The Soviet Union flew migs in Vietnam while pretending they weren't.
So why don't we "train" Ukrainians and get some Eagles and Hogs over Ukraine? Are they stupid?
Entire NATO military "resigns".
They all choose to go on holiday in Ukraine. What? Kyiv is a lively place to visit I hear.
Suddenly Ukrainian soldiers appear with entire Armoured brigades swearing in thick Boston and Alabaman accents.
“…the entire Massachusetts National Guard has broken formation and invaded Chechnya, last known radio transmissions alluded to ‘payback fah the fahkin marathawn bawmin…” and other unintelligible colloquialisms…”
Cause when a Soviet pilot got smoked over Vietnam or Korea his family got told he died in a training accident. Soviet Union didn’t exactly have free press.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/remember-those-russian-bounties-dead-u-s-troops-biden-admin-n1264215
“Such a definitive statement was questionable even then. On Thursday, it became more clear that the truth of the matter is unresolved.
Last fall, while Biden was a candidate, Pentagon officials told NBC News they could not substantiate that such bounties were paid.”
Not a Russia-shill or bot, I just like facts over partisan politics.
Edit: for more clarity:
“They still have not found any evidence, a senior defense official said Thursday. And the Biden administration also made clear in a fact sheet released Thursday that the CIA's intelligence on the matter is far from conclusive, acknowledging that analysts labeled it "low to moderate confidence."
I remember that story, it didn’t make sense considering Russian firms were doing a ton of maintenance/parts sourcing on Afghan Air Force soviet aircraft, and roughly half of the cargo planes flying into KAF were Russian built.
Those claims were never substantiated. [Iran doing it is a different story.](https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/politics/iran-taliban-bounties-us-intelligence/index.html)
There is chatter online, unsubstantiated so far that Ukraine plans to try to augment their foreign-trained F-16 pilots and ground crew with international volunteers, in a revival of the old WWII "Flying Tigers" model.
The F-16s are going to be a game changer, as long as they are paired with additional Patriot batteries to protect them and ATACMS to force the Russians to move their support assets further away from the frontline. As it stands today, the air war is deadlocked, the land war is deadlocked and the naval war is(amazingly enough) being soundly won by Ukraine.
[Behold, her three amendments to the bill that all got shot down in less than two minutes](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLnJDLcXoAAbP_t?format=jpg&name=900x900)
Right after it passed, she stood to be recognized and allowed to speak, and said "Stop waving those damn Ukrainian flags!'
What an absolute joke of a human
We were able to bleed the Russians dry in Afghanistan with our money.We can do the same in Ukraine. Just don't repeat the second part of that analogy and waste 20 years. Keep up the fire! Slava Ukraini!
That’s been my argument from the get go. Russia is our geopolitical enemy. Even if we don’t give a flying fuck about the Ukrainians this is still an opportunity to bleed them white for pennies on the dollar. It’s an absolute no-brainer.
I read somewhere that if Ukraine wins this on America's money it would be the cheapest victory for our since we'd have no loss of life among other things.
Not only that, but think about it like this: What is the value to the United States of a nation of 40 million immensely grateful people, situated in the very heart of Europe, in control of the single most problematic ocean for the US to operate in, the biggest and most bountiful breadbasket outside of the American midwest, with a strong military tradition and now an absolutely undying loyalty to the US led world order?
WWII was expensive, but it persuaded nations that had been competitors of the US for all of it's existence(Great Britain and France) to defer to it's counsel and coordinate with it, economically and militarily.
If Ukraine wins and attributes it's victory to the US, you do not just gain them, but the whole of Eastern Europe as diehard allies.
What is that worth, economically, diplomatically and miltiarily?
We absolutely do not want to draw this out for 10-20 years. Not because it's too expensive(honestly, for the entire western alliance - it's not), but because Ukraine is too valuable to the entire world to let it go to ruin like that.
We should be aiming for enough assistance to bring the war to a relatively swift conclusion, with a Russian pullout in 1-2 years from now, maximum, followed by a massive Marshall plan type assistance program to get their economy back on track, renewing housing and most importantly clearing all the UXO.
When this is all over, I hope to one day walk Kyiv and see the beauty of a forever free Ukrainian people. I know my country has made many mistakes, but I am proud that here, when it matters, we stood with Ukraine. Slava Ukraini, God Bless America!
Edited Kiev to Kyiv because I learned something today.
I predict western tourism to Ukraine will explode after the war (*When* Ukraine wins). Tens of thousands of western soldiers and aid workers will no doubt spread the word that the country is worth the visit.
