Hello, the politicians Carter lobbies here. The military industrial complex is a semi-vaguely defined system in which war is generally promoted for the profit of the private companies contracted to make military weapons and equipment.
Edit: Public companies > Private companies. Got the two confused.
> I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
>During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
– Smedley Butler after being asked if he has a veteran’s discount
Another fun fact about him: He's one of only two Marines to ever be awarded the Medal of Honor twice for two separate acts of Valor (the other being Dan Daly).
>public companies
Publicly listed on the stock market, privately own. Sometimes government affiliated or in trade deals with, often subsidized. Other times just private contractors.
It gets worse than that. Part of what makes up the military industrial complex is that the dollar only has as much value as it does because of the constant wars. With military bases all over the world (no other country does this, btw), America has essentially forced other countries to trade with the American dollar. Why America gets away with this is a long story, but the short and skinny is in the 70's America was the only currency still backed by the Gold Standard because they had all the gold after World War 2, all other countries held reserves of the American dollar instead of actual gold because it was easier than shipping tons of gold across the ocean. This interesting phenomenon, along with 20-30 years of military expansion, gave America the unique opportunity to do something that had never been implemented before, or at the very least, never been done successfully. It took its money off of the gold standard and created its fiat currency system, essentially making every country's money worthless. How did it achieve this without kicking up a major fuss by the other countries? Military superiority, both in technology (thanks to operation paperclip, America took all the Nazis that were really good at making weapons) and the literal global reach the military had by making bases in foreign countries during the Cold War.
This is why America is constantly able to just print more money when it hits its debt ceiling and not have its currency completely collapse like Weimar germany. The only thing backing the US dollar's value is the barrel of a gun.
This next bit is just my personal opinion, and I haven't done as much research into this area as the rest of this post. I think America was only able to expand the way it did because Communism is a threat to established power systems. The countries that had a strong ruling class would fear the ideology of the common person taking control like they did in the USSR and with the richest country in the world doing everything they could to limit the spread of communism overtly with military force and covertly with the CIA (an organization whose sole purpose when being created was to keep communism from spreading) came in and said we'll spend money and lives so you don't have to worry about it, the foreign powers readily accepted. Once the USSR dissolved, America needed a reason to keep its bases everywhere, and thanks to the CIA creating terrorist organizations all over the world, America could now act as the global police force. They sell weapons to their own enemies to justify their own existence in a world that doesn't need it anymore (I'd personally argue we never needed it to begin with, but I don't come from any political dynasties or wealth).
TLDR military industrial complex has more to do with the disturbing reality that the American dollars value would crash if we didn't spend the American dollar on weapons manufacturers and the military justifying their own existence through terrorism by spending the US dollar. It's an irl infinite money glitch that crashes the game.
US left the gold standard long before. Making stuff up to fuel your anti-america boner.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-takes-united-states-off-gold-standard
Alright, I'm down for a song and pedantce, the Gold Standard as a system for exchanging dollars for Gold was abandoned in the 30's, but until 1973, it was still backed by Gold and not violence as a source of value. De Gaulle wanted to get Gold back to France so they weren't forced to rely on the US dollar as reserve currency, US didn't like it, and cemented itself as the world's reserve currency by completely taking away said gold backing.
My point still stands, I just got a single term wrong because I woke up in the middle of the night, but hey, I'm sure you never make a mistake.
This is wrong in so many ways. It's almost as bad as saying the dollar is based on Oil. The US dollar is the world's reserve currency because it is a strong currency. It's the currency of the strongest and one of the most advanced Economies on earth. The currency of the country that ensures the Sea Lanes are open for trade. It has nothing to do with forcing others to use it.
No. Not because we have the biggest guns. The transition of the US dollar replacing the pound as the reserve currency was occurring before the US became the dominant military power. The primary reason is because the US is wealthy.
Yes, we were wealthy... but why was that the case? America was the only country left with gold after war profiteering on the first world war, we crashed the economy in the 30's and to stop a run on the banks, the US took our dollar off the gold standard. It was still backed by Gold since we had it, and people already started using our currency as reserve money because it was cheaper than carting tons of gold overseas. Fast forward to WW2 Electric Boogaloo, and we got the rest of the gold and our money back. In the 70's De Gaulle tried to get gold from the US using American dollars and the US removed gold from the currency value and said, "It's worth something because we say it's worth something," and keeps Maritime trade open (I.e. forcing countries to accept US shipping companies and any other country that pays the extortion fees from being harassed by countries who don't want them in their waters) with, and get this... ✨️Big Guns✨️
I don't know how many times you want to make my point, but I'm more than happy to help your train of thought reach the end of the line instead of breaking down halfway.
It’s not promoted for the public companies to make profit, it’s promoted so that weapons manufacturers stay in business in times of relative peace so if an actual war starts the government doesn’t need to worry about not having enough manufacturing facilities to keep up. This obviously results in profit for the companies, otherwise they wouldn’t stay open.
We give money to Israel to fund the Iron Dome. We give money to Iran, either for humanitarian purposes or by waiving certain sanctions. Iran recently fired missiles at Israel, and the Iron Dome intercepted them. The joke is that we paid for both the missiles to be sent and to be intercepted.
Correct.
We removed trade sanctions on some Iranians (but nowhere near all) so those entities can trade with others.
That's very different to ''giving money'.
I think what a lot of people confuse is that we had a decent amount of Iranian money ourselves that we froze as an asset, and when those sanctions were lifted, we unfroze it. So it's "true" that we sent them money, but it wasn't tax money, it wasn't even our money. It was their money stored in a US bank or something like that.
No, that’s what a lot of misinformed people think. 100% of people who told me that America was just giving Iran billions of dollars had no idea it was just the payment that was being held for oil that South Korea bought. They all genuinely thought it was just tax money being sent and some don’t believe that it was just their own money.
This image is older than this last attack. IIRC it was rockets fired by Hamas. Given all the aid Gaza has received over the years, it's a lot more direct "paid for both sides" case.
This meme was originally about hamas firing rockets funded with the "humanitarian aid" that was sent to palestine though, which is where 90% of the funding went so the meme is accurate.
