• Rapidcreek@lemmy.worldOP
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    9 months ago

    If you think standing up for our allies is expensive…wait to see what happens when you abandon them.

    • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      This is the refrain of conservatism. If you think carbon taxes are expensive, wait for climate change, social programs… Crime, healthcare… Death. They do not actually give a shit about expense.

  • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The sooner we disabuse ourselves of the foolish idea that republicans work for America, the better off we’ll be.

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Pretty sure most of hardcore Maga and the Freedom Caucus are fine with Hitler. Jan 6th was their Beer Hall Putsch. The ones who find Hitler a bit extreme have no objection to Franco, Pinochet, or Mussolini.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    U.S. Congress is not to blame. U.S. conservatives in congress are to blame.

    The GOP works hard to support Putin. Delaying/denying any defense of Ukraine is a huge win for them as they support Putin’s efforts to invade Europe.

  • aidan@lemmy.worldM
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    9 months ago

    No. The Russian military is to blame for the fall. Not helping someone is not the same as killing them. Helping them can still be good though.

  • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Why couldn’t they get “Genocide Joes Discount Bombs Special” like Israel? That didn’t need congress approval.

    • Manucode@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      Because Israel paid for these bombs. Due to the war, Ukraine suffers from a serious lack of money. Therefore, they can’t just buy the weapons they need. Instead, the US and other NATO countries provide them for free. To do so, Biden needs congressional approval. The only thing he can do on his own is to give arms manufacturers the permission to sell weapons, e.g. to Israel.

      • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        They’re not actually free, they’re being provided under bilateral aid agreements. If Ukraine survives the war it’s going to be saddled with an enormous amount of debt.

        The screw here is that countries giving can use the debt to fiddle their own books, making their economies look better than they really are (because they know Ukraine will never be able to pay it all back).

        • 0xD@infosec.pub
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          9 months ago

          They won’t be required to pay it back like that, that is a propaganda talking point.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        9 months ago

        Israel gets billions in ‘aid’, the American people paid for these bombs. The real reason is that Israel has a ridiculously effective lobby group in AIPAC where they control pretty much everyone in Congress. Ukraine doesn’t have that.

      • Nudding@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        If Ukraine had just paid they’re due they would get unwavering support no matter their intention, just like Israel.

        Bad take from a bad country.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Only Congress can appropriate money, so the executive branch’s power is completely different in the “sell” vs “give” case

        • Manucode@feddit.de
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          9 months ago

          Because ex soviet republics invaded, bombarded and blockaded by Russia famously have lots of spare cash.

          • Nudding@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Wasn’t the entire global supply of grain dependent on safe passage from Ukraine? Weird how it’s not a priority to the US unless there’s a dollar sign attached.

      • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        What about some other NATO country? Don’t they have some money to spare for Ukraine? Let them purchase it discount prices for Ukraine.

        • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          They do. In fact, Euro zone countries were the greatest direct financial contributor to Ukraine’s 2023 budget by a large margin.. However running a war is much more than just dumping in money, as much of the financial support just goes to replacing income that was ultimately lost due to the war and it’s depressing effect on their economy. Most of that 77+ billion euro can’t necessarily go into purchasing weapons systems- and even if it did, 77 billion euro doesn’t even go that far… Besides, the US by far has the largest military-industrial complex of any of the listed countries. There’s a really good chance that most other countries simply don’t have that much war materiel to dump into Ukraine compared to the US.

          • PugJesus@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            There’s a really good chance that most other countries simply don’t have that much war materiel to dump into Ukraine compared to the US.

            Yeah. During the intervention in Libya, our NATO allies ran out of precision munitions after less than a month of bombing.

            The US is the only member of NATO which is ready enough and large enough to back Ukraine in the short-term.

            • sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Absolutely true. What I find puzzling is the hesitation to support Ukraine. If the US wants to pivot to Asia, it will need to ramp up its war industry. No better way to do that than to sell or give lots and lots of war materiel to Ukraine. A war for Taiwan and/or an expansion of war in the Middle East will require a huge build-up of industrial capacity to mass manufacture ammunition, missiles, computer components, tanks, trucks, artillery guns, combat aircraft, surface ships, and submarines, plus the primary industries needed to produce all of the raw materials required. Also, where are we going to get business and consumer products if we support Taiwan in a war with China?

