I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone propose the possibility that allowing Russia to use Starlimk is an espionage play. I have no idea if that's actually what's going on, but if it would give Starlink information on troop locations and open a door for listening in on all Starlink-based communications, you would want the public and Russia to believe the CEO is on their side. It would also align with the fact that Russi…
Do you think the American government can't already find Russian ships? America gets their ass beat consistently in unwinnable wars against guerilla armies, but in terms of identifying giant warships I think they're pretty capable.
Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
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Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#212Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Finding them is actually likely much less of a problem than listening in, though providing the Ukrainians with additional ways of finding and tracking their enemy without us directly providing intel does offer the US plausible deniability.
>US plausible deniability *snort*
Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Russia is at (undeclared) war with US and NATO. Russian propaganda currently says that they started the war to counter NATO expansion.
Russia has always (somewhat fairly) been vocal that since the collapse of the Warsaw pact, Nato has no reason to exist other than to defend against a potential attack from Russia. Nato have always acted as though that's true, and have pursued expanding the alliance to countries bordering Russia, and established missile defence installations there. The closest we ever got to nuclear war was when Russia moved missiles…
A couple of minutes with a globe would answer many of those questions. Not the propaganda ones, of course.
Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he is no way affiliated with the Bulgarian military or army and is likely on russia's payroll The sheer number of people - Americans, mostly - who consider Russia this omnipotent boogeyman is both hilarious and scary. Everything is Russian propaganda, you can't believe anything a Russian says, all Russians are evil. I mean, where does this mentality come from? It's insane. In some circles you can literally dismiss…
Imagine this. SpaceX solves this by terminating every dish bought outside of Ukraine due to antagonist comments
Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#216I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone propose the possibility that allowing Russia to use Starlimk is an espionage play. I have no idea if that's actually what's going on, but if it would give Starlink information on troop locations and open a door for listening in on all Starlink-based communications, you would want the public and Russia to believe the CEO is on their side. It would also align with the fact that Russi…
Do you think the American government can't already find Russian ships? America gets their ass beat consistently in unwinnable wars against guerilla armies, but in terms of identifying giant warships I think they're pretty capable.
Specifically, we either don't define metrics for success or we define completely unrealistic metrics. Worse, we go to war with no intention of destroying an enemy that has left us with no alternative other than to risk many, many human lives to stop them. We go for political wins at home, to claim ground in a geopolitical power struggle, or for natural resources.
Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#217Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Russia is at (undeclared) war with US and NATO. Russian propaganda currently says that they started the war to counter NATO expansion.
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"Russians" who have an awareness of history (who are all the Russians I know personally) understand, implicitly, that these countries did not join NATO out of hostile intent - but from the need for some level of security to protect against a neighboring country which has done, as I'm sure you must know, some pretty awful things to them in the not so distant past.
They don't love NATO by any means. But they fully get why these countries sought membership. And don't for a minute believe the hogwash put out by the current Tsar, that it was somehow "necessary" to start bombing an shooting everywhere with oblivion, and letting the bodies pile up with such an awful stink -- just to make a "point".
(I put "Russians" in quotes because only about 70 percent of the country is what one would call ethnically Russian).
We would do the exact same thing.
You're right - "we" (by which you mean the US) did in fact do a basically very similar thing, in regard to numerous countries in Latin America from about 1961-1985. To the point of establishing or supporting dictatorships that killed and tortured probably upwards of 200,000 people, on top of putting multiple generations of social development in these countries effectively on hold.
And for which we have been rightly and thoroughly condemned, by folks with a good conscience, and an awareness of basic history everywhere.
Re: Russian troops use Starlink licensed and imported from Dubai
#219How is this legal? Can Starlink get in trouble from EU and the US?
If i manufacture a truck and sell it abroad, and eventually it ends up with a weapons mount in the Syrian desert, am i to blame?
If your truck gets traced back to you, expect a government audit. If you sold it to a denied party due to lack of due diligence, you will be held liable.
(A truck is probably an extreme example. I'm not sure we're spending time tracing vehicles, but you better believe we are for our state-of-the-art radio tech.)
Source: I with export controls for the semiconductor industry.