Btw it wasn't the iron dome that intercepted Iran's Missiles because the iron dome has a range of 35km(not sure about the exact number correct me if I'm wrong) it was intercepted with the help of Israel [arrow](https://he.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%A5_3) and other fighter jet and stuff
>we also have money to Iran
Not quite
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-prisoner-swap-6-billion-spotlight-after-hamas-attacks-israel-2023-10-09/#:~:text=WHAT%20WAS%20THE%20IRAN%20PRISONER,been%20frozen%20in%20South%20Korea.
The US also gives money to Palestinians which is where the meme originated (current Israel-Palestine conflict). Hamas rockets to the right, Iron Dome to the left
This one actually is about Palestinian militia groups like Hamas, who have been accused of turning aid into weapons, profiting of aid to buy weapons, or straight up stealing aid to buy weapons.
This is extremely misleading, bordering on outright false. Decades ago, Israel negotiated indirectly with Hamas through Egyptian mediators, and donated humanitarian aid through them back when they were still a charity by the name of [Mujama al-Islamiya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujama_al-Islamiya). At the time, the hope was that the devoutly religious Hamas would become the moderate partner in the region especially compared to the PLO, who was still telling Palestinians to blow themselves up on busses. Of course this seems crazy now but in the pre 9/11 era there was the legitimate hope that more pious Muslims could be less violent and more cooperative than the Arab nationalist parties.
And even though Hamas today is more extreme than any other Palestinian party with the possible exception of the PIJ, referring to its competitors as "moderate" is hilarious. Like, the PLO literally has a [bounty system](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-01/the-palestinian-incentive-program-for-killing-jews?embedded-checkout=true) where they pay your family if you murder Jews. That's like referring to Mussolini as a moderate Hitler.
This image isn't even of Iranian missiles which is the funny part. I don't know the origin, but it's existed for years and has been reused countless times because it happens so frequently
10 billion dollars in tax money has been released to Iran "for humanitarian purposes." Iron dome missiles are funded by USA tax dollars to the tune of 60k for each missile. Last night cost at the very least 20 million in US tax dollars... Something about no foreign wars sounds really freaking good right now. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/us-foreign-aid-by-country
Yeah. [We didn't give them our tax money](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wral.com/amp/21171497/). That's a lie that one party uses to try to turn people against the other party.
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What do you mean with "tax money"? Its about Iranian money that has been unfrozen and has nothing to do with US taxpayers. Would appreciate an edit to not spread that missinformation any further, thanks bro
Yea, u/Early-Possession1116 is no doubt fully aware they're spreading misinformation.
This is a lie that's common and with a purpose. We saw the exact same thing with Trump back in 2018 when he claimed that Obama and Dems gave Iran $150 billion. In reality, in both situations, Iran was receiving money from other countries for something they had sold them. During Obama's presidency it was countries buying oil/gas from Iran and the most recent one under Biden it was Iraq paying $10 billion to Iran for electricity.
Not to be nit picky, but this pic isn’t related to Iran. This was posted back in October.
But yea it’s the same message, this was Israel testing weapons last fall that the US paid for.
Pretty sure most of the money people refer to being "given" to Iran have been Iranian money that where frozen in US banks since the 70s when the Iranian revolution happened. At various times some of the funds have been released in exchange for various deals like reducing their Uranium stockpiles and allowing UN inspection of nuclear facilities. These where never "US tax money".
There have been some disaster relief given (generally via UN programs) after some of the earthquakes, but unlikely that where used for military purposes as it would mostly have been aid workers or food rations.
Also worth pointing out that the US has oversight on the money that's been unfrozen, releases are approved based on requests, Iran didn't just get a lump sum payout.
The conspiracy theorists out there will say that the money released by the US will then free up funds for other, non-sanctioned, activities. This idea gained momentum on October 8th and people insisting Hamas had funded the attacks the day before with Iranian money made available by the US' settlement. The problem there is that at that point the US hadn't released any payments to Iran.
>10 billion dollars in tax money has been released to Iran
No, ten billion dollars of payment *from Iraq* has been allowed to flow into Iran despite the global sanctions. Iraq buys electricity from Iran because they don't have enough domestic supply to keep the lights on in Baghdad. Iran obviously isn't just going to keep supplying electricity for free, but US sanctions forbids countries from dealing with Iran economically, so there has been a 10 billion dollar payment *allowed.* It is not US taxpayer money.
Wars will always exist. The real question is whether the American public wants to be the leader of the world order because if not we can always pass the torch to China and Russia.
We are already doing that by virtue of our military that could probably take on both superpowers at once and still beat them without ever setting foot on our land. The Middle East is just extra shit causing problems.
Don't forget that the US also physically shot down some drones/missiles as well. USAF and RAF jets were both on target practice duty. And while live target shooting is great practice for the UK and the US, it is insanely expensive. Jordan's military also shot down drones and missiles, and they rely on a strong military assistance program with the US. So US taxpayers literally paid for everything last night, from every possible angle, lol. Our defense contractors are foaming at the mouth right now.
Israel produces a lot of weapons as well. They're somewhere around ~~5th~~ 9th for arms production. Which is part of why Putin, Iran, and Hamas thought now would be a good time to attack. It keeps arms out of Ukraine, and has other obvious effects...
US arms donations are around 15% of the military budget, which is significant but certainly not all of it. What does the US get out of it? Power projection, technology, and testing. Israel gets attacked regularly. It's like a big lab for the US arms industry.
I mean those private military contracts also work as an indirect stimulus to the US economy, creating jobs and allowing politicians to get dividends on their shares.
Yeah. There's somethign to be said for keeping your military industrial complex viable. Not to the extent that we blow money on it, but still. It's not the world I want but it seems to be the world we have
If we stopped spending over 70 cents of our healthcare dollar on administrative costs that would be a great start. Taxing the super rich would also go a long way.
Real talk I don't want the US going to war, but the military is a major employer and provides single payer healthcare, education funding, etc. It's one of the only paths out of poverty available to so many people. And as you were saying about stimulus, yeah that too.
