We 100% are lol just not “officially”.
I personally know a guy that is running guns there for the US government.
And who do you think is there showing them how to use the equipment :).
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And tactics.
I was watching a video a while back of some guys who spoke english with no accents leading a team to clear a safehouse.
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We have been and are.
Drip drip drip… everyone is there.
US should be there. Everyone should be there. It is not only about Russians and Ukrainians killing each other. Russia is kidnapping children, almost 1 mil, Russia blowed a damn causing eco catastrophe, Russia is blackmailing to blow a nuclear power plant. In the beginning of the war Russia was blackmailing with NLG entire Europe, trying to make the rubble the official NLG currency. Additionally Russia was trying to remove the petro dollar as a reserve currency. And most importantly Russia was blackmailing to use nuclear weapons.
Not enough reasons for everybody to be involved, especially US?
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukrainian comedian-actors don’t need help. Just look at the way he dresses-always prepared for battle, even when mingling with others who would piss themselves at the sound of gunfire.
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A group of Florida National Guardsmen were in Western Ukraine training Ukrainians before Feb of 22, they were pulled back a few days before the invasion. The US administration was so convinced that Kyiv will fall in 72 hours that they evacuated literally everyone, including the US Marine detachment protecting the embassy (and yes, there are US Marines in every US embassy or consulate, including Moscow)
I don’t know, a father-of-two who’s been married for almost 20 years to a woman he went to high school with and who showed remarkable personal courage when faced with mortal danger on numerous occasions is for me the epytome of old school masculine values, potential lack of muscle tone and his comic acts notwithstanding.
Now, I kind of understand why such masculinity triggers modern-day feminized snowflakes who believe that courage is posting salty takes on the internet at every given opportunity.
That’s the International Legion. Most of the “international” volunteers come from Belarus (yes, Belarus); Georgia (the country) and the Baltic states, fighting in their respective national units such as the Georgian Legion, the Belarus “Kastus Kalinouski” regiment etc.
As for “Westerners” the core team of Americans are former YPG international volunteers who fought against ISIS in Syria with some former US servicemen who volunteered after Feb of 22. As most of them are open about their identities on social media/fundraising efforts there isn’t much nefarious going on. There’s a bunch of Frenchmen as well.
Actually it’s a two way street as the US army is learning a shitton about its weapons, equipment (Switchblade drones suck) and tactis in a massive conventional war. US troops weren’t under significant continuous enemy shelling since Khe Sanh and they’re getting valuable info.
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This is how training Ukraine’s territorials works. Territorial defense soldiers are volunteer civilians and they’re trained by volunteer US ex-servicemen.
I think Russians who are raping and kidnapping children are scum, and so are people who are either appeasing or justifying them.
“Opposition to war” means “I didn’t expect my victim to fight back so I cannot rape, murder and pillage in peace”.
No.
Stop spending our tax dollars on wars and rebuilding other countries to line politicians and special interest pockets.
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Is there a dollar amount that you think it would have been worth the U.S. spending to absolutely cripple Russia?
No, not with our current government especially when the money is going to one of the most corrupt countries on the planet. Our own state department stated this under Obama.
Plus, Russia was doing a good job of that without any intervention on our part.
Also, until every veteran and US CITIZEN is taken care of and cared for - fuck the rest of the world. Last time I checked our government is responsible for their constituents first.
I don’t pay my neighbors mortgage or the mortgages of people in other states when I can’t pay my own or have dependents that aren’t taken care of.
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Nope
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Agreed. US needs to stop playing global cop and peacemaker. So much of that money should have been reinvested into veteran care, education, and solving the hunger and homelesss issues here.
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I agree with veteran care, but no amount of money is solving education or homelessness.
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I’m not sure how a thirty year old mothballed Bradley IFV could have been used to solve homelessness but ok.
The US is spending around 5% of it’s yearly defense budget on Ukraine, most of it is bookkeeping value of old equipment. I didn’t hear many voices clamoring for those 5% being rerouted to veterans and whatnot before Feb '22. Maybe I’m wrong.
Last time the US ignored the rest of the world, we got WW2.
Department of Veteran Affairs had a budget of 112 billion in FY2022.
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How much does it cost to ship? Man power, contractors, etc. Tax money is still tax payer money. All our governments money comes from the tax payer.
I have clamored for this for - forever. Stop sending money to other countries and take care of our people first. All the money our government has comes from the people or prints goes on the people as debt.
Like how we spent 2 trillion in Afghanistan over 20 years to replace the taliban with the taliban and give them a bunch of arms - brilliant.
So, WW2 was the US’ fault?
Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit. Seems like this time this move is pushing us closer to WW3.
More proof our government can’t run anything correctly or in the black and surely does not need to be giving our tax money to Ukraine.
You don’t even live in the US and are not a US citizen, so frankly your opinion on where our money should go is irrelevant to me.
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I have no particular love for Ukraine, but I think the US is getting a great deal in weakening the Putin regime for comparatively little.
And while some money is going to Ukraine, the amount of actual money being sent or even spent on new things is relatively small. For the most part, that money is essentially ‘store credit’ that we are letting the Ukrainians spend to buy equipment that we already have. While some of that does need to get replaced, much of it is really only useful in a landwar in Europe. Which is to say, we built some weapons with the intention of fighting Russia if it ever came up. It’s not like we could pawn those weapons at our local Walmart to pay for other things.
Wait until the next phase when we start “rebuilding” them. I am sure that bill won’t be small either.
So more special interests and politicians can get richer at the expense of the tax payer / middle class.
Of course not. I’m just saying the US voluntary withdrawal from international affairs post-Versailles left a gaping hole in international relations that could not have been fulfilled by dying empires of Britain and France. And then the bad guys tested the League of Nations system - first the Japanese in Manchuria in 1931 then the Nazis in Saarland and then Mussolini in Ethiopia…
No. Inaction does. As shown above. Bad actors do not magically disappear if you shut your door and ignore what’s happening outside.
Ok, then stop replying to me. I cannot help noticing that the professed stance in this thread of solving homelessness with money (which I personally think is a demagogic device) is at complete odds with sentiments in other threads about conditions in inner cities and their underlying causes.
The 95% of the remaining Pentagon budget would disagree with that.
More late stage alcoholics to be financed?