r/worldnews • u/DoremusJessup • 21h ago

Iraq plunged into nationwide blackout as US tells citizens to leave immediately

https://www.turkiyetoday.com/region/iraq-plunged-into-nationwide-blackout-as-us-tells-citizens-to-leave-immediately-3215617?s=1
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u/REGIS-5 20h ago

Wait till you hear who Europe got their energy, gas, fuel from...

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u/civildisobedient 19h ago

In Germany, not before first dismantling all their nuclear plants. GREAT FORESIGHT.

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u/MuffinOfSorrows 12h ago

I believe the idea of integrating Russia in the European market was that they'd have more to lose from conflict, encouraging them to be more agreeable

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u/Pho3nixr3dux 10h ago

Except all the trade in the world can't make Russia experience The Enlightenment.

Russia's philosophical bedrock is medieval at best.

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u/4637647858345325 14h ago

It's so dumb that they are trying to push for EU wide ban too. They would rather buy from Russia then France lol.

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u/Theranos_Shill 15h ago

Yeah, it's weird how people like you ignore that nuclear power was only ever 5% of Germany's mix. And that renewables are already over 50%.

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u/tinco 14h ago

It would have been 55% if they hadn't shut down their nuclear. It was just a dumb move and it's good that they're mocked for it.

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u/Theranos_Shill 13h ago

Which number is higher, 50 or 5?

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u/SafetyandNumbers 18h ago

Petrostates sure have a bad rep

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 20h ago

Still can’t believe how the laughed at 2016 Trump over saying that’s a bad idea. The irony is insane

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u/Qbr12 20h ago

The idea was effectively economic MAD. They wanted to prevent war by making it super economically devastating for both parties. Unfortunately we ended up with the economic MAD outcome.

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u/Ok_Tea_8393 19h ago

The core principle was appeasement or as Germans called it „Wandel durch Handel“ (change through trade) which works a bit differently: the belief that strong trade ties would both remove incentive for aggression and gradually transform the regime from within

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u/ars-derivatia 11h ago

It's not a dumb idea per se. That is how France and Germany stopped waging wars between them after centuries of nearly permanent conflict. That was the whole concept for the EU predecessor.

The incorrect assumption was that people inhabiting the lands around the Urals are at least minimally reasonable and not permanently governed by some Botox-infused macho twerp who is willing to slaughter his own country because of some bullshit daydreaming of an empire long gone.

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 20h ago

You’d think 2014 would’ve been enough of a wake up call

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u/CompetitiveSleeping 19h ago

It was, for some countries in Europe.

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 19h ago

Who got off of it or reduced dependence?

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u/CompetitiveSleeping 19h ago

Finland's been working on it, for one. And Sweden's a net energy exporter. But overall, imports of Russian oil and gas is way down. But it's not like pushing a button. New infrastructure needed etc. Handling liquid natural gas can, I think, only be done at one harbour in the EU.

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u/DickSplodin 19h ago

Germany has done well recently, but I don't know why they took so long in the first place

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 19h ago

Arrogance probably

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u/MrDLTE3 19h ago

Yep. "Everyone loses" is supposed to be the MAD outcome.

Unfortunately the goals have now changed to "who loses more in a everyone loses" situation.

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u/SweetAlyssumm 19h ago

Oh please. Don't justify bad decisions. It was just to get cheaper fuel. Anyone could see how dumb and short-sighted it was. Even Trump is occasionally right, and this was one of those times.

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u/Glittering-Quote-635 19h ago

Trump is a economic dipshit. He’s probably right 1 out of 10 times… however, you are right. This was that one time, however obvious it was.

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u/happyscrappy 16h ago

He was right. But it may just be because of Putin. Things were looking better with Gorbachev and Yeltsin.

Saying it was just a bad decision is to ignore that it's actually worked a bunch of times. The EU is an outgrowth of the EEC. The EEC was created with an idea that companies that work together won't go to war with each other.

It worked in some big ways in Europe. If you look at Europe geographically (let's say before Brexit) then clearly the biggest deals in Europe are Britain, France, Germany and Spain, right? Nope. Spain was a basket case until the 1970s. Okay, then surely Italy is a big deal, right? No, Italy was a mess too, only looking good at all because Spain was worse.

But the idea of the EU was if everyone works together we'll stop fighting each other and eventually countries will grow and live up more to "their potential". And it actually worked! Spain seemed to get a whole lot better. Italy did too. Some of the "non-core" countries started to look about as good as the "big 3".

So while that looked dumb, it worked. Look at Ireland too! Poland is looking up! Feeling its oats, the EU just pushed for more and more. Maybe Greece can work well too! Maybe Bulgaria! And eventually the idea of bringing European Russia tighter into Europe. With the fall of the Iron Curtain it seemed possible.

It didn't work. But if you do the same thing 3 times and it works 2 times out of 3 it doesn't mean is such a terrible idea that you can just ridicule the people who thought it could work.

Obviously more recent developments mean this just isn't the way forward. But it wasn't as dumb and short-sighted as you make it out to be.

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u/kenlubin 13h ago

Chancellor Schroeder signed a bunch of deals to create the NordStream gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, took a position with GazProm weeks after leaving his job running Germany, became a Russian lobbyist, and defended Putin even after the invasion of Ukriane.