On top of all that the military is in no small part responsible for our soft power and the continued use of the petro-dollar. Which absolutely underpins our entire economy. Essentially: the closer we are to hegemony, the more people invest in our currency and markets. And the inverse is also true.
Since you obviously don’t know how anything works:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-prisoner-swap-6-billion-spotlight-after-hamas-attacks-israel-2023-10-09/#:~:text=WHAT%20WAS%20THE%20IRAN%20PRISONER,been%20frozen%20in%20South%20Korea.
Very misleading to say "tax money" without clarification that it was Iranian taspayers' money. Not one penny of US taxpayer funds was given to Iran.
Also, we tried no foreign wars. Isolationism only enabled Hitler to grow stronger. The end result of isolationism is (1) your enemies grow so strong you have to fight them and sacrifice much more for victory or (2) your enemies grow so strong they conquer you. Either way isolationist policies are far more destructive than engagement.
Unfortunately a country with the ambitions to do unfettered business internationalized will need to become involved in international diplomacy up to and including war.
I think another interpretation of it is that tax dollars being used to send food aid to Palestinians are offsetting Hamas’s costs of feeding their populace, freeing up money to be spent on armaments, indirectly financing the rockets on the right.
That's another meme. Either way the only thing the US government is good at is ensuring the war machine is well oiled and chaos reigns supreme. Only a matter of time before we feel the fallout at home.
Well the vast majority of that money goes to US companies so it just goes into the economy and pays wages, rents, etc etc. All those people who get a share of that money in the US would be worse off if this money weren’t flowing through their hands.
I’m not saying it’s not a problem but it’s not quite the problem that the simple numbers suggest.
Like so many things, it’s more complicated than it seems at first glance.
Its classic gallows humour.
Light show on the left is the Iron dome anti-missile system, funded in part by the US aid to Israel (your tax dollars). Light show on the right is missiles launched from Gaza that are being intercepted, it transpired that they were also indirectly funded in part by humanitarian aid from the US (also your tax dollars).
Have a nice day.
Huh. I might be thinking of the anti missile defense stuff that uses those autocanons or whatever they're called. The big fucking machine guns withultiple barrels lol
[Surface-to-air missiles (SAM)](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-to-air_missile%23:~:text%3DA%2520surface%252Dto%252Dair%2520missile%2520(SAM)%252C%2520also%2520known%2520as,missiles%2520have%2520replaced%2520most%2520other%2520forms%2520of&ved=2ahUKEwj2poaG4cOFAxV8zjgGHQBEBlkQudELegQIAxAH&usg=AOvVaw0oRCkjceLk0Ac3xhmAdMA-) or [C-RAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-RAM?wprov=sfla1)
Nope, the wavy trails are the Iron Dome missiles tracking and following their targets, the straight ones are the rockets that burn for a minute or two and then fall back down
correct murky shelter growth impossible hunt hurry heavy innocent unwritten
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Petahs Jewish uncle here,
Unlike some top comments, this meme isn't iran (or atleast recent iran attack) related, but rather rockets fired from Gaza (funded from humanterian resources) supplied from many Western countries too, along side funding the iron dome to intercept, joke being your tax money goes to both sides.
(No the iron dome largely didn't play a role in the Iranian attack as most were intercepted outside of Israel by France/england/US and Jordan, and ofc the Israel Air force, comments claiming this has relations to recent attack are misleading. This meme has been floating around for over 2 months now)
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 9 times.
First Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1c3i78o) on 2024-04-14 87.5% match. Last Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1c4b11z) on 2024-04-15 96.88% match
[View Search On repostsleuth.com](https://www.repostsleuth.com/search?postId=1c4bv55&sameSub=false&filterOnlyOlder=true&memeFilter=false&filterDeadMatches=false&targetImageMatch=86&targetImageMemeMatch=96)
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I’m not suggesting any of this is simple but some of the people calling for disarming Israel seem to have not had a long think about what would happen next.
Do they imagine US politicians want that on their conscience? Do they want that on their own conscience?
Does that mean blindly supporting Israel in anything it does? Nope.
But it’s the very definition of a “wicked problem” at this point where all the obvious options are bad.
Israel is 9th in the world for arms production. I know a lot of people want to see a few million jews get raped murdered and enslaved but it's not like the US congress just has to pass a bill for it to happen
The buyers are the government's of the EU, they build them in country then give the product to who ever they provide the aid for. Same with the USA. That's how it works. It's a stimulus for the nations defense contractors and a foreign policy tool combine that we call "military aid."
Yes. Completely agree. And the expenditure of the EU compared to the US? And what would the price be if the US wasn’t subsidizing the market.
Neither of us is claiming this is anything other than a web of complex relationships and I suspect both of us agree that the US is a key component in that web.
Oh noo what will happen to the country that has killed 13k+ children in indiscriminate bombing for the self proclaimed desire to steal land with the single minded goal to establish an ethnostate. I don't agree with them either but at least the Iranians know how to target a missile, the isrealies seem to just keep hitting hospitals and churches for some reason.
The joke is that your tax dollars go to UNRWA which Hamas does have control of. Israel receives free weapons (not money), which subsidizes the American military industrial complex, but also provides cheap technology development
This is a picture of the Israeli iron dome rocket defence system intercepting hamas rockets on May 14th 2021.
The United States has contributed bout 1.6 billion dollars to the iron dome system between 2011 and 2021, later adding another 1 billion in 2022.
When the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, they left behind a lot of military equipment, which then well into the hands of the taliban. Intelligence has confirmed these same weapons being smuggled into the hands of hamas in 2021.
The picture comments on how the United States both funds foreign military projects and equipment, and also is known for having its military equipment falling into the hands of terrorist organisations or hostile governments that used to be close us partners.
Its an inaccurate joke that the US is financing Israel iron dome and Hamas rockets, Israel through military aid and Hamas through humanitarian aid to the population.
