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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32826 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023

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I'm not persuaded of the automatic moral duty of bystanders to intervene when one country consumes another any more than when one wild animal consumes another. In terms of international relations, the world is a jungle and jungle rules and ethics apply.

Here is where I have a little more sympathy for DeBoer's position. The US has been plenty glad to be a bystander in dozens of other bloody conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, so what makes Ukraine so special? Yarvin just seems agitated that his ideological opponents seem to be winning.

so what makes Ukraine so special?

It's a big country in Europe and not in the Middle East/Africa, to put it crudely.

Putting aside the "emotional" component of things as well, there's real benefits for the US to be had in this conflict, the US has been throwing pocket change and whatever rubbish it can be bothered to pull out of mothballs in exchange for watching Russia repeatedly shoot itself in the feet and legs.

Yarvin just seems agitated that his ideological opponents seem to be winning.

This, combined with those who reflexively oppose the west, seems to explain a lot of the pro-Russian sentiment in the west for this war.

whatever rubbish it can be bothered to pull out of mothballs in exchange for watching Russia repeatedly shoot itself in the feet and legs.

Eh, no. It hasn't been sending 'rubbish' out of 'mothballs'. Germans did that with a delivery of literally mold-covered east-German anti-air missiles.

Stingers and Javelin ATGMs are still standard issue. The ammunition sent also was of the same type military is still using.

The only piece of 'rubbish' sent by the US was the M777 howitzer, and maybe some shitty armored cars and humvees.

Now it's sending Bradley IFVs which.. are kinda midway, depending on their configuration.

Stingers and Javelin ATGMs are still standard issue. The ammunition sent also was of the same type military is still using.

As I said the last time this argument came up, while Something like 30 Billion dollars might sound like a lot it is quite literally pocket change when viewed in the context of the US Federal budget.

Likewise expending a bunch of ammo/gear that was approaching the end of its shelf-life anyway on actually diminishing a threat to our allies rather than in training exercises or just scrapping it seems like a no-brainer to me.

Uh-huh. Americans just sent their almost expired ammo to Ukraine, which is why they're now sweet-talking South Korea and Israel to start selling off parts of their artillery shell stockpiles.

Yes actually. Volume is volume.

If you can convince other countries to send their existing stockpiles to Ukraine while buying restocks from GD, ATK, and Raytheon that's a win for the US military industrial complex.

No, US is talking about buying shells from abroad, not selling shells to foreign countries.

Indeed, some have said they won't ship shells to Ukraine, but will sell them to various NATO countries who can then ship out their own stockpiles.

Yet despite all this shuffling, apparently there isn't enough 155mm ammo for Ukrainian guns.

Yet despite all this shuffling, apparently there isn't enough 155mm ammo for Ukrainian guns.

Which shouldn't surprise anyone actually familiar with history. War always consumes ammunition faster than you can make it.

Well cut quote, everything you've listed is covered by "pocket change".

There's a difference between mothballed & obsolete and 'equipment that's still in front line use and will be missed because no one can restart production lines fast enough'.

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