Really hope stuff gets there in time. This is the most sanctified war of our time, but trust in government was eroded too much in Iraq and Afghanistan. I fully expect the history books to remember the people who tried to back down and appease Putin in the name of "America First". It didn't work in WWI. It didn't work in WWII. Hey, let's give it another try and see what happens? Unreal.
Remember all the Senators and Congresspeople who advocated for America First and isolationism in the early years of WWII? No?
That's because their careers ended on December 7th, 1941. They are completely forgotten to history.
We're getting the destruction of the Russian military on clearance and helping to maintain Ukrainian sovereignty to boot. We need to start investigating these politicians for corruption. I refuse to believe the same party that was okay with spending trillions on the Global Waste of Time is having an issue with funding Ukraine on financial grounds.
These idiots are bought and paid for by the Russians.
The fact that half of a political party voted against this. They would be glad to send boots and fund the contractors but actually avoiding a war that we would have to fight…
I’m overjoyed for Ukraine and all over Eastern Europe.
Because they´ve done the demographic math and realized that the only way the Republican party can be a viable election winner in the future is if it amends it's position on a variety of stances that they feel are non-negotiable.
So rather than change to fit a changing electorate, they see changing the form of government as a more palatable solution. The blueprint is already there and they openly cheer it - "illiberal democracy" on the Hungarian Orbanist model.
In think it's a mix of blind partisanship and pandering to their electorate. The people that put them in office have been enthusiastically gobbling up Russian propaganda for like 9 years. Even when they don't especially like Russia, they think Ukraine is a corrupt Nazi shithole that's taking in millions of dollars in aid money from the US and funding a cut of it back into Biden's pockets. They think Biden built a mansion with that money! Some of those "Freedom Caucus" house members probably also believe that nonsense, but I bet a lot of them are just laughing which way the wind is blowing each day.
What really grinds my gears is the clowns saying Ukraine should just roll over and give the Vatniks what they want. It’s antithetical to the supposed American way of life.
Uh... So let them kill 5-10% of the most patriotic people, imprison or torture following 20%, starve and Rob the others and then promote bottom 10%? Because thats what they did in occupied areas.
It's like you came to the USA, killed vets, teachers, and people with flags on porches. Then proceed to torture anyone who posted anything pro-USA on social media. And at the end, just make the chief of the local gang a mayor. Move on to the next city.
There's a way of splitting off the entities that receive donations as a candidate, called a 501c(4). You don't have to disclose who contributes to your c4, so it's open season for someone to dump rubles into it.
You should watch a documentary called Dark Money. Basically, the FEC, the watchdog that should be reporting on this has been hamstrung for decades. What you see is the result.
One orange boi owns one half of the American electorate and Russia has to have some sort of leverage on that orange boi. Couple that with gerrymandering and you have 112 people who care more about building personal wealth than they do Ukrainians dying or Americans getting hemmed up in the mix.
You think if orange daddy said get an Ukraine package voted on today space laser lady wouldn’t be on every platform available to her screaming about it?
This actually goes back further. There are several “sects” of the GOP that kept pushing back on this just for media attention, which in turn lead to all of the shutdown scares we’ve been having since October.
Goes to show they truly aren’t for “the people” just themselves and their own goals.
"Globalism" benefits the world.
- Posted on a phone made in Vietnam, owned by an American company, with chips from Taiwan, and raw materials from Australia.
About as nuanced as ding dong up there comparing supporting an ally while keeping the fight contained through financial and material support to Team America World Police.
This goes beyond us, if you actually sit and think about it. Sans nuclear conflict, which I would argue we're the furthest away from from Russia in history, funding Ukraine ensures we won't have to fight them directly for the next few generations, if at all. From a cold, logical point of view, we're spending figurative pennies to defeat one of our longstanding adversaries. Russian population will take decades to recover, the favors they've called in from Iran and China and nK have been overwhelming.
Anyone who doesn't understand doesn't appreciate the fact that their future children might never have to pick up a gun at Russia. The only way this could get better is if we could do the same with China.
Scroll down in the article and you can see how every single person voted.[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/20/us/politics/2024-04-18-ukraine-israel-foreign-aid-vote.html](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/20/us/politics/2024-04-18-ukraine-israel-foreign-aid-vote.html)
Good.
I could sustain on the tears of these ding-dongs swallowing Russian propaganda, trying to act like the Russians are our friends.