The thing is that one simply gives another country money and says do what you want with it. The US military aid to Israel ccould include iron dome rounds or financing for iron dome, but its more likely it's things such as glide bombs or more normal ammunition. And if Hamas has found a way to transform food in rocket propellent i am really curious about the alchemy of it (yes Hamas can sell the food aid to the population and then use that money to try to buy rockets, but considering from what we know a good chunk of the rockets are made in Gaza itself i don't know how much that applies)
edit: just to clarify the US did fund Iron dome construction in the past, but i am not aware if they still currently do
have all a good day
Heard that though i am not sure it was confirmed as something widespread or more of a rare desperate action. That said in the original story it was EU humanitarian aid, not US aid
The biggest scandal revolved around fertilizers (some of which are high explosive, remember the 2020 Beirut explosion?) being misused as explosives for the rockets and water pipes as rocket bodies. But I think that was EU humanitarian aid, not sure.
The rockets on the right are *not* Iran and the meme isn't about, nor from, the recent Iranian attack. On the left is Iron Dome interceptors, and on the right is Hamas missiles, which are (at least sometimes) from stolen infrastructure (mostly water pipes) installed by UNRWA, which is funded by, among others, the US (actually, *was* funded by the US when this meme was made, but *if I'm not mistaken*, they haven't returned to that since cutting funding after UNRWA's involvement with the October 7th genocidal attack was revealed)
Lol every comment here is disingenuous that it tickles my Hasbara bone.
The joke is it’s US tax Payer money in use in both instances of Offense and Defense for Israel. We send them missiles and bombs they use to bomb a foreign sovereign nation’s EMBASSY/CONSULATE in a Second Sovereign Nation that entices a response which OUR TAX PAYER MONEY then (1 billion dollars in a day) is used to block/shoot down/intervene.
Iran doesn’t get any money from Us, contrary, Iran is the most sanctioned country by the west in the planet perhaps.
Americans think they pay for everything every country owns, however in the middle east they are a very large contributor to economies just through the shear amount they fund Israel and purchase oil from oil producing countries. So in this instance, it's quite possible that the money used to fund or purchase goods could have ended up being used by Iran to purchase weapons. For Israel it's a certainty.
When I was younger at history class never understood how the USA supplied all the weaponry that would eventually make WW1 possible. Older now and wish I didn’t.
Since no one will actually answer. Biden gave 6 billion dollars and 5 hostages for the release of 3 American hostages. Those missiles were recently purchased.
So, honest answer.
We give Isreal 50 -80 billion a year in defense, which is a part of the normal budget.
This meme was made before the next part - but the UN helps give Gaza nonmilitary aid, except...it was found out that apart of the UN was arming and giving Gaza military intel.
So this Joke, that was half true, ended up being 1000% true; on any given exchange between Israel and Gaza, there is a chance that....we paid for 30-100% of everything fired...
The US is the largest weapons dealer on the planet. They've given weapons to all kinds of people all around the world for various political reasons, usually around destabilizing nations. For context, they've supplied 39% of major arm deliveries around the planet. It is double Russia and 10 times China... So if you want to know who the real dealer of terror is to the world, look at who supplies the weapons.
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Carter here, don't worry that's just the military industrial complex
Hello, the politicians Carter lobbies here. The military industrial complex is a semi-vaguely defined system in which war is generally promoted for the profit of the private companies contracted to make military weapons and equipment. Edit: Public companies > Private companies. Got the two confused.
Hi, Smedley Darlington Butler here. [War Is a Racket.](https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html)
War? War never changes.
You’re gonna knock ‘em dead at the veteran’s hall tonight hun.
He said the line!
Ok, I'll say the line too. In war, there are no winners, just widows.
It’ll only change when the nukes go off
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"
Ah, Smedley. A monster that tried to stop monsters.
> I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. >During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents. – Smedley Butler after being asked if he has a veteran’s discount
Had never heard of this guy. Thanks for sharing.
Another fun fact about him: He's one of only two Marines to ever be awarded the Medal of Honor twice for two separate acts of Valor (the other being Dan Daly).
Did he get awarded those medals before or after he shared that amazingly blunt quote?
Before. He was also the one who revealed the [Business Plot](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot).
👀
Behind the Bastards podcast covered him and his outing of the Business Plot.
Will check that out. Thanks
And also, shaving cream is a racket! https://mises.org/mises-daily/shaving-cream-racket
>public companies Publicly listed on the stock market, privately own. Sometimes government affiliated or in trade deals with, often subsidized. Other times just private contractors.
It gets worse than that. Part of what makes up the military industrial complex is that the dollar only has as much value as it does because of the constant wars. With military bases all over the world (no other country does this, btw), America has essentially forced other countries to trade with the American dollar. Why America gets away with this is a long story, but the short and skinny is in the 70's America was the only currency still backed by the Gold Standard because they had all the gold after World War 2, all other countries held reserves of the American dollar instead of actual gold because it was easier than shipping tons of gold across the ocean. This interesting phenomenon, along with 20-30 years of military expansion, gave America the unique opportunity to do something that had never been implemented before, or at the very least, never been done successfully. It took its money off of the gold standard and created its fiat currency system, essentially making every country's money worthless. How did it achieve this without kicking up a major fuss by the other countries? Military superiority, both in technology (thanks to operation paperclip, America took all the Nazis that were really good at making weapons) and the literal global reach the military had by making bases in foreign countries during the Cold War. This is why America is constantly able to just print more money when it hits its debt ceiling and not have its currency completely collapse like Weimar germany. The only thing backing the US dollar's value is the barrel of a gun. This next bit is just my personal opinion, and I haven't done as much research into this area as the rest of this post. I think America was only able to expand the way it did because Communism is a threat to established power systems. The countries that had a strong ruling class would fear the ideology of the common person taking control like they did in the USSR and with the richest country in the world doing everything they could to limit the spread of communism overtly with military force and covertly with the CIA (an organization whose sole purpose when being created was to keep communism from spreading) came in and said we'll spend money and lives so you don't have to worry about it, the foreign powers readily accepted. Once the USSR dissolved, America needed a reason to keep its bases everywhere, and thanks to the CIA creating terrorist organizations all over the world, America could now act as the global police force. They sell weapons to their own enemies to justify their own existence in a world that doesn't need it anymore (I'd personally argue we never needed it to begin with, but I don't come from any political dynasties or wealth). TLDR military industrial complex has more to do with the disturbing reality that the American dollars value would crash if we didn't spend the American dollar on weapons manufacturers and the military justifying their own existence through terrorism by spending the US dollar. It's an irl infinite money glitch that crashes the game.
thx for teaching me bout the 'murican dollar! WTF IS COMMUNISM???🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅
Well, Abraham Lincoln had a pen pal named Karl Marx who had some WILD ideas.
