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No kidding. Who is honestly against moves like this? I mean very few issues are black and white and defending Ukraine is as close to being on the right side of history as one can get. They were invaded by a much larger country that suppressed them for so long. They are a democracy that is trying really hard to further the will of their people. Russians are committing genocide against the local population. Supporting Ukraine and watching the Ukrainians fight back for their freedom is one of the few great parts of history that inspires.

Yeah. I get being cynical about all of the wars the U.S. has been part of in my lifetime.

But if you can't see how helping the Ukrainians is unequivocally the right thing to do, I don't know what to say. To me it's nice to be the good guys for once and point our defense industry at something worthwhile.

There's already a huge handful of conservative communities and almost every conservative I've ever met is suddenly very upset with our military budget and without any proof think Zelensky is just pocketing the money.

But it has felt like they're still the minority for the time being.

Okay I'll bite. Some people support Ukraine but don't support more weapons spending. In the early days of reddit, a lot of the power users were libertarian leaning programmers, and Lemmy has naturally attracted that cohort. You can see subs like Privacy and Piracy moving here, and there is a staunch anti government position that comes with anti centralization. I don't think these people should be called sad, as some are very well reasoned and thoughtful about their anti government position. What's more, if you don't live in the United States, it's very easy to call out the hypocrisy of US government warmongering e.g. in the middle east.

I gotta say, the tankie infestation of the fediverse is giving me serious second thoughts about this place. I get that it will get better over time as more people join and dilute the crazies, but I currently have a very hard time suggesting lemmy to people because of this.

What's sad is how little our country knows of war outside of the US propaganda machine. We spend more on war in one year than the next ten countries combined, and those countries mostly have health care systems that don't bankrupt their people. Canada, for instance, spends a mere 23 billion a year on war.

We on the other hand don't have health care so our country can involve itself in eight or nine wars at once, and our people think it's a good thing because they can't form a coherent thought outside of what they're being told on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

War sucks, and most veterans and their families know it. But when forced to fight Ukraine is standing, and I hope that Western support doesn’t waiver. I’m sure Putin is hoping to interfere in moar elections as an out.

Could you imagine if his lil orange minion was in power?

Shudders.

Ps, people make sure you are registered to vote.

I wish we didn’t need to do this but honestly this is some of the best spent military funds I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s all hardware, manufactured by the US. So that’s jobs. None of it is death payouts to American families like we had to do in Desert Storm. Russia richly deserves the fight. We’re getting a lot of help from other countries.

I wish we didn’t need to do this but since we do, fine.

And you can bet your ass everyone involved in that decision is an investor in Raytheon.

Because anti-air deletes missiles. Also you can't hold territory with just missiles. You need land presence, and for that you need soldiers. And since soldiers are more useful alive than dead, we built thick metal boxes that can roll around the battlefield so they can be protected while being transported to important locations. The metal boxes themselves also have big ass cannons attached that will utterly destroy any other vehicle or building an enemy might be using as cover. These are just some of the reasons soldiers and tanks are still used.

Warmongers being... the country currently undergoing a genocide from a global superpower? If you come to my home and shoot my kid, I'm not a warmonger for returning fire.

And the idea that the reason our programs at home are underfunded is a result of foreign aid is complete bullshit. They could fund those programs in a heartbeat at any time with or without a war. We could absolutely do both, the reason we don't is because none of your politicians give a shit about you, unrelated to what's going on in the world.

The cash isn't going to Ukraine, it all stays in the US.