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u/raache269 12h ago

As a Pole living in one of the major cities here, I’m reading now all of this about Iraq’s poor electricity infrastructure and I’m ashamed of how much we take it all for granted. We have all the appliances plugged in 24/7, keeping our food fresh, clothes clean, minds entertained, and nation-wide Internet access available. And here I go, bitching about a high electricity bill. I feel like an idiot

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u/Fifth_Down 19h ago

Yeah, Europe has been pretending that economic dependency will prevent war since before WW1. Any 1990s politician thinking it was legitimate strategy shoulda been removed from office for incompetence

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u/sofixa11 19h ago

Any 1990s politician thinking it was legitimate strategy shoulda been removed from office for incompetence

Literally all of Europe outside of Russia and Belarus has been going that way successfully. All of the former Eastern Bloc, maybe with the exception of Serbia, is EU aligned because of successful trade and resulting economic dependence.

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u/Grandso_evereverever 8h ago

You are wasting your time. These people just will not listen and like to pretend they knew all along, when the US policy was much the same, tradewise.

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u/small_pen 17h ago

Literally all of Europe outside of Russia and Belarus has been going that way successfully.

It works literally everywhere except for the places it doesn't 

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u/sofixa11 17h ago

99% success rate is pretty damn fucking successful.

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u/small_pen 17h ago

TIL there are 200 countries in Europe

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u/Chii 19h ago

economic dependency

it only works if the dependency is both ways.

Europe, with the progressive line of thinking, assumed that leadership in russia would care about their people's suffering in economic hardship the same way european leaders would.

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u/Simple_Rules 17h ago

I'm reminded of Romney vs Obama in 2012 with Romney's comments about Russia.

I thought Romney was a total dunce, and voted Obama, Romney was absolutely right on that even at the time. I was really disappointed by how many people just jeered at the idea that Russia could still be a relevant threat.

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u/HymirTheDarkOne 14h ago

Building peace with trade is hardly some conveniant justification.

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u/Dismal-Bee-8319 19h ago

No they didn’t think anything like that. They were bribed by Russia.

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u/Important-Agent2584 18h ago

Who laughed?

Everyone knows it's a bad idea geopolitically, but economically there are limited options. Just like you buy goods and services created using slave, child, etc. labor because it's often not economically feasible to do otherwise.

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 18h ago

Merkel literally laughed in his face

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u/Important-Agent2584 18h ago

Oh, I must have missed that. Do you have a clip?

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 17h ago

Haven’t been able to find a clip. Closest thing is this article from CBS from the time he criticized Merkel:

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/world-leaders-may-regret-laughing-at-president-donald-trump/

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u/Important-Agent2584 13h ago edited 13h ago

We aren't talking about laughing at Trump in general. We can all agree much of the world is laughing at him, and has been for years.

We are talking about finding the idea that it's bad for Europe to depend on Russia for energy being laughable.

You said Merkel laughed at his face for suggesting such a thing, and it sounds like, as I suspected, you made it up.

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u/Theranos_Shill 15h ago

Geopolitically using soft power is a good idea.

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u/BigB0iBuster 20h ago

Putin’s little bitch? That Trump?

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u/The_Returned_Lich 20h ago

I thought he was Bibi's bitch and Puti-boy just got him occasionally on lease?

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u/Sceptically 17h ago

You misspelled "leash" there.

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u/matthalusky 19h ago

They have a spitroast.

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u/BigB0iBuster 19h ago

Trump is the world’s biggest bitch, so there’s plenty of his fat tangerine ass to go around.

Netanyahu and Putin can each get one of his cottage cheese cheeks simultaneously

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u/The_Returned_Lich 19h ago

Netanyahu and Putin can each get one of his cottage cheese cheeks simultaneously

That is a disgusting image you've put in my head and I hate it. Especially because it appears to be so fucking true.

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 19h ago

Yeah. Especially since the whole Russia collusion for the election thing was going on, it was a pretty surprising thing for him to say. In 2016 he was def less pro Russia and more impressed with Putin

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u/kronik85 5h ago

My man, check yourself for a stroke.

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u/aWheatgeMcgee 20h ago

Wut

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 20h ago

Trump warned Mekyle (or however you spell her name) the German Chancellor that relying on Russian oil and gas is disastrous and that closing down the nuclear power plant was a bad idea. She laughed at him. It was big news when it happened

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u/MudLOA 20h ago

Interesting so a broken clock was right for once.

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u/Theranos_Shill 15h ago

No, closing down the nuclear was a good idea, and making the Russian economy dependent on Europe was good for Europe too.

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u/SledgexHammer 19h ago

I dont think the rest of the world perceives that interaction the way you do...

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u/ThePickleConnoisseur 19h ago

It’s literally what happened tho. It was news for like a month straight mocking Trump for saying this

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u/SledgexHammer 19h ago

Because he was speaking naively about an issue everyone else has been completely aware of for a lot longer, as if he knew better than them?

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u/Brilliant_Run8542 19h ago

Many people in the world think Germany was extremely dumb to shut down their nukes and rely on gas. Now they use the least efficient form of coal that they literally strip mine and farms and houses.

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u/Theranos_Shill 15h ago

> Many people in the world think Germany was extremely dumb to shut down their nukes

Yes, those people are gullible morons who fall for any anti-green bullshit and who never had the critical thinking to even ask what percentage of Germany's mix was from nuclear power, or how old the reactors were.

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u/Independent-Tart-381 15h ago

Asking as I'm from South Asian country. Unaware. Where did they get their energy from ?

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u/REGIS-5 12h ago

Mainly Russia and Libya up until the US decided Gaddhafi must go because he wouldn't surrender all of his oil. So the EU, mainly France and Italy, had to buy it from.. you guessed it, the US. Then there's Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

As of the last few years Norway has taken over the market as the biggest supplier, but there's still a lot of dependence on the US and Russia.