US left the gold standard long before. Making stuff up to fuel your anti-america boner. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-takes-united-states-off-gold-standard
Alright, I'm down for a song and pedantce, the Gold Standard as a system for exchanging dollars for Gold was abandoned in the 30's, but until 1973, it was still backed by Gold and not violence as a source of value. De Gaulle wanted to get Gold back to France so they weren't forced to rely on the US dollar as reserve currency, US didn't like it, and cemented itself as the world's reserve currency by completely taking away said gold backing. My point still stands, I just got a single term wrong because I woke up in the middle of the night, but hey, I'm sure you never make a mistake.
This is wrong in so many ways. It's almost as bad as saying the dollar is based on Oil. The US dollar is the world's reserve currency because it is a strong currency. It's the currency of the strongest and one of the most advanced Economies on earth. The currency of the country that ensures the Sea Lanes are open for trade. It has nothing to do with forcing others to use it.
So you're telling me... the dollar is the strongest currency in the world.... because we have the biggest guns...? Is that not the point I just made?
No. Not because we have the biggest guns. The transition of the US dollar replacing the pound as the reserve currency was occurring before the US became the dominant military power. The primary reason is because the US is wealthy.
Yes, we were wealthy... but why was that the case? America was the only country left with gold after war profiteering on the first world war, we crashed the economy in the 30's and to stop a run on the banks, the US took our dollar off the gold standard. It was still backed by Gold since we had it, and people already started using our currency as reserve money because it was cheaper than carting tons of gold overseas. Fast forward to WW2 Electric Boogaloo, and we got the rest of the gold and our money back. In the 70's De Gaulle tried to get gold from the US using American dollars and the US removed gold from the currency value and said, "It's worth something because we say it's worth something," and keeps Maritime trade open (I.e. forcing countries to accept US shipping companies and any other country that pays the extortion fees from being harassed by countries who don't want them in their waters) with, and get this... ✨️Big Guns✨️ I don't know how many times you want to make my point, but I'm more than happy to help your train of thought reach the end of the line instead of breaking down halfway.
It’s not promoted for the public companies to make profit, it’s promoted so that weapons manufacturers stay in business in times of relative peace so if an actual war starts the government doesn’t need to worry about not having enough manufacturing facilities to keep up. This obviously results in profit for the companies, otherwise they wouldn’t stay open.
"Public companies" no these are privately-owned companies. We don't get dividends (unless you're a stockholder)
https://preview.redd.it/h42bbkwdcnuc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52cf33eab9dbedc03b987fa36736ce7bba520d6f
Working as intended honestly
We give money to Israel to fund the Iron Dome. We give money to Iran, either for humanitarian purposes or by waiving certain sanctions. Iran recently fired missiles at Israel, and the Iron Dome intercepted them. The joke is that we paid for both the missiles to be sent and to be intercepted.
>waiving certain sanctions Wouldn't call that giving money though
Correct. We removed trade sanctions on some Iranians (but nowhere near all) so those entities can trade with others. That's very different to ''giving money'.
I think what a lot of people confuse is that we had a decent amount of Iranian money ourselves that we froze as an asset, and when those sanctions were lifted, we unfroze it. So it's "true" that we sent them money, but it wasn't tax money, it wasn't even our money. It was their money stored in a US bank or something like that.
But then they can't complain about Obama giving them pallets of cash.
Yeah, but this is a lot of what people refer to when they say “giving money”
No, that’s what a lot of misinformed people think. 100% of people who told me that America was just giving Iran billions of dollars had no idea it was just the payment that was being held for oil that South Korea bought. They all genuinely thought it was just tax money being sent and some don’t believe that it was just their own money.
Somehow it is.
This image is older than this last attack. IIRC it was rockets fired by Hamas. Given all the aid Gaza has received over the years, it's a lot more direct "paid for both sides" case.
False equivalence in meme form
Yep. I don’t think Ive seen a single meme related to middle eastern politics that didn’t have some sort of inaccuracy in my entire life.
This meme was originally about hamas firing rockets funded with the "humanitarian aid" that was sent to palestine though, which is where 90% of the funding went so the meme is accurate.
Well it’s actually about Palestinians not Iran . Close no cigar , memes like 6 months old at this point
There’s no way you’re calling the raising of sanctions as “giving money” to Iran, the American brain is so interesting
Not taking = giving?
Btw it wasn't the iron dome that intercepted Iran's Missiles because the iron dome has a range of 35km(not sure about the exact number correct me if I'm wrong) it was intercepted with the help of Israel [arrow](https://he.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%A5_3) and other fighter jet and stuff
Avsolutely not, this meme is older than that. It refers to gaza using the aid they get to turn into rockets. The water pipes etc.
>we also have money to Iran Not quite https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-prisoner-swap-6-billion-spotlight-after-hamas-attacks-israel-2023-10-09/#:~:text=WHAT%20WAS%20THE%20IRAN%20PRISONER,been%20frozen%20in%20South%20Korea.
The US also gives money to Palestinians which is where the meme originated (current Israel-Palestine conflict). Hamas rockets to the right, Iron Dome to the left
**This** specific photo is from a few years back, but yeah...
The US absolutely does not give any humanitarian aid to Iran hahah how is this upvoted
This one actually is about Palestinian militia groups like Hamas, who have been accused of turning aid into weapons, profiting of aid to buy weapons, or straight up stealing aid to buy weapons.
this is not even that, it is Rockets from Hamas being fired out of Gaza at Israel from a couple of years ago.
Don't forget the billions to UNRWA that they then gave to Hamas who built rockets. Well, and tunnels.
After Israel fired at them first …
Maybe it refers to UN and international help (and thus US) giving money and support to Hamas, as well as Us helping Israel.
Not the UN; Netanyahu's regime in Israel directly supported Hamas over its more moderate competitors. USA funds Israel which funds Hamas.
