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The Colonel Jessup character was guarding a fence in Cuba. Seriously. Cuba. Imagine hearing that sanctimonious speech about "the manner in which I defend you

The Colonel Jessup character was guarding a fence in Cuba. Seriously. Cuba. Imagine hearing that sanctimonious speech about "the manner in which I defend you" and then you find out it's a fence in Cuba. There hasn't been an existential threat to the United States since the Civil War, and that one was self-inflicted. Obviously we need to maintain a military but 99% of what the current military does is either for economic goals or hollow national pride.

sevenzero 5mo ago
Isn't every nuclear bomb an existential threat to all human life? How can one say there are no existential threats while countries people consider "The Enemy" have enough nukes to kill all human life multiple times? Also global warming is an existential threat. It's really telling how little people care about the world's problems not seeing their very own existence endangered.
- nixon_why69 5mo ago
  All true, I meant threats in conventional military terms which our military and public rhetoric are all centered around.
  - sevenzero 5mo ago
    Yea I didn't consider the public rhetoric, good catch!
    - nixon_why69 5mo ago
      Same to you, trust me I'd be happy if our thinking was more centered around avoiding the real catastrophes that you emphasized.
- mastermage 5mo ago
  In the case of Global Warming its happening to slowly for most people to perceive it as threatening. Even though it massively is. For Nukes thats just a given nowadays, humans have a remarkable ability to adapt to constant threats. Not in the sense of being able to do something against it but to know it exists and not be terrified every single day. So many things can threaten human life that exist around us and yet we do not get scared after some time anymore atleast not constantly. Look at people living in Australia the entire ecosystem is basically a giant threat to anyone living there. Look at people living in earth prone regions of the world. People adapt and keep on living their lives. This is a fundamental human skill.
  - sevenzero 5mo ago
    >People adapt and keep on living their lives. True! This is precisely what really annoys me about humans, because it makes humans not care about many things, and it's a skill I struggle with, which causes constant anger and helplessness on my side of things. But I guess it's what allows people to have hope and being whimsical, happy and whatnot.
- hollerith 5mo ago
  >Isn't every nuclear bomb an existential threat to all human life? No, of course not. It's a threat to people within 15 miles of the explosion plus people who are outdoors and turn to look at the bright light in the sky. And there's never been enough nukes to kill all human life. That statement is based on a despicable calculation in which it is assumed that people would assemble packed shoulder-to-shoulder in circles of just the right size and there are no structures or land masses to deflect the blast and no clouds or fog to absorb the intense light.
  - Nervhq 4mo ago
    [dead]
rayiner 5mo ago
Cuba is less than 95 miles from Florida and was aligned with a hostile nuclear superpower. The possibility of using Cuba as a base of operations for an attack on U.S. soil is the closest the U.S. has ever come to a significant foreign threat.
- nixon_why69 5mo ago
  And guantanamo bay is on the south side of Cuba, not even between Cuba and the US. There has never been fighting there over 100 years. These days it's most famous as a convenient legal location to do torture. Aaron Sorkin unintentionally created some phenomenal performance art with the closing of that movie and various educated people seeing Jack Nicholson's character as some sort of hard defender of freedom.
  - rayiner 5mo ago
    > And guantanamo bay is on the south side of Cuba, not even between Cuba and the US. Why do you think that’s relevant to the point?
    - nixon_why69 5mo ago
      It's relevant to the macho point of Jack Nicholson's character talking a bunch of shit about how he defends us. The Guantanamo base is irrelevant except, as previously noted, a convenient location to do torture. Regarding the larger relationship.. bro, it's not the 1960s. Nobody is even trying to put nukes in Cuba and we could have easily established normal relations at any point in the last 50 years. The only reason that they are "enemies" is because we can't let go of a grudge going on 75 years that is completely irrelevant in today's world.
      - cindyllm 5mo ago
        [dead]
      - rayiner 5mo ago
        >> And guantanamo bay is on the south side of Cuba, not even between Cuba and the US > It's relevant to the macho point of Jack Nicholson's character talking a bunch of shit about how he defends us. The Guantanamo base is irrelevant You think a naval base on Cuba is “irrelevant” because it’s on the south side of the island and not the north side?
hollerith 5mo ago
More than half of US ocean shipping tonnages is to or from ports on the US Gulf Coast, and Cuba is in a position to cut off access to it if it gets helps from a bigger power. The US has legitimate security interests in Cuba.

