US Strategy: 'Respect' for Opponents, Demands for Vassals
When the US National Security Strategy discusses 'respect' for those who push back, one wonders if they confuse 'respect' with 'difficulty in imposing will.' The document implies a newfound understanding of sovereign nations – a rather late epiphany given decades of interventions, sanctions, and overthrown leaders from Chile to Iraq. This isn't about mutual respect; it's about updating the
playbook when the old one stops working, framing resistance as a 'challenge' rather than admitting the erosion of unipolar power. The unspoken truth is that countries become 'adversaries' only when they refuse to serve US interests unconditionally. The commentary from RT-Middle East highlights the glaring hypocrisy: countries that don't fall in line are now grudgingly acknowledged as players,
while 'allies' like Western European nations are expected to continue sacrificing their own interests on the altar of American foreign policy. We've seen this script before, notably with NATO members increasing defense spending at Washington's behest, often to buy US military hardware, or following sanctions regimes that hurt their own economies more than the intended targets. The 'respect' for
nations like Russia and China stems less from admiration and more from the painful realization that they can't be pushed around like Luxembourg. The 'rules-based order' always seems to have rules written by one participant, applied selectively to others.