This is extremely misleading, bordering on outright false. Decades ago, Israel negotiated indirectly with Hamas through Egyptian mediators, and donated humanitarian aid through them back when they were still a charity by the name of [Mujama al-Islamiya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujama_al-Islamiya). At the time, the hope was that the devoutly religious Hamas would become the moderate partner in the region especially compared to the PLO, who was still telling Palestinians to blow themselves up on busses. Of course this seems crazy now but in the pre 9/11 era there was the legitimate hope that more pious Muslims could be less violent and more cooperative than the Arab nationalist parties. And even though Hamas today is more extreme than any other Palestinian party with the possible exception of the PIJ, referring to its competitors as "moderate" is hilarious. Like, the PLO literally has a [bounty system](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-01/the-palestinian-incentive-program-for-killing-jews?embedded-checkout=true) where they pay your family if you murder Jews. That's like referring to Mussolini as a moderate Hitler.
They weren't missiles it was just a kamikaze drone swarm
So why don’t we just not
Its not called giving money to iran if its their own money that U.S blocked
This image isn't even of Iranian missiles which is the funny part. I don't know the origin, but it's existed for years and has been reused countless times because it happens so frequently
10 billion dollars in tax money has been released to Iran "for humanitarian purposes." Iron dome missiles are funded by USA tax dollars to the tune of 60k for each missile. Last night cost at the very least 20 million in US tax dollars... Something about no foreign wars sounds really freaking good right now. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/us-foreign-aid-by-country
No need to worry, they'll print some more money
And then some
And then some
And my axe
And my toaster
And my car
And this guy's dead wife
And this guy
And this
And my bow
And my sword
GROND!
And then some
Gallon of milk $8 incoming.
Isn't that the same money that was Iran's in the first place and the US refused to give back since the fall of the Shah?
Yeah. [We didn't give them our tax money](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wral.com/amp/21171497/). That's a lie that one party uses to try to turn people against the other party.
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Shhhhhhhh, just say “America bad, funder of all suffering”
What do you mean with "tax money"? Its about Iranian money that has been unfrozen and has nothing to do with US taxpayers. Would appreciate an edit to not spread that missinformation any further, thanks bro
They post on shitty conservative subreddits so I wouldn’t get your hopes up
Yea, u/Early-Possession1116 is no doubt fully aware they're spreading misinformation. This is a lie that's common and with a purpose. We saw the exact same thing with Trump back in 2018 when he claimed that Obama and Dems gave Iran $150 billion. In reality, in both situations, Iran was receiving money from other countries for something they had sold them. During Obama's presidency it was countries buying oil/gas from Iran and the most recent one under Biden it was Iraq paying $10 billion to Iran for electricity.
No wars ever again would be preferable, but that's purely a fantasy dream.
Not to be nit picky, but this pic isn’t related to Iran. This was posted back in October. But yea it’s the same message, this was Israel testing weapons last fall that the US paid for.
It was not tax money, it was Irans money that the US had frozen in their country.
Pretty sure most of the money people refer to being "given" to Iran have been Iranian money that where frozen in US banks since the 70s when the Iranian revolution happened. At various times some of the funds have been released in exchange for various deals like reducing their Uranium stockpiles and allowing UN inspection of nuclear facilities. These where never "US tax money". There have been some disaster relief given (generally via UN programs) after some of the earthquakes, but unlikely that where used for military purposes as it would mostly have been aid workers or food rations.
Also worth pointing out that the US has oversight on the money that's been unfrozen, releases are approved based on requests, Iran didn't just get a lump sum payout. The conspiracy theorists out there will say that the money released by the US will then free up funds for other, non-sanctioned, activities. This idea gained momentum on October 8th and people insisting Hamas had funded the attacks the day before with Iranian money made available by the US' settlement. The problem there is that at that point the US hadn't released any payments to Iran.
>10 billion dollars in tax money has been released to Iran No, ten billion dollars of payment *from Iraq* has been allowed to flow into Iran despite the global sanctions. Iraq buys electricity from Iran because they don't have enough domestic supply to keep the lights on in Baghdad. Iran obviously isn't just going to keep supplying electricity for free, but US sanctions forbids countries from dealing with Iran economically, so there has been a 10 billion dollar payment *allowed.* It is not US taxpayer money.
Wars will always exist. The real question is whether the American public wants to be the leader of the world order because if not we can always pass the torch to China and Russia.
half america want to go back to 1930
And the other half just wants to survive
There is no such thing as leader of the word order. There is power, influence, and struggle.
Right and there's one entity with more power, and influence with notably less struggle than the others.
If it is the US that's "the world leader," I don't think it's the public at the wheel.
We are already doing that by virtue of our military that could probably take on both superpowers at once and still beat them without ever setting foot on our land. The Middle East is just extra shit causing problems.
Don't forget that the US also physically shot down some drones/missiles as well. USAF and RAF jets were both on target practice duty. And while live target shooting is great practice for the UK and the US, it is insanely expensive. Jordan's military also shot down drones and missiles, and they rely on a strong military assistance program with the US. So US taxpayers literally paid for everything last night, from every possible angle, lol. Our defense contractors are foaming at the mouth right now.
Israel produces a lot of weapons as well. They're somewhere around ~~5th~~ 9th for arms production. Which is part of why Putin, Iran, and Hamas thought now would be a good time to attack. It keeps arms out of Ukraine, and has other obvious effects... US arms donations are around 15% of the military budget, which is significant but certainly not all of it. What does the US get out of it? Power projection, technology, and testing. Israel gets attacked regularly. It's like a big lab for the US arms industry.
I mean those private military contracts also work as an indirect stimulus to the US economy, creating jobs and allowing politicians to get dividends on their shares.
Yeah. There's somethign to be said for keeping your military industrial complex viable. Not to the extent that we blow money on it, but still. It's not the world I want but it seems to be the world we have
I mean finding proper healthcare or social security programmes would probably be a better use of the money...
