U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#421

Post by s1artibartfast » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

herculity275 wrote: post #206

jisnsm wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can imagine the very same thing being said if the USA had pulled out of the War on Terror. B-but they have WMD! The NYT said so!

It really sucks that "Saddam has WMDs" broke an entire generation of Americans into knee-jerk contrarianism regarding any global conflict US is involved in. What's the "WMD" equivalent here - what do you think the media is lying to you about? That there's an ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is something all involved parties acknowledge.

I think the "wmd equivalent" is the idea that Russia will move on Berlin if they're not contained in Ukraine.

I think the idea that the Budapest memorandum is a US security guarantee here's another comparable lie.

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#422

Post by aprilthird2021 » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #373

insane_dreamer wrote: post #34

Hesgeth is sending an extra $4B to Israel (in case anyone thinks this is about saving money).

MAGA? More like Make Israel Great Again!

Imagine if we had spent the money we gave to Israel for so long on ourselves and bringing back jobs to the US...

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#423

Post by hollerith » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

regularjack wrote: post #328

rayiner wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent! The Russia sanctions are causing collateral damage to much of the third world.

Feel free to provide any resources that support your take, otherwise I'll consider it to be bullshit

Russia is an important exporter of fertilizer, fuel and food. In contrast, most of the third world imports these things.

Sanctions imposed by the West do not (and cannot without a naval blockade of Russia, which no one in the West is crazy enough to advocate for) prevent the third world from continuing to import these Russian exports, but they introduce significant friction on these transactions.

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#424

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #121

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could ally with China. The Chinese are only frenemies with Russia anyways, and they make way much more money trading with the rest of Europe.

Perhaps surprisingly, Europe has more nuclear weapons than China (France: 290 warheads, UK: 225 warheads, China: 500 warheads). China never really bought into the mutually assured destruction doctrine in the same way that the US and Soviet Union did.

I don’t think the Chinese have been sitting still for the last 10 years, and I doubt they will sit still for the next 10 years.

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#425

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:06 PM UTC

salynchnew wrote: post #83

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people think it is so far fetched that Trump is a Russian asset given his behavior in his last term (trying to blackmail Zelenskyy on an official call) and his credit problems in the past (no banks would lend to him given his failure to pay back any loan, with the exception of an obscure channel through a German bank)? Perhaps Trump is just in debt to Putin and this is payback, he was intentionally crass to Ze…

I don't go in for most conspiracy theories, but there is this: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/17/deutsche-ba... (second half of the article)

The MAGA crowd literally is all about conspiracy theories, heck, Trump is the head conspiracy theorist-and-chief.

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#426

Post by aprilthird2021 » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:06 PM UTC

lifestyleguru wrote: post #336

insane_dreamer wrote: post #34

Hesgeth is sending an extra $4B to Israel (in case anyone thinks this is about saving money).

America in unable to sustain such active support for two countries simultaneously, so it's picking Israel. Israeli lobbying is much more far-reaching than European so American attention is shifting there. EU has 3-4 years to ram up but its leaders are the same self-absorbed as Trump (only less big mouthed), so in 3-4 years Europeans will have to absorb whatever Putin will come up with.

It's a huge mistake, imo. Israel is going to continue to ostracize itself on the global stage till it's the next South Africa and all our money will have been wasted. That's my belief anyways

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#427

Post by bamboozled » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:08 PM UTC

bradhe wrote: post #112

DidYaWipe wrote: post #88

The USA stands in miserable disgrace.

Amazing to see Russia win the Cold War—one we didn’t even know we were in. Their propaganda network is so strong that it took 3 weeks to go from “Russia is the enemy” to “eh, we have other problems” amongst the folks who…subscribe accordingly. Absolute masterclass in projecting power in the digital age.

I’m not going to be surprised to read he plans on sending weapons to Russia in the near future. I’m also not going to be surprised when the cult cheers it on as well. Russia has done a great job, good for them I guess?

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#428

Post by jyscao » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:08 PM UTC

nuccy wrote: post #6

Thus two messages for every other country: 1. Make nukes, never give up on those regardless of what assurances of safety you get 2. If you are bigger and stronger - you are right, do whatever you want, international laws and rules do not matter any more Lets see where all this will bring the world to in the next 10 years or a generation.

> If you are bigger and stronger - you are right, do whatever you want, international laws and rules do not matter any more

In reality, that was always the case.

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#429

Post by layer8 » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

hnpolicestate wrote: post #413

tim333 wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there's not much conspiracy theorizing. Politico article: >The top level of the Soviet diplomatic service arranged his 1987 Moscow visit. With assistance from the KGB. It took place while Kryuchkov was seeking to improve the KGB's operational techniques in one particular and sensitive area. The spy chief wanted KGB staff abroad to recruit more Americans... https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump…

[flagged]

Where are you taking “as a spy” from?

Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine

#430

Post by libertine » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #324

rayiner wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t randomly accuse people of “sophistry.” Zelensky is publicly demanding a security guarantee, and sprung that on Trump at the meeting. I didn’t say there couldn’t be other support, but the security guarantee is what I’m talking about because that seems to be critical.

If I have my dates right, Macron (president of France) visited the White House on Feb 24 and pointed out that security guarantees would be important and that the US could play an important role providing those guarantees. This discussion ended amicably. [1] Starmer (Prime Minister of the UK) visited Trump on Feb 27 , and besides handing over an invitation from King Charles, also discussed the fact that there would ne…

What went wrong is assuming there were good faith talks in the first two instances with Macron and Starmer.

It isn't by chance that even after the talks with Macron, Trump tried to lie in front of him only to be corrected by Macron in the oval office.

Even after being correct, and continues to spin the same lie during the Zelensky talks and after.

The only thing that went wrong was assuming that Trump ever had Ukraine interest in sight, and not Russia interests.

What we witnessed isn't anything new or shocking to anyone who has been following this event.

This had been a recurring behavior from this administration, where there's a theatrical display to show that there might be some understanding, with leaders putting their credibility in the to say there's some alignment, only to have Trump the next day stating the opposite or something completely unaligned with previous statements.

Let's hope this was the the final straw, and just accept that Russia managed to capture the US. Now it's about protecting this from happening elsewhere - Twitter, and other platforms, including alternative media should start to be banned in Europe ASAP.