Joe Biden Is Arming Greece So Greece Can Arm Ukraine—And Pro-Russia Republicans Can’t Stop Him
Joe Biden Is Arming Greece So Greece Can Arm Ukraine—And Pro-Russia Republicans Can’t Stop Him
As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags on, Pres. Joe Biden has found a new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons they need to defend their country.
As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags into its fourth month, the U.S. government under Pres. Joe Biden has found a clever new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons and ammunition they need to defend their country.
It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.
Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.
All this hardware is U.S. military surplus—and is available to Greece, free of charge, under a U.S. legal authority called “excess defense articles.” Federal law allows an American president to declare military systems surplus to need, assign them a value—potentially zero dollars—and give them away on the condition that the recipient transport them.
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Remember when Republicans used to yell "better dead than red!" to show their hostility to the USSR and communism?
Now too many of them are preoccupied with twerking for the authoritarian roach that emerged from the USSR's corpse (and which still has a lot in common with it).
Also, the Republican party is now the red party, which is pretty funny.
Nothing surprising for everyone who already knew that what they disliked about the USSR wasn't really the totalitarianism, just the lower wealth unequality.
More so that sort loved the USSR: it provided the ultimate boogyman they could use to justify just about anything.
Accuse your political foes of being commies, and "investigate" them. Advance Christian nationalism by pointing at the "godless Soviets". Need to get your political donors want some sweet defense contracts? -- well we need weapons to fight the reds.
The USSR did the same thing with the "decadent west".
And just as it was back then, the red menace was ALWAYS about distracting the masses away from voting against corporate interests
Wait, we can vote against corporate interests?
You can vote for whoever you want actually.
Don't forget they changed the pledge allegiance to put in under God to shove another thing in the Russians face.
And the money
I don't get what's strange about this. They didn't like commies, Russia is no longer even calling itself socialist, so why would they still be hostile to the Russians?
What if I told you all he funding we have given Ukraine has only harmed them?
Then I'd call you a complete liar with a weak grasp on reality, and a poor understanding of where and when you ought to open your ill-informed mouth, before I walked off and continued with my day, secure in the knowledge that you're as wrong about something as it's physically possible to be.
That's what.
Sorry, too subtle. Go say that to the Russian shill but even more louder.
Then I'd call you ignorant with a weak grasp on facts.
Lol. You're trying to troll but failing miserably.
If I am trolling and you keep responding then that means I am winning... Thank you!
Is that how the performance metrics work at those centers? If you do well do you get more potatoes?
Its the other guys metric, I am not a troll, that is just what douches like that say so they dont have to think for themselves. Did you have anything useful to say or is your brain also turned off?
You literally said nothing. You made a statement, offered no evidence, called it facts.
I mean, come on CableMonster. If you have a point, make it. I’m listening. You have my attention. Show me what you got.
The problem is that if someone does the insult comment, they are no longer looking for a conversation or to learn they are doing an ad hominem or strawmen attack and are not worth giving a thoughtful comment. If you had a reasonable question I dont mind answering, but I dont waste my time with the douches.
But I’m not being insulting. I’m asking you to expand on why it is that you believe what you said. Literally, you offered no content. Just an opinion without explaining the information that led you to that decision.
To me it read like, “well guys, feeding homeless people actually ends up starving them.”
So, why do you believe what you believe? What led you to that belief?
I’m offering you the ability to have an honest conversation.
🥔🥔🥔🥔
Like I said: failing miserably. An effective troll foments FUD. You are only receiving ridicule.
Like I said; if you think I am a troll and you respond then I win. I will take the W!
You must live a pathetic existence to count being called out for being an incompetent troll as a win. It took longer than usual to type this as it’s harder to type while laughing. Thanks for the hilarity imbecile!
I think its funny. You said nothing and then started to rage because I didnt stay the standard set of lines. The more you type the funnier it gets.
4 day old account, all but two comments are pro-russian. Guess lemmy is getting popular enough to attract attention from the Russian troll farms.
What?
If Ukraine had accepted the deal they negotiated in spring of 2022, the war would have been over, they would have more territory than they do now, and they wouldnt have those tens of thousands of people dead. But instead they took the western money and kept fighting and are now on the verge of losing.
Ok Chamberland. You mean the ones that both sides walk away from? Ukraine has a right to all its territory. It shouldn't have to give up any of its land to the Russian aggressor. I don't think Ukraine is on the verge of losing.
I am just telling you the facts, the war would have been over and tens of thousands still alive if it were not for people like Zelensky.
No you're not telling any facts. Thousands of people would be alive if it weren't for people like putin.
