Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
You are going back to my original point. As was stated earlier, if you are walking down the street with your friend, and he gets attacked, what do you do? You fight back. If you don't help your friend, you will likely lose him as a friend. Friends help each other out. It's not about altruism... that is part of the relationship.
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Not exactly. We've been using the term "friend" to describe an ally a bit here, but that's not entirely correct. If my friend were attacked, I'd help simply on emotional grounds or some sense of comradeship - without expecting anything in return. If I were running a nation, and there was no
net benefit to my people (e.g. an expectation that if my nation gets attacked my ally would be
willing and able to help my nation, and that the benefit of this outweighs the costs/reasons for not helping), then I wouldn't offer help. And even if there is a net benefit to justify the assistance, the level of assistance will be in line with the expected net benefits. Hence, there is no real "obligation" to help just because they are our allies.