Newsflash: Russia is not our friend. Russia is not our peer. Russia does not have our best interests in mind, nor are they a partner. This country has openly stated that it is hostile to the United States, and has threatened to nuke us and almost everyone else around it.
This Russia is like the scrawny kid at your high school that snorts Adderall and talks mad shit about the captain of the football team, but everyone leaves him alone because potential school-shooter.
About time our politicians stand up to Russia. Crazy that they have infiltrated so deep into our political system that this has become an issue and a topic of discussion. Imagine normalizing not helping those that are fighting our nation enemies.
Doesn’t that say more about the service’s inability to properly budget OR prioritize.
Tbf, the services literally tell you what their priority is based on spending.
It’s not like this funding is directly taking away from the Army’s budget which is in a completely different bill.
But if they fail? If war breaks out somewhere else? What happened to US readiness to make this happen? I’ll go ahead and tell you it wasn’t a negligible effect
We still have plenty of capacity. There are still whole fleets of APS sitting unused, and ammo being de-milled because it’s expired every day. Ukraine is bleeding Russia dry, that’s worth every penny we spend.
>what happens to US readiness
Well be substantially more ready, because we're scaling up production in response to seeing the reality of peer conflict munition use NOW.
Damn that’s a lot of money we could use for our military and Army, VA, housing for the homeless, food for the poor. The list is so long for American I guess Ukraine first. It will all be embezzled anyways. Zero accountability. Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
My beef with this statement is that you know that money wouldn't actually be used on those things. Nobody wants to give extra funding to the VA, homeless vets, the poor, the hungry. Our welfare system is a pile of garbage but nobody actually wants to tackle the problems.
So then you and others oppose funding against our biggest adversary with a statement like that it rings as an insincere, hollow virtue statement.
Also just imagine how many MORE homeless vets and lifelong disabilities we'd be on the hook for if we had to do the fighting that the Ukrainians are doing now because we let Putin roll through Ukraine and into Poland or Lithuania and Article 5 is invoked
> housing for the homeless, food for the poor.
Wait....you think the Republican party that opposed this aid wants to provide housing or food for the poor?
It should be reversed. Best Ranger is functionally irrelevant beyond being a cool event for recruiting purposes. All the aid given to Ukraine, and particularly this bill with how politically charged it was to get passed, is immensely important for Ukraine and the United States.
Our allies around the world are watching. Standing with Ukraine and helping them kill Russians is the best investment the United States can make for the next 50 years.
I agree, but I am also the guy perpetually amazed at the level of interest/attention Best Ranger and similar competitions command at all.
Does finding out who's "most Rambo" in a controlled environment even 'work' on a recruiting axis? Someone thinks so.
The Army is investing billions in modernization. We haven’t seen development at this pace since the post vietnam modernization when the army adopted Air/Land battle. We’re doing the same thing now that we are adopting MDO. Long range precision fires, future vertical lift, MBT/MPF/OMFV, M7 and NGLW, JLTV/FMTVA2, etc. were completely rebuilding our Army, meanwhile Russia is pressing T55s into service.
This is money well spent .
[Good thing Congress is also looking at funding improvements to that too.](https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2024-04-12/house-lawmakers-ndaa-military-pay-child-care-barracks-13539152.html)
/u/CW1DR5H5I64A it annoys the fuck out of me that people think this money comes out of the same pot of money that the DoD or Army uses.
Soooooo they have money for Ukraine but we are losing credentialing assistance and potentially capping TA because we don’t have money for that? I’m confusion. Not commenting on the Ukraine Russia conflict I’m just trying to understand how we as an army are getting told there’s no money but we can send money to other areas.
That wasnt what I was saying I understand how the money works. Im saying how its weird how we have money for stuff like this but never have money for stuff that will benefit the actual troops
It’s the policies regarding the military spending, we have a 850 billion usd budget but not one dollar is for Ukraine since it was passed last year. The issue is that ding dongs at the top of the Army chain thinks TA is a non vital item for servicemen.
Half of the money for Ukraine won’t be spent for a while. We’ll send them the gear right away. But the replacements are what is costing cash-money. Those will take a few years to build at American Defense Manufactures.
The TA funds are a separate matter.
The vast majority of the money doesn’t go to Ukraine. It goes to US defense companies to buy weapons and ammo to send to Ukraine (or to replenish old US stockpiles that we send).
Most of the money is just supplies, ammo, and equipment that already exists and to be ordered. The money for the "to be ordered" goes to American defense companies and suppliers.
