• SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    In my experience people who are against more Ukraine aid think that the dollar amount we send is actual cash that can be spent in other places, rather than pallets of munitions that don’t keep forever anyway.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      And a part of that is old stuff that would be decommissioned so the cash is to make the new products. Or so I have understood it.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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        1 month ago

        nah that’s right. we’ve sent ukraine a shit ton of basically decommissioned shit. and even then we’ve been weirdly stingy, and unresponsive to their non military aid requests (their biggest ask is glass)

        • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Seems weird to ask the US for glass when they can get it from a lot closer, assuming we’re just talking about normal glass.

          • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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            1 month ago

            they’ve been asking literally all their allies for glass. it’s been a constant struggle for them to get aid, especially as the western countries they used to rely on shifted focus to helping Israel

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        And we’re also saving a bunch on disposal costs for the old stuff.

    • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s literal economic stimulus, US sends them old shit, and buys new and more expensive shit from local military suppliers. This is the “creating jobs” thing the right likes so much, except when it’s against Russian interests

      • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Yes, but it is really inefficient. If we simply ignore the nuke threat it would probably take the US a month of bombing to restore pre 2014 borders.

    • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Even for new weapons and ammo it is usually just spending on the local weapons manufacturers so basically just supporting your own economy.

    • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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      1 month ago

      This is the most obscene attempt to understate the US’s involvement in the war in Ukraine I’ve ever seen.

  • Kalkaline
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    1 month ago

    The tankies aren’t going to like this meme.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      If they browse NCD they’ll be mad a lot. People on here have the normal take on whether the North Koreans are secret Wakanda good guys, and it comes up constantly.

    • humble peat digger@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I take Putin very seriously.
      Us military is on the same page.

      Weirdo nutjobs on the Internet create memes on how much everyone is wrong but them.

      • el_bhm@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        Visegradians, Viking-chans, and Baltics are taking kremlin far more seriously than the most of West. At the same time we cant take seriously yet another boo hoo we satan warsaw, we take berlin nazi and polands next after baltics.

        Hell, we take kremlin mafia far more seriously than most of the tankies. We just want to either throw molotovs or piss bottles into their old babushka cursing at everyone window and be done with it.

        Because Kremlin is an old Babushka bully. She will spit and yell at everyone, then play the victim. So you either ignore or drop kick it.

      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Did you take him seriously when he said sending cruise missiles to Ukraine would be considered a nuclear attack? Or that sending f16s would be a nuclear attack? Or when he said Ukraine was planning to use a nuclear dirty bomb? He has every incentive to blow everything out of proportion, so we can’t go off of what he says.

  • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I believe he is 100% serious. And I still think it shouldn’t matter. The conflict will grow regardless, and the West shouldn’t concede a single inch to the psychopathic asshole.

    Otherwise we might as well hand him all of Europe on a silver platter.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Why are WE the ones afraid of consequences? Why should the so-called “mightiest nation on Earth” be the one that cowers whenever someone makes nuclear threats? Didn’t we used to lead the world in creating fear of our military and our nuclear weapons?

      I don’t get how the right in particular treats the USA like a mighty jugger- nah I can’t even frame my rhetorical thought, we all know that Russia is deeply involved in shaping the opinions and attitudes of our country’s dumbest fuckwads.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Otherwise we might as well hand him all of Europe on a silver platter.

      And sadly I believe that a lot of Americans would prefer isolationism and are fine with this, as they’d get to cut military spending.

      Of course, Europeans buy American goods and vice versa. If Russia ruled over all of Europe, Putin could just stop all trade with the US as a giant middle finger.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Some at least pretend to. “If we didn’t have to police the world, we could save so much on military spending, Europe should get its’ own shit together”

          And while I as an European agree about the last part, I still think NATO is a beneficial alliance to everyone involved.

  • josefo@leminal.space
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    1 month ago

    My bet is, if Putin dares to drop a single nuke, he will get assassinated. Lot of secret service agents, and other enthusiasts are straight up going to try that. During war that’s allowed right?

    • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      Mutually assured destruction is still a thing. We may not be at Cold War levels of insanity, where between the US and Russia there were enough nukes to glass the planet like 150 times over, but plenty of nations have arsenals (especially in Europe), and the best way to make enemies of the entirety of the world would be to be the first one to launch a nuke. Dropping a nuke would signal to every leader in the world that no country is safe from becoming an irradiated wasteland.

