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It's interesting reading the comments about the US military spending from when this originally came out [0 (230 comments)]. I wonder if anyones changed their o
by mrep 5y ago
It's interesting reading the comments about the US military spending from when this originally came out [0 (230 comments)]. I wonder if anyones changed their opinions in light of the invasion of Ukraine.
Here is an interesting thread [1] from it about Canadas military budget which ends with the comment "Look at the map, find Russia, see how large it is. Do you really think it needs more territory?" Apparently, they indeed think they do!
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20303029 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20303029
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20305555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20305555
- thehappypm 5y agoThis comment in particular aged like milk: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20306320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20306320
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoI think their point is that if you graph the number of people killed in wars, then it's dropping over time (which is illustrated on the site they link to). Unless Ukraine starts WWIII that's still going to be the case, even with Yemen and Syria etc. We just used to have a lot more wars.
- thehappypm 5y agoThe point may be valid but the overly strong wording is hilariously wrong in hindsight.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoHot take: Without massive Department of Defense spending we wouldn't be having a crisis in Ukraine today
- mrep 5y agoWhy? Russia has so many nukes it just needs one sub to launch a MIRV nuclear second strike to make it 1000x more costly to NATO. Do you honestly believe NATO would ever first strike Russia??? NATO is a defense pack and we have way more to lose as our economies are on top.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoNo, I don't think NATO would first strike with nukes. Russia either for that matter, although I am slightly less certain now that they have less to loose. Nukes are good for ensuring MAD, but don't stop conventional wars,insurgencies, and geopolitics. This is why every nuclear armed country also has a conventional military. Nukes don't make them obsolete. Like you said, counties don't want to fire fist. This holds true if if Russia were to invade Poland, or NATO were to invade Russia, so you are back to square one. A good old conventional standoff.
- CogitoCogito 5y ago> Hot take: Without massive Department of Defense spending we wouldn't be having a crisis in Ukraine today That might be true. It might also be true that Russia would have been even more belligerent due to a weaker US military. I guess all we can do is speculate.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoI was thinking specifically about pumping military hardware into Ukraine. Certainly help raise the temperature in the room.