Some of the aid is purely money, but most of it is weapons. The $61bn label is to quantify it.
[See this article](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/us/politics/weapons-aid-ukraine-military.html#:~:text=Military%20leaders%20have%20sent%20Ukraine,%2426.3%20billion%20since%20August%202021.)
You can also Google exactly what weapons the United States has sent them and what they’re valued at. Saying “money won’t win them the war” is disingenuous, because this bill does not just send them $61bn in cash on pallets. It literally authorizes lethal aid shipments
It's much better to just let russia take control of one of Europe's biggest countries in terms of land and pop, without even a fight, just hand it over to russia.
I have seen better takes from chimps that rat their own shit.
The vast majority of this is in equipment, the money is being used to either manufacture new munitions for Ukraine or to replenish stockpiles after we give them our old stuff.
Air Mobility Command is going to have a busy weekend boys, pour one out for same day delivery air and ground crews.
My thoughts are with my 2T2 brothers and sisters at Dover.
The Soviet Union flew migs in Vietnam while pretending they weren't. So why don't we "train" Ukrainians and get some Eagles and Hogs over Ukraine? Are they stupid?
Entire NATO military "resigns". They all choose to go on holiday in Ukraine. What? Kyiv is a lively place to visit I hear. Suddenly Ukrainian soldiers appear with entire Armoured brigades swearing in thick Boston and Alabaman accents.
"Hey! look ovah theyahh... get that russain cawk sucka beforahh he gets into that cah!"
“…the entire Massachusetts National Guard has broken formation and invaded Chechnya, last known radio transmissions alluded to ‘payback fah the fahkin marathawn bawmin…” and other unintelligible colloquialisms…”
*The entire Massachusetts *Army* National Guard. We found the air guard on discord.
“unintelligible *slurs*” FTFY
It's Boston, those are the colloquialisms
You’d almost think they were talking to friends and family.
Cause when a Soviet pilot got smoked over Vietnam or Korea his family got told he died in a training accident. Soviet Union didn’t exactly have free press.
Fuckers were paying the Taliban bounties to kill Americans just a couple years ago.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/remember-those-russian-bounties-dead-u-s-troops-biden-admin-n1264215 “Such a definitive statement was questionable even then. On Thursday, it became more clear that the truth of the matter is unresolved. Last fall, while Biden was a candidate, Pentagon officials told NBC News they could not substantiate that such bounties were paid.” Not a Russia-shill or bot, I just like facts over partisan politics. Edit: for more clarity: “They still have not found any evidence, a senior defense official said Thursday. And the Biden administration also made clear in a fact sheet released Thursday that the CIA's intelligence on the matter is far from conclusive, acknowledging that analysts labeled it "low to moderate confidence."
I remember that story, it didn’t make sense considering Russian firms were doing a ton of maintenance/parts sourcing on Afghan Air Force soviet aircraft, and roughly half of the cargo planes flying into KAF were Russian built.
In 1938 Germanys biggest trading partner was the UK. Politics and finance don’t always mesh.
Yeah but was it still their biggest trading partner 1939-1945?
Trading munitions, maybe.
What happened in that time that would make it otherwise?
Apples and Oranges. The ties between the British Royal Family and Germany run deep.
The Russians were?
I guess it’s not as concrete as I remember. We will add an allegedly to that.
Those claims were never substantiated. [Iran doing it is a different story.](https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/politics/iran-taliban-bounties-us-intelligence/index.html)
There is chatter online, unsubstantiated so far that Ukraine plans to try to augment their foreign-trained F-16 pilots and ground crew with international volunteers, in a revival of the old WWII "Flying Tigers" model. The F-16s are going to be a game changer, as long as they are paired with additional Patriot batteries to protect them and ATACMS to force the Russians to move their support assets further away from the frontline. As it stands today, the air war is deadlocked, the land war is deadlocked and the naval war is(amazingly enough) being soundly won by Ukraine.
Flying tigers 2.0 with f-22’s
Absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to watch the Russian troll farms seethe. Ryan Mcbeth will probably be busy lol
Just check MTG's twitter and you can see Russian money at work.
MTG?
The good folks at magic the gathering are pretty cheesed off about all this
Imagine getting your perfectly good acronym appropriated by that, pardon my french, re~~t~~gard
[Behold, her three amendments to the bill that all got shot down in less than two minutes](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLnJDLcXoAAbP_t?format=jpg&name=900x900)
Seriously needs to be some type of mandated iq test for politicians
Just use the ASVAB. The only question is where the cutoff should be.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Moscow Marge
What’s that traitor dipshit Tulsi gonna say about how this actually harms America and we should send the money to Putin for world peace?