              If people give it more than a minute of thought, they’ll realize that we are utterly unprepared to defend Taiwan. I’m not sure if NATO could even handle a war with Iran right now, but it would certainly be much easier if Russia were first defeated in Ukraine.

              All that is to say that any pre-Trump iteration of the Republican Party would have jumped at the chance to help Ukraine as a way of reducing Russia, supporting the military industrial complex, and readying for great power competition. Apparently, the Republicans don’t care about foreign affairs anymore.

          • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            Im not talking about weapon systems. If Adviivka was lost because they had to ration munitions like artillery shells, and Biden does not need congress approval to sell bombs at wholesale price, then why doesnt he sell it to some other NATO country that can give it to Ukraine.

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Ukraine is purchasing the weapons though, they’re being provided under bilateral aid agreements. As is typical with bilateral aid, the terms heavily favour the country giving, because the country receiving is desperate. The US is selling weapons to Ukraine at a premium, albeit in a long term loan, yet you’re saying we should sell them at a reduced price.

          I don’t think you really know what you’re talking about.

          • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            Im aware of how it has been done, apparently it isn’t enough. So, why, if there really isn’t a profit motive behind the ukraine war, doesn’t some other country purchase the munitions required and gift it to ukraine? I dont think you can lend-lease munitions.

            • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              Denmark have literally just agreed to donate all of their weapons to Ukraine. I imagine they intend to resupply primarily through US infrastructure.

              Why do you think that the US should sell to allies at a discount rather than sell to Ukraine for a massive uptick? Have you suddenly abandoned that position?

              Are you just being argumentative for the sake of it? Are you completely full of shit??

    • guacupado@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Because Republicans like Israel. They also like Russia, which is why they don’t like Ukraine; Russia’s paying them, Ukraine isn’t.

      • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Israels munitions aid wasnt contingent on the republicans, because it didn’t need congress approval since it technically was a sale. My qustion is, why isn’t this done for Ukraine. Even if they didn’t have any money, some other ally could purchase the munitions for them and give the aid to them.

        • Logi@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          European countries have been spending that money on building out their own munitions factories instead of buying shells from outside the EU. There are various posts about this on here. That’ll lead to a better situation in the medium term but in the short term few shells are being supplied.

            • Logi@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Money doesn’t just appear out of nowhere in Europe either. And spending it on US shells might not be the top priority.

              • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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                9 months ago

                And yet everyone still makes a big humdrum about how “Democracy itself is at stake!”. Why aren’t you giving them the munitions they need then? Biggest defeat since bakhmut, their need is urgent, but no, gotta build the factories that will supply munitions sometime in the future first.

    • Nudding@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Strange that the majority of Americans support Ukraine, but Joe can’t bend over backwards to give them aid (like he did with Israel), but once trump is elected democracy is dead. Seems to me democracy has been dead for decades if not centuries.

    • Lung@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yes the hypocrisy and showmanship here is out of control. Of course Biden could send aid to Ukraine without Congress, but I guess it’s better for him to make the Republicans look bad before the election. Pure evil stuff

      It’s shady shit like this that is a constant reminder, that we are being painted a false dichotomy by the ruling parties. And people eat it up, chanting “Republicans bad” and downplaying the genocide. Of course Palestinians don’t have nukes so America & Israel can just go hog wild and bathe in the charred bodies of children with no awkward escalation problems

        • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          We’re saying he helped israel in a way that hid’t need approval from congress, why isnt he doing the same for Ukraine?

        • Lung@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          The article math linked lays it out but it’s always the same formula. Someone declares an emergency (like Blinken just did for Israel) and then just goes ahead and appropriates the funds

          But broadly, presidents may issue executive orders for just about anything. The way this works is congress reviews them after the fact, and new presidents tend to review them when they come into office

          Read the wiki page on Executive Orders, history, and constitutionality if you think I’m lying. And yes, Trump even declared an emergency and took privilege to build the wall in recent memory. But there’s been literally wars, desegregation, ordering all mined gold to be given to the treasury… by executive order

          The big picture is that American presidents have extremely broad powers and the only real recourse is impeachment. This is generally a good thing, it makes the government tremendously more efficient

          The other big picture is that the Pentagon refuses to explain where they use 1-2 trillion dollars per year. This is dark money that runs the world, and that’s not a secret. They don’t pass audits, and they barely try. So most of the country’s money is used for military spending, and frankly it’s hard to imagine they can’t find some cash for key nato borders