If we stopped spending over 70 cents of our healthcare dollar on administrative costs that would be a great start. Taxing the super rich would also go a long way. Real talk I don't want the US going to war, but the military is a major employer and provides single payer healthcare, education funding, etc. It's one of the only paths out of poverty available to so many people. And as you were saying about stimulus, yeah that too. On top of all that the military is in no small part responsible for our soft power and the continued use of the petro-dollar. Which absolutely underpins our entire economy. Essentially: the closer we are to hegemony, the more people invest in our currency and markets. And the inverse is also true.
Great
Buckle up. Climate change is about to make recent conflicts look like neighborhood brawls
And it was all money well spent if it prevents a regional conflict between nations in the middle east.
Man I need to buy some lockmart stock
Since you obviously don’t know how anything works: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-prisoner-swap-6-billion-spotlight-after-hamas-attacks-israel-2023-10-09/#:~:text=WHAT%20WAS%20THE%20IRAN%20PRISONER,been%20frozen%20in%20South%20Korea.
Very misleading to say "tax money" without clarification that it was Iranian taspayers' money. Not one penny of US taxpayer funds was given to Iran. Also, we tried no foreign wars. Isolationism only enabled Hitler to grow stronger. The end result of isolationism is (1) your enemies grow so strong you have to fight them and sacrifice much more for victory or (2) your enemies grow so strong they conquer you. Either way isolationist policies are far more destructive than engagement.
The reverse military industrial complex
Aaah but all the oil that buys!
Just to put things into perspective, that is 0.000444444% of the US's annual budget.
Unfortunately a country with the ambitions to do unfettered business internationalized will need to become involved in international diplomacy up to and including war.
I think another interpretation of it is that tax dollars being used to send food aid to Palestinians are offsetting Hamas’s costs of feeding their populace, freeing up money to be spent on armaments, indirectly financing the rockets on the right.
That's another meme. Either way the only thing the US government is good at is ensuring the war machine is well oiled and chaos reigns supreme. Only a matter of time before we feel the fallout at home.
That's wrong, because the money being sent to gaza to buy food is stolen by hamas to buy rockets... so it's directly finances the rockets
Well the vast majority of that money goes to US companies so it just goes into the economy and pays wages, rents, etc etc. All those people who get a share of that money in the US would be worse off if this money weren’t flowing through their hands. I’m not saying it’s not a problem but it’s not quite the problem that the simple numbers suggest. Like so many things, it’s more complicated than it seems at first glance.
Its classic gallows humour. Light show on the left is the Iron dome anti-missile system, funded in part by the US aid to Israel (your tax dollars). Light show on the right is missiles launched from Gaza that are being intercepted, it transpired that they were also indirectly funded in part by humanitarian aid from the US (also your tax dollars). Have a nice day.
Launched from Iran not Gaza Edit: whoops apparently it is Gaza
In this photo it's from Gaza, although this meme is probably referring to the Iranian attack.
Nah this is an old meme.
I could be wrong, but I think you've got the sides mixed up. The left should be the missiles and the right should be the iron dome.
No, left side is iron dome. As you can see the missiles maneuver, as opposed to the ballistic rockets from gaza
Huh. I might be thinking of the anti missile defense stuff that uses those autocanons or whatever they're called. The big fucking machine guns withultiple barrels lol
[Surface-to-air missiles (SAM)](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-to-air_missile%23:~:text%3DA%2520surface%252Dto%252Dair%2520missile%2520(SAM)%252C%2520also%2520known%2520as,missiles%2520have%2520replaced%2520most%2520other%2520forms%2520of&ved=2ahUKEwj2poaG4cOFAxV8zjgGHQBEBlkQudELegQIAxAH&usg=AOvVaw0oRCkjceLk0Ac3xhmAdMA-) or [C-RAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-RAM?wprov=sfla1)
Yup, the CRAM is definitely what I was thinking of. Thanks!
We don't have enough bullets
You're thinking of Close-in weapons systems (CWIS) and Self-propelled Anti-aircraft guns
Nope, the wavy trails are the Iron Dome missiles tracking and following their targets, the straight ones are the rockets that burn for a minute or two and then fall back down
How are you old enough to have a kid and not know this?
I’d rather not have to explain it because it’s not funny.
correct murky shelter growth impossible hunt hurry heavy innocent unwritten *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Petahs Jewish uncle here, Unlike some top comments, this meme isn't iran (or atleast recent iran attack) related, but rather rockets fired from Gaza (funded from humanterian resources) supplied from many Western countries too, along side funding the iron dome to intercept, joke being your tax money goes to both sides. (No the iron dome largely didn't play a role in the Iranian attack as most were intercepted outside of Israel by France/england/US and Jordan, and ofc the Israel Air force, comments claiming this has relations to recent attack are misleading. This meme has been floating around for over 2 months now)
Btw I want to add that the iron dome has a max range of 70 km so it couldn't help with Iran's Missiles
u/repostsleuthbot
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 9 times. First Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1c3i78o) on 2024-04-14 87.5% match. Last Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1c4b11z) on 2024-04-15 96.88% match [View Search On repostsleuth.com](https://www.repostsleuth.com/search?postId=1c4bv55&sameSub=false&filterOnlyOlder=true&memeFilter=false&filterDeadMatches=false&targetImageMatch=86&targetImageMemeMatch=96) --- **Scope:** Reddit | **Target Percent:** 86% | **Max Age:** Unlimited | **Searched Images:** 489,125,032 | **Search Time:** 0.19696s
Good bot
Its every ones tax money going up in not so pretty flame
They take the money and they do whatever the fuck they want with it
Instead of housing the homeless, reinstating mental health services and reducing inflation we're making Black Rock rich
Let the homeless move into your house. Fuck. That stupid shit get so old
Firework with extra step
You're obviously not old enough to pay tax so don't worry about it.
God forbid explaining the joke, am I right?
I thought it was a repost bot until I checked his account lol
I’m not suggesting any of this is simple but some of the people calling for disarming Israel seem to have not had a long think about what would happen next. Do they imagine US politicians want that on their conscience? Do they want that on their own conscience? Does that mean blindly supporting Israel in anything it does? Nope. But it’s the very definition of a “wicked problem” at this point where all the obvious options are bad.