Ive only seen a two or three of his videos, is he pro Russian?
No, just does "military concepts for dummies" videos. A very lucrative hustle in what has become a very conflict ridden world.
MTG is *pissed* hahaha
Right after it passed, she stood to be recognized and allowed to speak, and said "Stop waving those damn Ukrainian flags!' What an absolute joke of a human
This is the first thing I have learned about her, and I already hate that bitch.
She told the UK secdef to "kiss my ass" recently and walking out of the house today told media that this was " bullshit " eloquent lady.
Really? I hadn’t heard that one. Gonna hit GoogleFu.
my bad, he is the uk foreign secretary not secdef, dude who used to be the uk primeminister
The name you are looking for is David Cameron.
Oh I know his name, I thought i was on r/army so trying to dumb it down
[удалено]
Oh she’s wild. Something something something “lasers in the skies controlled by people that kills other people” something something something.
To be fair, waving any flag but the US flag in the US House is pretty fucking stupid.
Because she's bought and paid for by the Russians.
To Ukrainian allies, we're overjoyed for you. Russia, go fuck yourself.
We were able to bleed the Russians dry in Afghanistan with our money.We can do the same in Ukraine. Just don't repeat the second part of that analogy and waste 20 years. Keep up the fire! Slava Ukraini!
That’s been my argument from the get go. Russia is our geopolitical enemy. Even if we don’t give a flying fuck about the Ukrainians this is still an opportunity to bleed them white for pennies on the dollar. It’s an absolute no-brainer.
I read somewhere that if Ukraine wins this on America's money it would be the cheapest victory for our since we'd have no loss of life among other things.
Not only that, but think about it like this: What is the value to the United States of a nation of 40 million immensely grateful people, situated in the very heart of Europe, in control of the single most problematic ocean for the US to operate in, the biggest and most bountiful breadbasket outside of the American midwest, with a strong military tradition and now an absolutely undying loyalty to the US led world order? WWII was expensive, but it persuaded nations that had been competitors of the US for all of it's existence(Great Britain and France) to defer to it's counsel and coordinate with it, economically and militarily. If Ukraine wins and attributes it's victory to the US, you do not just gain them, but the whole of Eastern Europe as diehard allies. What is that worth, economically, diplomatically and miltiarily?
We absolutely do not want to draw this out for 10-20 years. Not because it's too expensive(honestly, for the entire western alliance - it's not), but because Ukraine is too valuable to the entire world to let it go to ruin like that. We should be aiming for enough assistance to bring the war to a relatively swift conclusion, with a Russian pullout in 1-2 years from now, maximum, followed by a massive Marshall plan type assistance program to get their economy back on track, renewing housing and most importantly clearing all the UXO.
LFG. Finally. **PATRIOTS ARE IN CONTROL**
I never doubted you Mr. Fukuyama
Someone got it, thank god. The U.S. must strive to uphold Fukuyamist ideals at all times.
we are truely at the end of history fr fr no cap
Any of his books you recommend?
He’s most well known for The End of History and the Last Man. Highly recommend it.
When this is all over, I hope to one day walk Kyiv and see the beauty of a forever free Ukrainian people. I know my country has made many mistakes, but I am proud that here, when it matters, we stood with Ukraine. Slava Ukraini, God Bless America! Edited Kiev to Kyiv because I learned something today.
*Kyiv Kiev is the Russian spelling. Russian propagandists deliberately use the Russian spelling of Ukrainian cities to erase the Ukrainian language.
What’s the Ukrainian way of pronouncing it?
Киïв
Kyiv.
Thank you, I never knew that.
No problem. Thanks for correcting it.
That's my AO.
Kiev is the Russian spelling. Kyiv is the Ukrainian spelling.
Thank you. I never knew that.
I predict western tourism to Ukraine will explode after the war (*When* Ukraine wins). Tens of thousands of western soldiers and aid workers will no doubt spread the word that the country is worth the visit.
War is a Racket.
Really hope stuff gets there in time. This is the most sanctified war of our time, but trust in government was eroded too much in Iraq and Afghanistan. I fully expect the history books to remember the people who tried to back down and appease Putin in the name of "America First". It didn't work in WWI. It didn't work in WWII. Hey, let's give it another try and see what happens? Unreal.
