The US however has an obscene amount of military power and has shown that it's happy to use it for a full-scale invasion of another country based on fabricated nonsense. I'm not aware of Russia doing anything remotely similar since its birth (where "birth" refers to the collapse of the USSR).
Russia doesn't profit from war, but by selling gas. They can't sell it with profit to Russians, so selling it to Europe is very important to them.
Ps. I've never noticed the cut off though ( Belgium) and wasn't aware. So I think it's not that big of a threat.
I don't understand how this makes the comparison unfair. Whatever the reason (e.g. lack of funding), Russia can't have quite the same impact in conventional warfare as the US.
> However they were more than happy to cut off oil to Europe just a few years ago, invade Ukraine, and generally act in a belligerent way toward several different countries in an effort to destabilize their neighbors.
The original article shows that the US is also happy to use various methods available to it to screw around with other countries. Unlike Russia, it's able to get away with it (perhaps due to its conventional military might).
But Putin's Russia has shown willingness and ability to achieve their geopolitical goals using espionage, propaganda, and direct military aid to bad actors, particularly in the Middle East. Putin has assassinated people in multiple countries in Europe, and had a hand in disinformation/propaganda campaigns aimed at weakening NATO and weakening international rule of law. Putin is actively attempting to sow discord in Western governments for the benefit of his government.
The United States' military action has caused far more death and destruction to be sure. And with American politics getting more and more volatile, partisan, and irrational, it seems likely we'll see more unnecessary conflicts and foreign policy crises in the future. Not to mention all of the damage to the international order done by Trump.
But just because Russia is no longer a traditional military superpower, make no mistake, they are working actively to undermine Western hegemony using asymmetrical means.
Personally as an American I kind of like being part of the ‘evil’ empire. But, I can definitely understand why others might take issue with our actions.
But roll back 100 years and the US was occupying, Nicaragua 1912–1933, Haiti 1915–1934, and the Dominican Republic 1916–1924. Which is outside WWI when we invaided Germany, Austria-Hungary, and pre USSR Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
Note, that’s a conservative list excluding the Vietnam and Korean War etc, assignations and or drone strikes for example the recent killing of Qasem Soleimani in Iran etc. As well as policing actions where we invade for humanitarian reasons etc.
PS! Also, the USSR ‘annexed’ several countries which where all part of Germany at the time and thus no longer existed. Though that’s somewhat arguable from a political if not practical standpoint.
If we are counting only people outside of the US\Russia\USSR - than yes, USA killed more. The only major war USSR\Russia faught after the WW2 is Afganistan. All other conflicts USSR\Russia was in resulted in less dead people than the latest Iraq war alone.
