Wilshire"We've used 5% of our defense budget to arm Ukraine. And with it, they've destroyed 50% of Putin's army." - Ad targeted to Republicans to support Ukraine
PugJesusI hope it works, but I have so little faith in Republican voters anymore.
RaincoatsGeorgeActually I think this is one of the keys to freeing the minority of the country that insists on being stupid as shit. They love trump but loyalty to the military runs far deeper. Find me a right leaning fuck who doesn’t at least pay lip service to the military. Of course they don’t actually support them, but it’s a potent motivator that they at least feel like they’re doing so.
So not unlike when you have to work certain angles to get a toddler to take a bath or go to bed, so must steps be taken to try and pry these people out of their death cult spiral. The alternative is to likely be dragged down with them.
They love trump but loyalty to the military runs far deeper.
Does it, though
They think the military is woke now. The only loyalty is to trump. Everything else peripheral
agent_flounderKeep reading their comment – they address that point nicely, I thought.
I think if you would have kept reading I further clarified.
0110010001100010When it comes down to it, this is a hell of a deal for the US. We spend a tiny fraction of our military budget to de-fang Putin and don’t have to fire a single shot ourselves.
Better than defanging is real world testing.
What worked as expected, what didn’t, how we can make it better etc.
Gradually_AdjustingWhat will happen to the US defense budget now that we know it’s unnecessary?
That was rhetorical by the way, I know it’s going to increase.
ares35still necessary. russia isn't the only potential adversary out there
StumblinbearNot sure about “unnecessary.” 5% works for Ukraine but also it has a much smaller land mass. You can’t use that 5% to protect the entirety of the US’ borders along with every other place we are stationed along with the required ongoing maintenance
I’m not saying the budget isn’t ridiculously high, but also saying it’s unnecessary as a whole is just incorrect
5% is also us supplying to Ukraine a fraction of their needs, and few of the core costs of a military - like personnel costs, which make up 40% of the US military budget.
The military budget is bloated, just... not nearly to the degree people think.
True. Hospital higher ups probably thought that extra hospital beds were extra money/upkeep that would be better spent elsewhere. So they cut it back to meet the average use. Then covid hit and everyone freaked out for a while because their patient count had a huge spike and no resources for a surge like that.
For emergency services a little extra seems like a waste until you need it. Most European militaries would struggle for a while if a war were to break out because they are geared toward normal needs. Ukraine has been a wake up call and now they are getting the funding to modernize and start increasing in size.
I know. It’s just absurd taken as a whole. Even something as small as ending the 1033 would do much to quell me
Yep, we have to defend our super long boarders with those dangerous aggressive nations called Canada & Mexico.
Imagine thinking if we went to war that other countries couldn’t possibly use the fucking water
Well not after midnight anyway… or was that eating?
Short of deciding we suddenly don't need a navy, there's not as much space as one might think for cutting 'fat' from the budget. Even the Obama-era proposal for shrinking the budget still came out to 500 billion, and that was with cuts to the bone - and 10 years of inflation to adjust for.
Right now, the main talking point driving it up is China, not Ukraine.
Which may not even happen. China has some financial problems both short (real estate crisis) and long (one-child policies causing a population crunch with lots of old people and few young people). It’s thought that they need to invade Taiwan in the next 8 years if they’re going to do it at all, but that window may already be closing.
Not that any of that ever got in the way of building an even bigger navy.
Unfortunately, great powers that have recently peaked and are beginning their inevitable decline are at their most dangerous. It’s when they’re still powerful but feel a need to prove it. See the Soviets in the 80s, USA in the 2000s, China in the 2020s-30s.
HubertManneWell and its old equipment not stuff coming right off the line which would have to be decommissioned at cost at eol.
PiecemakersWatch the Ukranian drone ops teams taking contracts after this is all done. The Winged Hussars ride again! 🤘🏼💀
There was an article a few days ago about how the soldiers stopped following some of their western training as it wasn’t working / appropriate for their situation.
I imagine there will also be some cross training where they update the American soldiers on what worked and didn’t work and why.
From what I heard that seemed to be mainly two factors where the situations were different than most conflicts the Western forces have been in in a good while.
Lack of air support. The air is still contested over Ukraine.
Minefields everywhere
CoderKatI’m not sure just how much the US spends on weapon testing, but I imagine it’s a bonkers number. And now they get an opportunity to test in a real environment, with some other country’s army to do much of the heavy lifting?
I do software dev and testing stuff is expensive. Real world testing is a particularly difficult and pricey thing to do. It’s not easy to simulate realistic usage and it’s super common to discover all sorts of issues only when something is used outside of controlled conditions. That’s why so many web products get the hug of death. It’s why Lemmy has had so many problems not just with scaling, but things like UX. It’s so easy to not realize even “obvious” problems when you don’t have a large number of real users.
Real world testing is a particularly difficult and pricey thing to do
I don’t often test, but when I do, it’s in prod.
