there is no moral win here other than saying "our hands could be clean"

there's a power struggle at the top and there are no good actors there

VZ is fucked with or without our intervention bc a ton of our intervention is based on blocking the other bad actor's intervention

yes, it makes us self-interested hypocrites because that's what we are

Doing nothing gives us the moral superiority we feign but basically just passes the reins to folks who will leverage it in ways to fuck us at every turn

i'm not suggesting it can't be done more competently...i mean...this administration is a joke but i honestly can't sit here and say...doing nothing is fine

it's obvious who we're backing and why...and i even get the sanctions...i don't think this helps VZ at all though...

China and Russia are basically taking their oil in exchange for their already crippling debt so with the sanctions...they're pretty much fucked on any liquidity coming through

But if VZ seems ill-equipped to fix the issues, Russia and China just sitting back piling on the interest fees while it collects the oil...just doing nothing is basically subbing those 2 in at every turn. I view our intervention as a pandora's box type of issue...that box can't be unopened...i'd prefer we set our sights on the important victories and cede the ones that we can afford to