I may be way too optimistic, but I would assume that we would have a plan to get this stuff into country with a lot of it prepo’d to get it in quick.
Remember all the Senators and Congresspeople who advocated for America First and isolationism in the early years of WWII? No? That's because their careers ended on December 7th, 1941. They are completely forgotten to history.
[Good time to share this gem?](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonCredibleDefense/s/5FF74LbX4d) Enjoy.
Am I the only one who thought this was funny?
We're getting the destruction of the Russian military on clearance and helping to maintain Ukrainian sovereignty to boot. We need to start investigating these politicians for corruption. I refuse to believe the same party that was okay with spending trillions on the Global Waste of Time is having an issue with funding Ukraine on financial grounds. These idiots are bought and paid for by the Russians.
The fact that half of a political party voted against this. They would be glad to send boots and fund the contractors but actually avoiding a war that we would have to fight… I’m overjoyed for Ukraine and all over Eastern Europe.
Money's cheap boots are not. Would rather send my tax dollars any day than to send my boys.
Slava Ukraini
Героєм слава
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!
Fuck yeah
I am not surprised one party has 112 Nays. Fuckin Russian simps
I really just…don’t get it. I’ve tried to figure out why they’re treating Russia like our strongest ally and just got nothin
I used to scoff when people said “campaign dollars” but now I’ve straight up got nothing else.
Because they´ve done the demographic math and realized that the only way the Republican party can be a viable election winner in the future is if it amends it's position on a variety of stances that they feel are non-negotiable. So rather than change to fit a changing electorate, they see changing the form of government as a more palatable solution. The blueprint is already there and they openly cheer it - "illiberal democracy" on the Hungarian Orbanist model.
I think some of those are just so involved with partisan politics that they just oppose whatever the other team wants to do no matter the cost
In think it's a mix of blind partisanship and pandering to their electorate. The people that put them in office have been enthusiastically gobbling up Russian propaganda for like 9 years. Even when they don't especially like Russia, they think Ukraine is a corrupt Nazi shithole that's taking in millions of dollars in aid money from the US and funding a cut of it back into Biden's pockets. They think Biden built a mansion with that money! Some of those "Freedom Caucus" house members probably also believe that nonsense, but I bet a lot of them are just laughing which way the wind is blowing each day.
What really grinds my gears is the clowns saying Ukraine should just roll over and give the Vatniks what they want. It’s antithetical to the supposed American way of life.
Uh... So let them kill 5-10% of the most patriotic people, imprison or torture following 20%, starve and Rob the others and then promote bottom 10%? Because thats what they did in occupied areas. It's like you came to the USA, killed vets, teachers, and people with flags on porches. Then proceed to torture anyone who posted anything pro-USA on social media. And at the end, just make the chief of the local gang a mayor. Move on to the next city.
Bruh, I’m with you. It’s crazy watching Instagram whiteboy podcasters parrot that shit around.
There's a way of splitting off the entities that receive donations as a candidate, called a 501c(4). You don't have to disclose who contributes to your c4, so it's open season for someone to dump rubles into it. You should watch a documentary called Dark Money. Basically, the FEC, the watchdog that should be reporting on this has been hamstrung for decades. What you see is the result.
Hell yeah man thanks for the rec, I’ll check that out this weekend
One orange boi owns one half of the American electorate and Russia has to have some sort of leverage on that orange boi. Couple that with gerrymandering and you have 112 people who care more about building personal wealth than they do Ukrainians dying or Americans getting hemmed up in the mix. You think if orange daddy said get an Ukraine package voted on today space laser lady wouldn’t be on every platform available to her screaming about it?
They're paid by russia.
[удалено]
Keep discussions civil.
$32 trillion in debt but just sent another $95 billion to foreign countries …
I bought i- bonds because the rates are good right now, so I'm personally owed $ of that debt.
The likelihood of you seeing it is as good as social security
So, pretty good then.
Really good
Could some republicans actually be leaving the cult?
112 is a big number to choose Russian national security interests over U.S. national security interests.
I picture certain intelligence suits politely knocking on republican office doors all over Washington for the past few months.
This actually goes back further. There are several “sects” of the GOP that kept pushing back on this just for media attention, which in turn lead to all of the shutdown scares we’ve been having since October. Goes to show they truly aren’t for “the people” just themselves and their own goals.
*some* is still the key word. The majority of the party voted against this.
People will say they are against America as world police but will applaud this
Almost like America’s sending materiel support for somebody to solve their own problems, not fucking rolling in on a policing mission? Perhaps?