Bonkers is right, and you’re absolutely correct. Another factor to the real world tests is the human experience. A soldier who’s fired real rounds downrange will be that little bit more quick and calm the next time shit hits the fan. Ivan keeps bashing his face against our dusty old armor systems and all they’re doing is feeding the sunflowers and seasoning Ukrainian grunts for battle. Once they start fielding all NATO munitions it’s gonna get real ugly for the Kremlin.
Not that im against defanging putin, but then the next one will come and the next one and the next one. Are there even russians that are not pro war?
Maybe you are being genuine so I’ll try to be too, you’re wrong to fear what comes next. Historically new leaders don’t in totalitarian states don’t want an external war, they want to secure their lot, make sure they are protected, shore up support.
Children are being kidnapped, prisoners of war ar being tortured, civilians raped, towns and cities cut off from water or flooded, left to freeze over winter. What exactly do you think is coming next? Someone with more efficiency? Less morals? Thanos?
I was being genuine, sorry if it sounded rude.
I guess with all the shit happening in the world, i feel… hopeless
Fair enough, “the devil you know” argument is flawed and is oft thrown around by the apathetic.
Your feelings are justified but generally speaking things are trending upwards, progress marches on
Are there even russians that are not pro war?
Yes there are
there are but most of them left the country
uisThose who could left, not those who didn’t support. Majority of people who are against invasion don’t have money to leave.
Let’s see… From top of my head: Boris Nemtsov, Alexey Navalny, Ekaterina Shulman, more than half of alive Russian soldiers(counting dead soldiers more than 2/3).
“This is not war of Russia and Ukraine. I an against such definition. This is Putin’s war.”
- Boris Nemtsov, before he was shot on bridge near Kremlin wall
P.s. funny story about soldiers. Some idiots(thank you, idiots!) from Omsk decided to open voting station near front line for governor and regional parlament. Since soldiers officially don’t have internet, there was no Remote Electronic Voting(ДЭГ) and 100% voted with paper. And since paint protocols and stuff boxes is scary in front of armed men, it wasn’t done at usual scale. In result hard-core pro-war United Russia governor candidate got less than 50% and I think even lost on those stations.
XanthraxIt doesn’t really matter if you’re pro-war if you no longer have a standing army. At that point, it’s just wishful thinking.
Unfortunately, the target audience also wear shirts which say “I’d rather be Russian than democrat”
They may take it as an attack against themselves.
They should go sign up to fight on the Russian front lines then
NegativeLookBehindDa comrade we have comprehensive sign up bonus (is one small potato and 25 ruble)
Nah, it's easier for them to sit on their fatasses and do the bare minimum of movement while they tout their shitty flags and shirts about in their traitorous stances. They're the same people that wouldn't even sign up to be in the US Army, but will swear up and down about "IF I WAS THERE..." stories of power fantasies.
What TV channel is that on?
harkAre you on the Ukrainian front lines?
Are you, contrarian? You seem loud and dumb enough. 🤷🏼♂️
No, because I don’t have a strong opinion about the war either way. I was just curious about the logical consistency of that user. I wasn’t asking about you, but so far I’ve learned that you are quick to upset and like to jump to conclusions.
Aw, you’re adorable when you project. Keep it up, and don’t forget to maintain eye contact. Putin likes that.
There you are proving me correct by being quick to upset and jumping to conclusions again. By the way, how do you know putin’s sexual preferences?
What a low-effort bot. 🤣
You’re not even the user I asked my initial question to, but you took it upon yourself to make a bunch of meaningless responses without a single thought given to why I asked the question that I did. You’d think this community would want more people fighting for democracy and freedom on the Ukrainian frontlines, but instead they get mad at any perceived slight and swarm the upvotes and downvotes to show their supposed commitment to the cause. Talk about low-effort bots!
Anyway, make sure to smash that downvote button to show how not-a-bot you are.
Some do.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Bentley
(Of course his nickname is ‘texas’)
There are many thousands of foreign volunteer fighters on either side of this.
This guy is a special kind of dumb, though.
Who am I to stop him from his Darwin Award? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Wtf are you talking about? Republicans hate Russia
The current leader of the Republican party called the invasion “genius” and “savvy”. But there’s always such a divide between a party and its constituents, don’t you find?
Queue the, “I like him because he tells it like it is” people saying, “no, he was just joking”.
That’s so 7 years ago.
ThirdWorldOrderTimes have changed my friend
Exhibit A:
“I’d Rather Be Russian Than Democrat” T-Shirt worn by inbred Trump supporters.
Exhibit B:
How Republicans moved from Reagan’s ‘evil empire’ to Trump’s praise for Putin
Why Are Republicans Siding With Russia?
‘I’ll Stand on the Side of Russia’: Pro-Putin Sentiment Spreads Online
The far-right’s pro-Russia posture endangers the nation and the world
Lol not since Trump they haven’t.
But if you can reframe Ukraine as sticking it to those democrats who don’t like military, they might be on board.
BlackmistWhatever happened to “Better dead than red”?
Liberty Prime needs to make a comeback.
The target audience are independents and the few sane (but denialist) Republicans left. I think the ad’s goal is to drive them away from the republican party.
It’s also a social media only ad.