      I think if Putin dropped a nuke, his allies would drop him faster than it would take NATO to declare all out war with Russia.

      • Teppichbrand@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        I read this book and it changed my opinion a little. Every scenario ends in a nuclear apocalypse, no matter who started with how much.
        There might be a hero or two refusing to launch down the command line. But should we rely on that?

      • josefo@leminal.space
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        1 month ago

        My point was, the assassination goal would be him not being able to drop a second one. Also slay the first 100 people in the chain of command and leave them headless.

        Cool thing is that nuclear winter will fight global warming

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          Unfortunately, nobody would be able to take him out that quickly. Russia still has plenty of nukes, and they could fire them all before anybody has time to react. If that nuke is an ICBM, though, as soon as it leaves the silo the world would know, and the counter barrage of nukes would be firing up before it even lands.

          I originally meant that dropping a nuke would have the entire world declare war on Russia, even his former allies because no one wants to rule over a pile of radioactive rocks, but thinking about it, his allies would probably be the ones most likely to try to have him assassinated in that situation. A maniac with a big stick is only useful so long as you don’t have to worry about him smacking you with it, too.

          • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Russia still has plenty of nukes, and they could fire them all before anybody has time to react. If that nuke is an ICBM, though, as soon as it leaves the silo the world would know, and the counter barrage of nukes would be firing up before it even lands.

            Obviously an ICBM is armageddon. However a tacticsl nuke, one dropped from a plane or something onto Ukraine would be a different story.

            The world will be far less inclined to launching ICBMs over that. So it’s just a game of how much they can get away with.

          • Zron@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Source?

            Seems pretty likely that all those fires would cause a lot of soot that blocks out some of the sunlight, thus causing a global temperature drop

            • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deM
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              1 month ago

              sagan et al overstated amount of soot from full nuclear exchange from targets most susceptible to large scale fires by 10x-ish and this is the only way they could come up with actual nuclear winter

              when counterexample happened during gulf war they dropped it, but when people forgot this was a thing they brought it up again. this is not how you do science https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter#Criticism_and_debate

            • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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              1 month ago

              Not off hand but the idea is the amount needed to cause one is not as low as previously stated (the 3 large scale bombs being enough was likely off by an order of magnitude).

              The fear of instant nuclear winter was likely more cold war scare then sound science, but the chance of nuclear winter is still there. We just don’t know exactly how many nukes and where would kick one off.

      • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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        1 month ago

        You say that, and yet Exxon-Mobil have proven that actively trying to destroy the world does nothing to turn world leaders away from trying to buddy up with you.

          • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            Sure they do, the rest of the universe wins by not having to deal with another species stupid enough to destroy itself.

    • sunstoned@lemmus.org
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      1 month ago

      I think if you’re assassinating a public figure you’re a little past caring about what’s “allowed”

      • josefo@leminal.space
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        1 month ago

        I was taking about like, it’s considered a war crime? Skipping the soldiers dying and straight up killing the dude.

      • oatscoop@midwest.social
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        1 month ago

        Any major power could easily assasinate the leadership of any other major power, but doing so is taboo for obvious reasons.The nuclear taboo is higher on the list of “things that are not done.”

        Opening the door to actually using nuclear weapons represents a threat to everyone – including the rich and powerful. Whoever is dumb enough to use even a tactical nuke is going to not only find themselves a pariah, they’re going to face coordinated efforts to eliminate the threat they represent by everyone.

        Imagine being in his inner circle: you’d be getting credible offers of “whatever you need and want” to remove Putin from power from every major power on the planet.

  • Freefall@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Fox news is desperately pushing this and signal boosting their true leader constantly.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Fox has been pumping up the Russophobia since Putin started saber-rattling, most likely to justify Trump’s incoming “peace negotiations” that will result in sacrificing Ukrainian territory.

    • Freefall@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      They need Biden to go easy on russia until the fat orange can get in power and come save daddy putin.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        That’s exactly why Biden authorized Ukraine to use US missiles on Russian territory and supplied antipersonnel mines.

