US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s • Hacker News Board

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#641

Post by amarcheschi » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:30 PM UTC

nxm wrote: post #373

jmye wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s “great” in the sense that this will decimate the US military industry (great or “great” depending on your view of American hegemony). China and Europe will be stronger, and America is absolutely finished as a world power. So much winning, eh?

Europe has had 20 summits and talks about what they plan to plan to plan to do… eventually. USA will be fine.

Weapons procurement expenses has been shooting up in Europe, I do not get why you only talk about the spoken plans and not the actual things that eventually happens after these plan are designed.

Just a few days ago, Leonardo signed a treaty to develop uavs together with Baykar. A month or so ago, Italian government announced the creation of a joint venture between rheinmetall and Leonardo, sharing technologies to Leonardo and producing some of the >1000 ifvs to buy for the italian army in italy and some in Germany

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#642

Post by hkpack » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:30 PM UTC

ascorbic wrote: post #332

pacifika wrote: post #62

What’s the motivation, if the Russians have the strong cards in this upcoming peace negotiation the current administration feels the need to weaken the Ukrainian side equipment? Slice of the minerals?

Trump just wants the war to end. Ukraine doesn't want to surrender a chunk of its territory under bad terms, so they won't make a deal. Putin is more than happy to take a deal that means they win. Trump thinks that if he weakens Ukraine then they'll be more willing to take a bad deal. He also doesn't like Ukraine or Zelenskyy, so has no particular desire to do them a favour.

> doesn't want to surrender a chunk of its territory

It is not about a chunk of the territory.

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#643

Post by lucianbr » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:30 PM UTC

bmitc wrote: post #543

ericjmorey wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A substantially sized loud minority in the US is fully committed to a death cult of personality. The rest of us are suffering and unprepared for this.

What about all the "liberals", including many on this site, that not only bought into but actively promoted the cult of personality around Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX? Musk has always been a charlatan, and the majority of this very site bought into it.

Seems like they were able to change their position when faced with enough evidence. Does not seem like the other side can.

Also, you know, literally "what about"-ism.

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#644

Post by rayiner » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:31 PM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #266

ta988 wrote: post #228

And the story continues. This means that no country will want to buy F16s. If you don't get support they are useless. They are eroding really fast the US shine and trust in the world. This is going to have a massive effect on the US economy, internal consumption will not save it. This is the end of an empire while its rich kings are golfing every weekend on the taxpayer dime using federal and local resources. I am re…

I always thought that the American Empire would be dismantled when it elected a leftist steeped in anti-imperialist ideology who wanted to better the world. Nope, turns out that the American Empire is being dismantled by something else entirely. A subset of the populace that feels jealous of those with more and scared of social change, reacting to try to hurt their fellow country men? A megalomaniac leader who is som…

[flagged]

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#645

Post by analog31 » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:32 PM UTC

lolinder wrote: post #258

samcheng wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best explanation I've heard is that this (almost) half of the US population doesn't care if it hurts a bit, as long as it hurts the other half of the US population more.

No, that's not it. I'm writing this from rural America in deep Trump territory, and people here are already struggling and have been for years. From their perspective they've been left out of the benefits of the global economy—the big cities and the coasts might be better off, but the middle of the country wants to go back to when they had opportunities and jobs for working class Americans. They're almost certainly w…

I know I responded to you once already, but the other thing I wonder is if globalization is really the issue here. There's also an inherent productivity gap between densely and sparsely populated areas. Had industrial jobs not moved to China, they would have moved to the cities.

When people do build factories, which they still do, they build them in or around the cities, not in the country, despite having to pay more for land, labor, and regulatory compliance. If they do locate in the country, they choose a town that has a university and a hospital.