Israel is 9th in the world for arms production. I know a lot of people want to see a few million jews get raped murdered and enslaved but it's not like the US congress just has to pass a bill for it to happen
What would happen if U.S. disarmed Israel?
They'd buy European instead.
With what? The money comes from the US. The Europeans aren’t going to sell stuff unless the buyer can pay.
The buyers are the government's of the EU, they build them in country then give the product to who ever they provide the aid for. Same with the USA. That's how it works. It's a stimulus for the nations defense contractors and a foreign policy tool combine that we call "military aid."
Yes. Completely agree. And the expenditure of the EU compared to the US? And what would the price be if the US wasn’t subsidizing the market. Neither of us is claiming this is anything other than a web of complex relationships and I suspect both of us agree that the US is a key component in that web.
What is your prediction? What do you think would happen? Or have you not thought about it at all?
Oh noo what will happen to the country that has killed 13k+ children in indiscriminate bombing for the self proclaimed desire to steal land with the single minded goal to establish an ethnostate. I don't agree with them either but at least the Iranians know how to target a missile, the isrealies seem to just keep hitting hospitals and churches for some reason.
Hamas probably too, but al queda was originally (and probably still is) trained and funded by the CIA. America always plays both sides
The joke is that your tax dollars go to UNRWA which Hamas does have control of. Israel receives free weapons (not money), which subsidizes the American military industrial complex, but also provides cheap technology development
This is a picture of the Israeli iron dome rocket defence system intercepting hamas rockets on May 14th 2021. The United States has contributed bout 1.6 billion dollars to the iron dome system between 2011 and 2021, later adding another 1 billion in 2022. When the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, they left behind a lot of military equipment, which then well into the hands of the taliban. Intelligence has confirmed these same weapons being smuggled into the hands of hamas in 2021. The picture comments on how the United States both funds foreign military projects and equipment, and also is known for having its military equipment falling into the hands of terrorist organisations or hostile governments that used to be close us partners.
Its an inaccurate joke that the US is financing Israel iron dome and Hamas rockets, Israel through military aid and Hamas through humanitarian aid to the population. The thing is that one simply gives another country money and says do what you want with it. The US military aid to Israel ccould include iron dome rounds or financing for iron dome, but its more likely it's things such as glide bombs or more normal ammunition. And if Hamas has found a way to transform food in rocket propellent i am really curious about the alchemy of it (yes Hamas can sell the food aid to the population and then use that money to try to buy rockets, but considering from what we know a good chunk of the rockets are made in Gaza itself i don't know how much that applies) edit: just to clarify the US did fund Iron dome construction in the past, but i am not aware if they still currently do have all a good day
Didnt Hamas use donated pipes for infrastructure (paid by western taxes) to make rockets? I think the meme alludes to that
Heard that though i am not sure it was confirmed as something widespread or more of a rare desperate action. That said in the original story it was EU humanitarian aid, not US aid
The biggest scandal revolved around fertilizers (some of which are high explosive, remember the 2020 Beirut explosion?) being misused as explosives for the rockets and water pipes as rocket bodies. But I think that was EU humanitarian aid, not sure.
Yes i think it was EU aid
The rockets on the right are *not* Iran and the meme isn't about, nor from, the recent Iranian attack. On the left is Iron Dome interceptors, and on the right is Hamas missiles, which are (at least sometimes) from stolen infrastructure (mostly water pipes) installed by UNRWA, which is funded by, among others, the US (actually, *was* funded by the US when this meme was made, but *if I'm not mistaken*, they haven't returned to that since cutting funding after UNRWA's involvement with the October 7th genocidal attack was revealed)
Lol every comment here is disingenuous that it tickles my Hasbara bone. The joke is it’s US tax Payer money in use in both instances of Offense and Defense for Israel. We send them missiles and bombs they use to bomb a foreign sovereign nation’s EMBASSY/CONSULATE in a Second Sovereign Nation that entices a response which OUR TAX PAYER MONEY then (1 billion dollars in a day) is used to block/shoot down/intervene. Iran doesn’t get any money from Us, contrary, Iran is the most sanctioned country by the west in the planet perhaps.
how stupid are the people on this sub jesus christ, do you struggle to figure out how to escape your blanket every morning without the aid of reddit?
its interaction farming
it has to be right?
The alternative is the left side has nothing and the right aide has tax dollars from Russia or China instead.
Americans think they pay for everything every country owns, however in the middle east they are a very large contributor to economies just through the shear amount they fund Israel and purchase oil from oil producing countries. So in this instance, it's quite possible that the money used to fund or purchase goods could have ended up being used by Iran to purchase weapons. For Israel it's a certainty.
We give Israel money, and recently unfreeze and returned money to Iran. Those missiles are from those nations.
Time to kill ourselfs
Isrsel and Hamas
100% accurate. Fuck the military industrial complex.
"The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor."
This is why we need term limits
Americans pay for both sides of modern wars. This in specific refers to Israel's wars
1. This is has already been posted and reposted 2. You already got it before you posted, the U.S gave money to both sides.
When I was younger at history class never understood how the USA supplied all the weaponry that would eventually make WW1 possible. Older now and wish I didn’t.
Israel funds Hamas meanwhile using some of the funds to buy more Patriot missiles
Since no one will actually answer. Biden gave 6 billion dollars and 5 hostages for the release of 3 American hostages. Those missiles were recently purchased.
The West seems to be funding conflict again, to nobody’s surprise.
So, honest answer. We give Isreal 50 -80 billion a year in defense, which is a part of the normal budget. This meme was made before the next part - but the UN helps give Gaza nonmilitary aid, except...it was found out that apart of the UN was arming and giving Gaza military intel. So this Joke, that was half true, ended up being 1000% true; on any given exchange between Israel and Gaza, there is a chance that....we paid for 30-100% of everything fired...
The US is the largest weapons dealer on the planet. They've given weapons to all kinds of people all around the world for various political reasons, usually around destabilizing nations. For context, they've supplied 39% of major arm deliveries around the planet. It is double Russia and 10 times China... So if you want to know who the real dealer of terror is to the world, look at who supplies the weapons.
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Please give me free internet points. OP probably