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Anger over JD Vance 'random country' peacekeeping remark
The US vice-president has suggested "20,000 troops from some random country" will not deter Putin.
www.bbc.co.uk
The US vice-president has sparked a row with comments he made about the potential involvement of international forces to police a peace deal in Ukraine.
UK opposition politicians accused JD Vance of disrespecting British forces, after he told Fox News a US stake in Ukraine's economy was a "better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years".
The UK and France have said they would be willing to put troops on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
Vance has since insisted he did not "even mention the UK or France," adding both had "fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond".
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There is a phrase: think twice, speak once.
Obviously that does not apply to the current US regime, so off colour remarks slip through constantly. This is the latest picked up by British media. The comments section in this BBC article is flooded with calls to boycott US products, which also come on the back of the USA-Canada/Mexico rift.
Now I'm not asking if you agree with Vance's mindless rhetoric or whether you feel supposed boycotts will be in any way effective, I'm asking: if your ally becomes isolationist, does that force you to do the same?
Tariffs, poor diplomacy, unpopularity: if the response to these is "buy local", that's good for your own local economy and people will likely make small changes - but, the flipside, you yourselves are becoming more isolationist as a result.
If you hate US and far right isolationist theory, but you end up supporting it out of spite or anger, have you already bent the knee to the god of small nations?
