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I would argue that western, and especially American, elites have been "winning" everything ever since the end of WW2. We have the richest country the world has ever seen, which is also blessed with an enormous amount of land and natural resources. We also control a huge amount of the world's most valuable IP. We don't need to "win a war" like the Mongolians or the Romans did, where we invade some far-off land to take their resources. We already have everything we could possibly want right here at home. "Winning" just means maintaining the status quo, basically, and they've done an amazing job at that. Nobody really cares whether Russia or Ukraine controls the Donbas region, they just want to prevent a nuclear WW3.
We are blessed with natural resources but we are extremely dependent on Chinese manufacturing. We make very little of what we consume. Hell, we even send fish that are caught in American waters to Asia for processing.
True, but that seems to mostly benefit us. It certainly benefits the elites anyway, even if some old factory workers lose their jobs. What are we supposed to do about it, invade China to get their manufacturing? "Free trade" is an ideal that both parties have been pushing very hard ever since WW2.
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