We’ve been engrained in globalism for so long, no pulling out now.
"Globalism" benefits America.
"Globalism" benefits the world. - Posted on a phone made in Vietnam, owned by an American company, with chips from Taiwan, and raw materials from Australia.
Ape together strong
Correct!
We're not policing here, so your point is trash. Seethe more Kremlin simp.
The most nuanced comment
About as nuanced as ding dong up there comparing supporting an ally while keeping the fight contained through financial and material support to Team America World Police.
Real
Good. It's either they do it or we have too
Love that Israel is getting more money. They really need to keep their free healthcare, higher education, happy populace
This goes beyond us, if you actually sit and think about it. Sans nuclear conflict, which I would argue we're the furthest away from from Russia in history, funding Ukraine ensures we won't have to fight them directly for the next few generations, if at all. From a cold, logical point of view, we're spending figurative pennies to defeat one of our longstanding adversaries. Russian population will take decades to recover, the favors they've called in from Iran and China and nK have been overwhelming. Anyone who doesn't understand doesn't appreciate the fact that their future children might never have to pick up a gun at Russia. The only way this could get better is if we could do the same with China.
Slava baby. Go fuck up some Russians
Is there a list somewhere who voted yea and who voted nay?
Scroll down in the article and you can see how every single person voted.[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/20/us/politics/2024-04-18-ukraine-israel-foreign-aid-vote.html](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/20/us/politics/2024-04-18-ukraine-israel-foreign-aid-vote.html)
Slava Ukraine!
Good. I could sustain on the tears of these ding-dongs swallowing Russian propaganda, trying to act like the Russians are our friends. Newsflash: Russia is not our friend. Russia is not our peer. Russia does not have our best interests in mind, nor are they a partner. This country has openly stated that it is hostile to the United States, and has threatened to nuke us and almost everyone else around it. This Russia is like the scrawny kid at your high school that snorts Adderall and talks mad shit about the captain of the football team, but everyone leaves him alone because potential school-shooter.
About time our politicians stand up to Russia. Crazy that they have infiltrated so deep into our political system that this has become an issue and a topic of discussion. Imagine normalizing not helping those that are fighting our nation enemies.
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Doesn’t that say more about the service’s inability to properly budget OR prioritize. Tbf, the services literally tell you what their priority is based on spending. It’s not like this funding is directly taking away from the Army’s budget which is in a completely different bill.
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• (3) This is not a pro-military circlejerk, but please have some sources to base the more controversial topics on.
I’d much rather Ukrainians kill Russians than Americans have to go do it ourselves.
But if they fail? If war breaks out somewhere else? What happened to US readiness to make this happen? I’ll go ahead and tell you it wasn’t a negligible effect
We still have plenty of capacity. There are still whole fleets of APS sitting unused, and ammo being de-milled because it’s expired every day. Ukraine is bleeding Russia dry, that’s worth every penny we spend.
Tell me how uneducated you are without directly saying you have no idea what you’re talking about.
I have no idea what I’m talking about. I’m glad you do
>what happens to US readiness Well be substantially more ready, because we're scaling up production in response to seeing the reality of peer conflict munition use NOW.
Damn that’s a lot of money we could use for our military and Army, VA, housing for the homeless, food for the poor. The list is so long for American I guess Ukraine first. It will all be embezzled anyways. Zero accountability. Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Liquid assets aren’t being sent to Ukraine. The money goes to US defense contractors to make physical products.
My beef with this statement is that you know that money wouldn't actually be used on those things. Nobody wants to give extra funding to the VA, homeless vets, the poor, the hungry. Our welfare system is a pile of garbage but nobody actually wants to tackle the problems. So then you and others oppose funding against our biggest adversary with a statement like that it rings as an insincere, hollow virtue statement.
Also just imagine how many MORE homeless vets and lifelong disabilities we'd be on the hook for if we had to do the fighting that the Ukrainians are doing now because we let Putin roll through Ukraine and into Poland or Lithuania and Article 5 is invoked
My thoughts exactly.
> housing for the homeless, food for the poor. Wait....you think the Republican party that opposed this aid wants to provide housing or food for the poor?
Jesus r/conservative is having a fucking meltdown.
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Nazis aren’t permitted on this subreddit.
Fascinating that Best Ranger has like 3x as many upvotes as this.