You are talking about a different issue. I am just telling you that without the western "aid" the war would have been over and it would have been a much better outcome. But as it is, Ukraine is about to lose and you guys want to fund the war so more Ukrainians die.
No, supporting people who want to fight for their home and freedom is not a different issue. Without Western aid russia would have gone to comit more atrocities. Ukraine is not about to lose, and it's not funding the war for Ukrainians to die, it's for them to fight for their home from russian invaders. Something similar happened to a few annexed countries in the late 1930s...I guess we shouldn't have supported them then either eh?
I am fine with people fighting for their homeland, but to support Ukraine in a fight they were not able to win results in dead Ukrainians. Life is not a movie, sometimes the bad guys win, and the only thing to do is to negotiate peace so more people dont die.
The average age of the Ukraine soldiers has gone from low 30s to about 43. A generation of young men have died, they are running out of soldiers, they will lose, its only a matter of time, and their power to negotiate is getting worse by the day.
Surely you can see why Ukraine might be a little distrustful of lasting peace after losing Crimea and then being invaded further?
It's almost comical to see "leftists" scream about the lies that Trump and GOP tell - but if you suggest there was a diplomatic solution they explode immediately lol. War propaganda is working incredibly well these days and any pacifist notion is attacked as subversive and downvoted. Vast majority of millennials and gen Z are just as brainwashed and are murderous war mongers the boomers were.
PS: I'm really missing a fitting word for this. They are not fascists and nationalists or imperialists is too weak. War mongers sounds a bit lame too.
I think millenials and older know about how the left used to be the party of peace and the right was the war mongers. Now some of the rights is still warmongers but the left is just as bloodthirsty. Its like "Putin must pay!!!! Send more Ukrainian young men to their death!!!"
You mean they don't know about the left being pro peace? Or that they are overcompensating because they do know?
There is a documentary by Adam Curtis about how the rhetoric in geopolitics changed to good vs evil, not just Reagan but all the third way leftists. A very successful PR / brainwashing campaign.
But ever since Ukraine started this has massively changed on reddit which is supposedly "leftist". Presumably the "science and technology of propaganda" is improving. If the Irak and Afghanistan happened today, there wouldn't be any major opposition to it online. There wasn't any in mainstream media either at the time, but back then the internet actually was less... warmongery?
I dont know if they dont know what the more traditional leftists believed in back in the 90s and earlier, or other interests have taken over their rhetoric, or if they are just using the oppressor - oppressed world view to pick Ukraine and Palestine. Do you think they got co-opted by big business interests or something else?
Yeah definitely there is PR push. All the mainstream articles are written in a way that maximizes these viewpoints. I don't know where exactly it comes from but besides military industrial complex there is still oil and extraction of resources and general empire stuff there are a lot of business interest tied to maintaining hegemony.
For Ukraine specifically I also speculate that it's because Ukraine is a breadbasket. With climate change, food prices are going to become unstable so having control of that region is not just good business, for the empire it's an important strategic goal. West-Ukraine will mostly be owned by EU and US because of the incredible debt.
The other goal here is that we'll see like a billion climate refugees in a few decades which will lead to wars. And Russia has tons of borders that could be corridors. So it's good to destabilize and isolate Russia in advance of these climate wars so that the worst chaos isn't happening in Europe. Similar with China. They'd want to encircle their geopolitical rivals so they don't have that much room to maneuver.
This is all speculation and I'm really not sure if "they" think this strategically. But Nato baiting Ukraine was imho a definite trap to "force" Russia into this conflict. Fuck Stoltenberg for example. Not that I don't blame Russia!
Interesting, I would guess that you are probably right, but I have been at an utter loss as to what happened to these people that they went from reasonable to completely unreasonable.
I dont even try to share the part where NATO/US were the main pressure at to why this war is happening, I think it would make their heads explode. I just try to point out how with the median (or maybe mean) age of the Ukrainian troops is 43, the war is going to be over soon.
@CableMonster@lemmy.ml, I’m an admin on lemmy.ml, and we’re getting complaints of you trolling this post. After dozens of comments, maybe you’ve had your say and it’s time to stop threadsitting on the conversation. I approved your account request this week, please don’t make me regret it.
If you haven't, read Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent". Just as applicable today, just the science on how to manipulate people got more advanced. Newspapers are full of bias, and it made me feel isolated until I understood the mechanisms (see propaganda model) of why this is so. But I'm at a bit of a loss too why reddit has been "taken over" this rabidly. Pacifist notions are now buried in "controversial".
And 43, wow. I would have thought that as long as the US and Europe are pumping weapons into Ukraine the war will keep going.