Recently, France announced it would be sending troops to help Ukraine in its war against invader Russia. On the surface this appeared to be a benevolent move to help defend western europe and democracy in general from hostile imperialism. Which sounds great, but seemed to me to be a bit ...disingenuous? But I couldn't quite figure out why. This cleared it up. Preface- I know a lot of us simply wont watch long videos, so I'll provide a TLDR below. But fair warning- if you don't watch the video, and you decide to declare 'fake news' ...well you're full of it, because YOU DIDN'T EVEN WATCH THE VIDEO. The short of it is that France technically dissolved their 'colonies' around the world in the mid 20th century. If you know anything about the leadup to the war in Vietnam, then you have an idea what I'm talking about. But technically =/= realistically. Realistically, several countries in the 'Sahel' region of Africa were and still are economically and politically (by virtue of their bought-and-paid-for rulers) colonies of 'the west' (and most specifically- France). The 'Sahel' region, btw, is the belt of Africa on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, where Africa transitions from bleak desert back to vibrant savannahs and lush jungles. I didn't know that's what it was called, maybe you didn't either. Anyway, almost all the nations in the 'Sahel' region are currently in some stage of political or military revolt against their governments, having finally become intolerant of their not-technically-a-colony-but-still-effectively-a-colony status with 'The West' and specifically France, and are being supported in their revolts by... *drumrole please* ...you guessed it! Russian Mercenary Force Wagner Group. The short of it is that France is less interested in protecting Ukraine and europe and democracy from Russian Imperialism, and more interested in protecting their own economic imperialism in Africa from being destabilized by Russia. I know, big surprise... And if you won't watch this youtube video, you could go watch: The Siege of Jadotville (2016) - IMDb Its an historical military/action movie about Irish UN troops defending a town in the Congo from the French Foreign Legion in the 1960s. Its quite good, and may help demonstrate to you France's less-than-benevolent intentions in its dealings in Africa. And no, I'm not suggesting that Russia's intentions in Africa are benevolent either. Just that the conflict in Ukraine continues to be -and escalate as- a proxy war for international economic domination more than a fight over 'democracy'. France wants to help fight Russia in Ukraine in attempt to keep their own hegemony in Africa, not 'preserve Ukrainian sovereignty.'
Errata: The short of it is that France technically dissolved their 'colonies' around the world in the mid 21st century. should read mid 20th century
Thank you for this interesting post, it sort of puts the pin in the balloon of how so much of the world (a few percent) is with the US in Biden's war on Russia. The same is true of the support of the other nations for Biden and the Neocons war to take Ukraine and destroy Russia. The nations of NATO are with one exception 'Hugo First', and the exception has a very small army and could get into very big trouble, feels safe as an island but there is a downside of being an island that you can get blockaded.
Yeah, almost an hour is indeed a very long time commitment, so I’ll just observe that even if the analysis is correct, France doing a good thing for selfish reasons is still doing a good thing. At the end of it all there are no saints and every country ultimately looks out for its own interests. The deterioration and checking of Russian interests aligns with our own interests in the US therefore France helping Ukraine in any way is a good thing. So unless there is more to it than that, you will find the selfishness of France to not be persuasive to anyone who isn’t already rooting for Russia