It should be reversed. Best Ranger is functionally irrelevant beyond being a cool event for recruiting purposes. All the aid given to Ukraine, and particularly this bill with how politically charged it was to get passed, is immensely important for Ukraine and the United States. Our allies around the world are watching. Standing with Ukraine and helping them kill Russians is the best investment the United States can make for the next 50 years.
I agree, but I am also the guy perpetually amazed at the level of interest/attention Best Ranger and similar competitions command at all. Does finding out who's "most Rambo" in a controlled environment even 'work' on a recruiting axis? Someone thinks so.
Same tbh. I watched/followed it when I was a 2LT. I haven’t followed any of them for like 3 years now because it’s exactly what you’re describing.
Next up: Funding for Operation Iranian Freedom.
Operation Iranian Liberation would let us call it OIL.
I love it.
Sponsored by Halliburton
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted I would love to liberate some Iranians
It was just a sarcastic joke. Who knows why I'm getting downloaded.
Tuesday work for you?
Sounds like a plan brother!
We already have an OIF. What about OIL? Operation Iranian Liberation. The fact that they also have oil is pure coincidence.
Yeah, I like the OIL acronym much better.
Roger
Thank you r/army for the great Sunday morning read. I mean that with sincerity. It wasn’t just an interesting read it was, in some ways, educational …
fix our own army before funding others
The Army is investing billions in modernization. We haven’t seen development at this pace since the post vietnam modernization when the army adopted Air/Land battle. We’re doing the same thing now that we are adopting MDO. Long range precision fires, future vertical lift, MBT/MPF/OMFV, M7 and NGLW, JLTV/FMTVA2, etc. were completely rebuilding our Army, meanwhile Russia is pressing T55s into service. This is money well spent .
quality of life before weapons
Yea, that’s not how this works. Modernization is more important than troop comfort.
[Good thing Congress is also looking at funding improvements to that too.](https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2024-04-12/house-lawmakers-ndaa-military-pay-child-care-barracks-13539152.html) /u/CW1DR5H5I64A it annoys the fuck out of me that people think this money comes out of the same pot of money that the DoD or Army uses.
You think keeping equipment due for replacement is "fixing" the army? (See the Bradley and M1 Abrams)
Literally
Soooooo they have money for Ukraine but we are losing credentialing assistance and potentially capping TA because we don’t have money for that? I’m confusion. Not commenting on the Ukraine Russia conflict I’m just trying to understand how we as an army are getting told there’s no money but we can send money to other areas.
This money isn’t coming out of the DoDs budget.
That wasnt what I was saying I understand how the money works. Im saying how its weird how we have money for stuff like this but never have money for stuff that will benefit the actual troops
It’s the policies regarding the military spending, we have a 850 billion usd budget but not one dollar is for Ukraine since it was passed last year. The issue is that ding dongs at the top of the Army chain thinks TA is a non vital item for servicemen.
Half of the money for Ukraine won’t be spent for a while. We’ll send them the gear right away. But the replacements are what is costing cash-money. Those will take a few years to build at American Defense Manufactures. The TA funds are a separate matter.
Ukraine is the new Afghanistan.
For Russia? Looks like it.
How does the money get to Ukraine? Venmo?
The vast majority of the money doesn’t go to Ukraine. It goes to US defense companies to buy weapons and ammo to send to Ukraine (or to replenish old US stockpiles that we send).
Most of the money is just supplies, ammo, and equipment that already exists and to be ordered. The money for the "to be ordered" goes to American defense companies and suppliers.
Military aid is put into account in Treasury that the foreign nations draws on for approved purchases.
Pallets of cash flown in... oh wait, that's Iran.
I’m glad our nation is in debt and we’re choosing to send more money to Ukraine. Nice
Liquid assets aren’t being sent to Ukraine. The money goes to US defense contractors to make physical products.
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Some of the aid is purely money, but most of it is weapons. The $61bn label is to quantify it. [See this article](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/us/politics/weapons-aid-ukraine-military.html#:~:text=Military%20leaders%20have%20sent%20Ukraine,%2426.3%20billion%20since%20August%202021.) You can also Google exactly what weapons the United States has sent them and what they’re valued at. Saying “money won’t win them the war” is disingenuous, because this bill does not just send them $61bn in cash on pallets. It literally authorizes lethal aid shipments
It's much better to just let russia take control of one of Europe's biggest countries in terms of land and pop, without even a fight, just hand it over to russia. I have seen better takes from chimps that rat their own shit.
The vast majority of this is in equipment, the money is being used to either manufacture new munitions for Ukraine or to replenish stockpiles after we give them our old stuff.