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Instead of bringing stability and peace, they said, the United States inadvertently built a corrupt, dysfunctional Afghan government that remains dependent on U.S. military power for its survival. Assuming it does not collapse, U.S. officials have said it will need billions more dollars in aid annually, for decades.
The American authorities dislike the word “assassination”, because it implies a flouting of international and humanitarian law. Indeed, some human-rights lawyers see the use of drones to kill people as almost always unlawful. Agnès Callamard, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has argued that “outside the context of active hostilities, the use of drones for targeted killing is almost never likely to be legal….lethal force can only be used where strictly necessary to protect against an imminent threat.”
In the short term, the U.S. can still deploy its dollar power to bully adversaries and allies alike. Few foreign leaders, for instance, agreed with Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Tehran and impose fresh sanctions on Iran’s economy. Yet even sympathetic countries with strong currencies, like those in the European Union, have been forced to play along with Trump’s counterproductive policies for fear of losing access to U.S. dollars.
https://newrepublic.com/article/156325/end-forever-war-end-dollars-global-dominance
Tsai capitalized on growing disquiet in Taiwan over China’s approach to Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters have agitated for months against what they view as Beijing’s steady assault on political freedoms. For Xi, the pitch for unification has hinged on Taiwan adopting a framework similar to Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” model — where integration with the mainland would, in theory, not jeopardize civil liberties and democratic rights.
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