sevenzero 5mo ago

Isn't every nuclear bomb an existential threat to all human life? How can one say there are no existential threats while countries people consider "The Enemy" have enough nukes to kill all human life multiple times? Also global warming is an existential threat. It's really telling how little people care about the world's problems not seeing their very own existence endangered.

nixon_why69 5mo ago
All true, I meant threats in conventional military terms which our military and public rhetoric are all centered around.
- sevenzero 5mo ago
  Yea I didn't consider the public rhetoric, good catch!
  - nixon_why69 5mo ago
    Same to you, trust me I'd be happy if our thinking was more centered around avoiding the real catastrophes that you emphasized.
mastermage 5mo ago
In the case of Global Warming its happening to slowly for most people to perceive it as threatening. Even though it massively is. For Nukes thats just a given nowadays, humans have a remarkable ability to adapt to constant threats. Not in the sense of being able to do something against it but to know it exists and not be terrified every single day. So many things can threaten human life that exist around us and yet we do not get scared after some time anymore atleast not constantly. Look at people living in Australia the entire ecosystem is basically a giant threat to anyone living there. Look at people living in earth prone regions of the world. People adapt and keep on living their lives. This is a fundamental human skill.
- sevenzero 5mo ago
  >People adapt and keep on living their lives. True! This is precisely what really annoys me about humans, because it makes humans not care about many things, and it's a skill I struggle with, which causes constant anger and helplessness on my side of things. But I guess it's what allows people to have hope and being whimsical, happy and whatnot.
hollerith 5mo ago
>Isn't every nuclear bomb an existential threat to all human life? No, of course not. It's a threat to people within 15 miles of the explosion plus people who are outdoors and turn to look at the bright light in the sky. And there's never been enough nukes to kill all human life. That statement is based on a despicable calculation in which it is assumed that people would assemble packed shoulder-to-shoulder in circles of just the right size and there are no structures or land masses to deflect the blast and no clouds or fog to absorb the intense light.
- Nervhq 4mo ago
  [dead]

rayiner 5mo ago

Cuba is less than 95 miles from Florida and was aligned with a hostile nuclear superpower. The possibility of using Cuba as a base of operations for an attack on U.S. soil is the closest the U.S. has ever come to a significant foreign threat.

nixon_why69 5mo ago
And guantanamo bay is on the south side of Cuba, not even between Cuba and the US. There has never been fighting there over 100 years. These days it's most famous as a convenient legal location to do torture. Aaron Sorkin unintentionally created some phenomenal performance art with the closing of that movie and various educated people seeing Jack Nicholson's character as some sort of hard defender of freedom.
- rayiner 5mo ago
  > And guantanamo bay is on the south side of Cuba, not even between Cuba and the US. Why do you think that’s relevant to the point?
  - nixon_why69 5mo ago
    It's relevant to the macho point of Jack Nicholson's character talking a bunch of shit about how he defends us. The Guantanamo base is irrelevant except, as previously noted, a convenient location to do torture. Regarding the larger relationship.. bro, it's not the 1960s. Nobody is even trying to put nukes in Cuba and we could have easily established normal relations at any point in the last 50 years. The only reason that they are "enemies" is because we can't let go of a grudge going on 75 years that is completely irrelevant in today's world.
    - cindyllm 5mo ago
      [dead]
    - rayiner 5mo ago
      >> And guantanamo bay is on the south side of Cuba, not even between Cuba and the US > It's relevant to the macho point of Jack Nicholson's character talking a bunch of shit about how he defends us. The Guantanamo base is irrelevant You think a naval base on Cuba is “irrelevant” because it’s on the south side of the island and not the north side?

hollerith 5mo ago

More than half of US ocean shipping tonnages is to or from ports on the US Gulf Coast, and Cuba is in a position to cut off access to it if it gets helps from a bigger power. The US has legitimate security interests in Cuba.