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.
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.
Having extra money left over seems like the opposite of a grift to me.
Where do you think that money ends up exactly, think it's going to recirculate back into the economy or end up continue being allocated to the Pentagon?
That money was already taxed for the defense budget. It would’ve never been used for anything other than whatever DoD decided to spend it on.
Biden raised Pentagon budget as I recall, and the proxy war was one of the main justifications for that the other being deranged fantasies about having a war with China.
The money that they could have spent but didn't spend? Presumably they'll spend it on more Ukrainian aid.
If by Ukrainian aid you mean general embezzling and lining the pockets of the oligarchs then certainly.
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.
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
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.
If that's what you believe then send me a DM cause I have a nice bridge to sell you.
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.
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. 😂
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.
Whatever helps you cope I suppose.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Having extra money left over seems like the opposite of a grift to me.
Where do you think that money ends up exactly, think it's going to recirculate back into the economy or end up continue being allocated to the Pentagon?
That money was already taxed for the defense budget. It would’ve never been used for anything other than whatever DoD decided to spend it on.
Biden raised Pentagon budget as I recall, and the proxy war was one of the main justifications for that the other being deranged fantasies about having a war with China.
The money that they could have spent but didn't spend? Presumably they'll spend it on more Ukrainian aid.
If by Ukrainian aid you mean general embezzling and lining the pockets of the oligarchs then certainly.
Show evidence.
I mean it's not like this is some big secret
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.
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
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.
If that's what you believe then send me a DM cause I have a nice bridge to sell you.
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.
This alternate reality you inhabit sounds very interesting. Last I checked, Milley now refers to Russia as a great power.
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. 😂
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.
Whatever helps you cope I suppose.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.