four years, while the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 has only gone for 3 years (if you’re only counting the full-scale invasion that started in 2022), and the war in Gaza and the war in Sudan 🇸🇩 have both gone on for 2 years since they both started in 2023, with the war in Sudan 🇸🇩 starting first in April 2023 and the war in Gaza starting second in October 2023. So, while many credit Russia 🇷🇺’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦 in 2022 as starting this current trend, this current wave of conflict around the world, it was really the civil war in Myanmar 🇲🇲 that started it all, with the military coup in February 2021 that brought down democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi and brought the military back into full power; they installed themselves back into power, and now Myanmar 🇲🇲 is ruled by a junta once again. 

 

Aung San Suu Kyi is still in prison, along many others in her government and her party, to this day, at the time of me writing this. And it’s unknown at this time if she, or any other political prisoners the junta is currently holding, will ever be released. It wouldn’t be surprising if she wasn’t, and she just spent the rest of her life in prison and ended up dying there. The junta is, if nothing else, honest about their cruelty. Honest may be a strong word, but the junta has made no secret about how cruel they are, or if they have tried to keep it a secret or lie about it, they haven’t done a good job. Everyone can see how cruel they actually are. It’s a regime can only rule through cruelty and fear, and as long as the people of Myanmar 🇲🇲 fear them, they stay in power. The problem is, the people are becoming less and less afraid of them each day, especially as they continue to lose on the battlefield against the EAOs and the various other rebel groups fighting against them (including many Bamar majority pro-democracy rebel groups).
 

While international inaction and silence hasn’t had anywhere as much of a negative impact on the people in Myanmar 🇲🇲 as international inaction and silence has on the people in Sudan 🇸🇩, it still has had a negative effect, and the people have had to find creative means of getting humanitarian aid in, and the various rebel groups and EAOs have had to had find creative ways to get funding and weapons to continue the fight against the junta. If it were up to me, opposing the junta, and supporting the rebel groups would be a bipartisan issue. We’d not only be putting sanctions on the regime, but we’d also be funding the rebels and EAOs and giving them weapons, so that they can win the war, and defeat the junta, and bring down their regime, and restore democracy to Myanmar 🇲🇲. That’s what would happen, but unfortunately it isn’t, and this war is continuing with seemingly no end in sight. But, even without international support, the rebels and EAOs are still holding out, and continuing the fight against the junta. The junta announced elections 🗳️ next month in December a few months ago, and promised that they’d transfer authority to a civilian government or something like that. But, no one seems to buy it, not the people, not the rebels or the EAOs, and not international observers (what little there are). They all just see this announcement as a ploy by the junta to get the rebels and EAOs to surrender and lay down their arms, and to legitimize their rule. They have no intention of giving up power, and giving it to a civilian government. They want to stay in power and rule Myanmar 🇲🇲 themselves like they did before Aung San Suu Kyi and her party came along. I said this, when I first heard the news about this announcement back during the summer ☀️, but I think the rebels and EAOs should ignore what the junta is saying, don’t take it seriously, call it out for the bullshit that it is, and just keep fighting until the junta has finally been defeated. If the Syrian rebels 🇸🇾 could defeat Assad, then the Burmese rebels and EAOs 🇲🇲 can defeat the junta as well.