• DiggV4
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    1 year ago

    Having extra money left over seems like the opposite of a grift to me.

  • Varyk
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    1 year ago

    The grift: effortlessly eradicating what used to be the largest military threat to the United States in the world without even risking American lives for pennies on the dollar. What a grift.

    • GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      “effortlessly eradicating”

      Look, even if you’re optimistic about how Ukraine has been doing or the damage it has done to Russia (and it has done damage, certainly), saying that it has “effortlessly eradicated” Russia’s military capabilities is absurd

      “without even risking American lives”

      This, however, is a good encapsulation of the non-MIC-grift side of the government’s strategy. Ukrainian lives are virtually worthless to them, so they may as well throw them into the meat grinder no matter how low the net gain because any damage to their geopolitical opponents is worth it.

      The more-informed people who support this are some combination of cynical monsters who view dead Americans as a liability and sick chauvinists who think only Americans really count as human (unless there’s some outrage fodder to be made of others). It’s alarming to see this calculus proudly touted by someone who presumably doesn’t identify by either of those labels.

      • Varyk
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        1 year ago

        We gave resources we have in abundance and won’t miss to a committed defense force who has defeated the extended and then domestic military reach of Russia. It didn’t cost Americans anything, bodily or economically. The price of eggs went up because of corporate profiteering, not because we spent less than 4% of our bloated military budget defeating Russia by proxy.

        Secondly, you’re making a false equivalence. Appreciating that Americans are not dying while removing a real threat does not mean that you do not appreciate and value the Ukrainians who are making sacrifices.

        • GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Secondly, you’re making a false equivalence. Appreciating that Americans are not dying while removing a real threat does not mean that you do not appreciate and value the Ukrainians who are making sacrifices.

          100% bullshit. From a humanitarian perspective, one in which there is no difference in value between an American life and a Ukrainian life, the fact that no Americans died because the meat grinder is in Ukraine and killing almost-exclusively slavs is a ridiculous thing to tout. It’s not an accomplishment to not lose your own people when it’s a proxy war, you’re just sending a different population to be slaughtered!

          Can you even imagine – in a world where China was actually backing Russia – China boasting about doing immense economic damage to NATO without sacrificing any Chinese? That would be a fucked up way to evaluate it compared to considering the human cost apart from national lines, even just on “your own side.”

          This shit is why predditors love to say “I don’t like Hitler, but at least he didn’t kill his own people” (ignoring that he did just like we’re ignoring Americans actually have been killed in Ukraine). Ultimately, the chauvinism is as bad as it ever was, it’s just dressed up with more false “we see you, we hear you” pretenses about the people being killed.

      • Varyk
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        1 year ago

        The destruction of what was recently considered a real and looming military threat to the US is not a matter of belief. It already objectively happened.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
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          1 year ago

          This alternate reality you inhabit sounds very interesting. Last I checked, Milley now refers to Russia as a great power.

          Chief among those challenges, Milley said, will be the change from a “unipolar moment” in which the U.S. stood as “the most powerful nation on earth.”

          “Now, it is increasingly clear that we are really in a multipolar international environment with at least three great powers: the United States, China and Russia,” he said. “And three is much more complicated than two and certainly much more complicated than one.”

          Of course, Mark Milley is just United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I’m sure you know far better than he does. 😂

          • Varyk
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            1 year ago

            Well, I appreciate your support. I’m not as sure about it as you are, but all current evidence indicates that I am correct here.

            It is hypocritical of you to complain about the war machine and callous Americans in one breath and then switch to exalting the opinion of someone proclaiming extremist quotes in order to keep his “inevitable” war machine going as soon as your two initial fallacies were exposed.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
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              1 year ago

              If you think that the fact that Russia now being considered a great power by US military supports your argument then what else is there to tell you.

          • Charlatan@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            You know… the Joint Chiefs of Staff is always going to say that. To downplay a country with a massive nuclear arsenal would be stupid. That does NOT mean they have a military capable of taking a hill of dirt.

  • SmokeInFog@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    You got it backward. This isn’t saying they’ve given an extra 6.2 billion; it’s saying that what was given was 6.2 billion less than reported. That’s why there is more a 6.2 billion for other aide packages

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      What it’s actually saying is that they overestimated which resulted in a surplus for the Pentagon:

      The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years — about double early estimates — resulting in a surplus that will be used for future security packages.

      As a result, the department now has additional money in its coffers to use to support Ukraine as it pursues its counteroffensive against Russia. And it come as the fiscal year is wrapping up and congressional funding was beginning to dwindle.

  • GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Hah, downvoting an AP article. I guess they’re in Putin’s pocket too now! It’s a good thing only Republicans cry “fake news” at everything that threatens them.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      I think it’s the last bit about the fact that all this money is coming out of people’s pockets that made them mad. We’re not supposed to talk about the cost the average person pays for maintaining the empire.

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
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    1 year ago

    LMFAO the downvotes, this is precisely why US is such a shithole country. Instead of spending taxes on things that actually help Americans such as infrastructure, healthcare, or education it all goes to endless wars that Americans keep cheering on. You lot deserve exactly what’s happening to you.

    • peeonyou@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      this is true and has been true for my entire life

      the us is the core of the empire but functions as a 3rd world banana republic