India-US relations: News and Discussions IV

[Amber G.]

Ok: Here is what Trump (re)posted a few hours ago:


He is not happy:


He is mad:

[Vayutuvan]

So basically India refines Russian crude and sells it to the chubs

Not really. Most refineries blend several different crudes before refining. It is a complex process. E.g. for diesel the blended crudes are first desalted, then fractionally distilled with crude diesel being one of the fractions, then goes through at least 1 to 3 catalytic reactions to produce diesel of different specification. There are many other intermediate processes not mentioned here. By the end of the process, it is really not possible to say that we are taking oil from russia to supply diesel to pakraine.

With all due respect, that is all fine. But these techno-legal arguments and terminological exactitude or lack there off childish and ieffective as counter arguments to the realpolitik the US admin is trying to play.

They are simply look at the sources of inputs to Indian refineries and end users of the refined products to make a case that India is using Russian crude in the mix to profiteer from a brutal war in which a large number of civilians are dying.

The same argument can be used to counter the profiteering by pointing out that we can replace Russian crude with another source if it makes economic sense.

[Vayutuvan]

Ok: Here is what Trump (re)posted a few hours ago:
[img...]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzs0-cbXsAA ... ike]medium[/strike]small[/img]

He is not happy:
[img...]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzs3WyaawAA ... ke]900x900[/strike]small[/img]

He is mad:
[img...]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzslnbsbIAA ... ike]medium[/strike]small[/img]

These are looking very big. All three images have 'small' variations. Please be kind to server bandwidth usage. Bandwidth costs money

[m_saini]

- No ‘data’ gap
We don’t need new mushroom clouds for confidence. As you know Hiroshima’s uranium bomb was never even tested

was not because of

— the physics was solid, and leaders knew it.

Here's the truth:

..scientists at Los Alamos continued privately to have doubts that it would work at all. There was only enough weapons-grade uranium available for one bomb, and confidence in the gun-type design was high..

THE TRINITY TEST
Chatgpt etc usually makes such mistakes and it's also easy to miss.

Rest of the argument also assumes a lot of things with respect to "credibility" and "deterrence" such as rational state & non-state actors. You also posted this just now

Ok: Here is what Trump (re)posted a few hours ago:
He is not happy:
He is mad:

so I assume you know where I'm going with this

deterrence is credibility + partnerships + economic weight

Europe with all it's credibility+ partnerships+economic weight still ended up calling Trump, daddy and asking them to deploy a helicopter here or there.

All the niceties and partnerships (& leading in AI, space or precision strikes) worked while Unkill was being nice with their 10 aircraft carriers boating around the world. And I think people (mainly because of Trump) are starting to realize that hard power is all that counts when brown matter hits the fan.

[A_Gupta]

The story that Modi didn't take Trump's calls originated in a German publication, Frankfurter Allgemaine.
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/ ... 53695.html

[Vayutuvan]

so I assume you know where I'm going with this

deterrence is credibility + partnerships + economic weight

Europe with all it's credibility+ partnerships+economic weight still ended up calling Trump, daddy and asking them to deploy a helicopter here or there.

@m_saini ji, nice analysis.

But I posit that Europe may or maynot have credibility depending with whom they have that credibility.