    • Renohren@lemmy.today
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      1 month ago

      If they take out Ukraine and only talk between Trump and Putin, then the war continues, the US just won’t be their shop… Plenty of countries need to update their weapons on Ukrainian money.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    Man, I wonder if those Russian propaganda guys ever wish they had more non-bullshit to spew. Like, they have to keep up appearances, but it’s usually easy to tell which statements are for the public, and which ones they might actually mean (like the threat to do proxy wars of their own), so it’s just a lot of wasted words.

  • Prunebutt@slrpnk.net
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    1 month ago

    Can someone explain to me why it’s ridiculous to take them seriously? Genuine question.

    • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deM
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      1 month ago

      that’s because MAD still works and things like sending ATACMS are nowhere close to actual nuclear threshold, which would be nuclear attack or overwhelming conventional invasion threatening existence of country. nobody would be even thinking of nukes until Ukrainian tanks roll to Moscow lol. if you have a spare hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWKGYnO0Jf4

        • PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          There has been some debate over the response to tactical Nuclear weapons - notably NATO threatened a conventional response to the use of nukes (likely meant to be read as, “We will end this war, no nukes needed.”) but it would depend massively on their usage.

    • TheDorkfromYork@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      When your enemy has strategic nukes, the extreme ways to respond are:

      A, not taking the nuclear threat seriously.

      B, give up.

      Saying we shouldn’t arm Ukraine because of nukes is close to option B.

      Nukes may go off, but if arming Ukraine is the trigger, than we were likely to witness nuclear war because we wouldn’t accept option B, rather than any weapon system giving Ukraine an advantage. If that is the case, nuclear war has most likely already been decided.

      The real game is to make those in Russia believe that backing down works towards their goals. If they hope in 20 years the US will fall apart, they may wait, or maybe someone will kill Putin and take over Russia, being rewarded by less sanctions.

      Long story short, nuking Ukraine don’t benifit Russia more than it will hurt it.

      I am not an expert

        • vga@sopuli.xyz
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          1 month ago

          USA should conquer Taiwan, Cuba and South America before somebody gives them nukes.

          Opposing this would be blood thirsty war mongering, a direct cause of WW3.

          • BenLeMan@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            So conquering other countries is wrong after all? Or are you being serious? Because that is precisely the Kremlin’s rationale for this war: Take out Ukraine before it joins the west and becomes too powerful to conquer.

            • vga@sopuli.xyz
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              1 month ago

              No, of course I’m not being serious. Sovereign countries are sovereign and their borders should not be violated by anyone.

              It’s not called conquering if somebody decides to join an alliance or a trade union.

  • obre@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Add a soyjak with an ushanka in the bottom frame next to the chud for extra accuracy

  • Teppichbrand@feddit.org
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    1 month ago

    Not sure if we should taunt a powerful dictator in the last third of his lifespan, who is slowly losing his war and his lifegoal of a reunited Russia. I know it’s fun to humiliate a bad guy, but if he decides “if I die, the world dies”, we’re doomed.

    • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      If we let him win do you know how many other wannabe world rulers are going to try the same thing? And how many other countries this particular asshole is going to try to invade?

      • Teppichbrand@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        I don’t want to let him win. There is s huge gray area between “okay, you win” and “go nuke us, coward”: Good old civilized diplomacy, Star Trek-style! It’s smart, elegant and everybody get’s his/her voice heard. It’s more difficult now than it was 2 or 5 or 10 years ago, and not as popular with voters. But I still hope the world is better than “let’s kill the bad guy!”

        • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          And how do you achieve anything with diplomacy with someone who explicitly broke the last few agreements related to the country in question to invade?

  • computerscientistII@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    He used an ICBM on Ukraine today. This time he used conventional MIRV warheads. Do we really not want to take him seriously at all? Is it a good idea to back him into a corner?

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Fuck that. He can get out of any corner he’s put into by simply ceasing aggression. But as long as he’s the aggressor, he should be met with great vengeance, and furious anger.

    • Skua@kbin.earth
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      1 month ago

      So if America had threatened Vietnam or Afghanistan wth nukes, everyone should have just let America do what it wants?

      Nuclear states must not allow other nuclear states to conduct nuclear blackmail. If they do, everyone now needs nukes and nonproliferation is dead.