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#646

Post by dh2022 » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:32 PM UTC

827a wrote: post #520

epistasis wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought that the American Empire would be dismantled when it elected a leftist steeped in anti-imperialist ideology who wanted to better the world. Nope, turns out that the American Empire is being dismantled by something else entirely. A subset of the populace that feels jealous of those with more and scared of social change, reacting to try to hurt their fellow country men? A megalomaniac leader who is som…

It always ends up happening how you least expect it, though maybe that expectation is evidence that it was bound to happen via a different road anyway. At the end of the day, the problem isn't really Trump. The American Empire isn't going to end because its only exporting $300B of military might to the world instead of $600B, when no one else on the planet is scratching $50B (I made these numbers up as an illustratio…

Trump does not want to reduce US debt level- Trump wants a tax cut. If government spending decreases as a result of DOGE that will not result in lower debt- it will result in a bigger tax cut.

The savings from DOGE ( if there will be any) will pass on to rich people, not to the average American voter.

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#647

Post by Valodim » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:33 PM UTC

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #590

ta988 wrote: post #228

And the story continues. This means that no country will want to buy F16s. If you don't get support they are useless. They are eroding really fast the US shine and trust in the world. This is going to have a massive effect on the US economy, internal consumption will not save it. This is the end of an empire while its rich kings are golfing every weekend on the taxpayer dime using federal and local resources. I am re…

What's truly eroding trust is the voting system. A system that places so much power in a single individual with complete immunity exposes its vulnerabilities-especially in a time when people can be manipulated so effectively. To be honest, I see the lack of justice as the biggest problem. If the highest courts in the U.S. are essentially political institutions, shaped by those in power rather than acting as neutral a…

It didn't used to be "complete immunity", that's part of the problem

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#648

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:33 PM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #266

ta988 wrote: post #228

And the story continues. This means that no country will want to buy F16s. If you don't get support they are useless. They are eroding really fast the US shine and trust in the world. This is going to have a massive effect on the US economy, internal consumption will not save it. This is the end of an empire while its rich kings are golfing every weekend on the taxpayer dime using federal and local resources. I am re…

I always thought that the American Empire would be dismantled when it elected a leftist steeped in anti-imperialist ideology who wanted to better the world. Nope, turns out that the American Empire is being dismantled by something else entirely. A subset of the populace that feels jealous of those with more and scared of social change, reacting to try to hurt their fellow country men? A megalomaniac leader who is som…

[deleted]

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#649

Post by tastyfreeze » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:34 PM UTC

beveldropshadow wrote: post #126

ctack wrote: post #111

@dang - why flagged?

Everything nominally related to Trump is getting flagged, even comments. Several unrelated comments of mine went from neutral/positive to flagged suddenly. Salty folks, or maybe coordinated, probably a little of both.

I've noticed the same. Wish I knew if it was real people or an army of bots flipping switches to influence visibility for someone's gain.

You're right, probably both. Unfortunately the question alone makes HN have much less utility.

Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s

#650

Post by whstl » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:34 PM UTC

dtquad wrote: post #554

epistasis wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought that the American Empire would be dismantled when it elected a leftist steeped in anti-imperialist ideology who wanted to better the world. Nope, turns out that the American Empire is being dismantled by something else entirely. A subset of the populace that feels jealous of those with more and scared of social change, reacting to try to hurt their fellow country men? A megalomaniac leader who is som…

>I always thought that the American Empire would be dismantled when it elected a leftist steeped in anti-imperialist ideology who wanted to better the world. Most leftist political parties in Scandinavia and the Baltics manages to be be both pro-Palestine, pro-NATO, and pro-Ukraine. They don't seen any contradiction because there aren't any. Why do some American leftists follow this 3rd worldist neo-Maoist thinking t…

> Why do some American leftists follow this 3rd worldist neo-Maoist thinking that Western civilization needs to burn down before you can get free healthcare and free college?

Let's be fair, you said "some". We also have some of those in Europe.

But to answer, with a guess: perhaps the difference is that in European countries there are way more political parties. But I'm not an expert on American politics so feel free to say this is BS.