• @Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    1921 days ago

    The best thing would have been to fund Ukraine a lot early in and knock Russia down on the cheap. But you have a point thats probably the next best thing geopolitically. The red blooded american in me is just mad we didnt take the chance at an old enemy.

    • @Archer@lemmy.world
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      1021 days ago

      Some of the gear in Ukraine right now was literally created to fight the Soviet Union. Incredible that we didn’t send it all right away, one of the biggest defense blunders of this century, easily

      • @slaacaa@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        Exactly. It’s like a vending machine, you throw in money, and dead Russian soldiers fall out from the bottom. All without endangering the lives of NATO soldiers. How many cold war US presidents would dream of this?

        I am in no way minimizing the sacrifice and suffering of the Ukrainian people, but that is happening with or without Western support - the difference is the outcome, if we give them enough weapons, they can win and end the war.

    • massive_bereavement
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      921 days ago

      In fact, Ukraine had the initiative a couple of times, but offensives are costly and then Congress decided that they will find as many excuses as possible to ensure no equipment was to be sent for a very long time.

      And every time some museum pieces at piecemeal quantities were sent, it was usually through much fanfare.

      So much was lost and so much was bled, and in the hour of need we broke our promises.

    • @kava@lemmy.world
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      -321 days ago

      American goals in Ukraine are

      • make Russia pay dearly for every inch of land they take in Ukraine

      • use this opportunity to give a nice cash injection to our defense contractors

      • gather as much intel & data on both Russia & the modern battlefield in general. Sort of like the Spanish Civil War before WW2. A playground to test out new technologies

      These goals have already been accomplished. It’s been a great couple years in terms of hurting Russia for cheap.

      We want to prolong this war as long as possible. A Ukrainian victory would be just as bad as a Ukrainian loss. It’s why we modulate our aid carefully. Like Chomsky was saying before his stroke - “we will fight them to the last Ukrainian”

      I think a lot of people get blinded by propaganda in the moment. Even people who retroactively would be able to see it just fine (try and find someone who believes Iraq was a justified war) strongly believe the party lines.

      Reality is American interests and Ukrainian interests are not aligned.

        • @kava@lemmy.world
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          120 days ago

          American strategic goals and what Ukraine deserves are two separate topics that have no connection with each other

          The Kurds have a right to exist, what happened to them once there was no more utility to the US?

          The US is participating in the destruction of Ukraine for their own strategic interests. Just like every other thing the US has ever done.