They do, but these drones are far cheaper to build than the missiles usually used to shoot them down. They are also being produced in massive quantities.
The other side invested heavily in promoting that decrepit old man to represent their interests. The amount of backroom maneuvering it took to hand Biden the nomination was remarkable.
As Ukraine struggles to hold back Russian advances, the country’s officials say they are once again facing the formidable challenge of keeping electricity flowing as Moscow’s forces increasingly strike power plants....
It’s funny how one side of the conflict actively avoids critical civilian infrastructure, while the other focuses on it almost exclusively. It’s almost like there really are good guys and bad guys in this conflict.
Imagine the damage Ukraine could do to the Russian electric grid, given how ineffective Russian anti-air capability has proven to be. Talk about a target rich environment.
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would force President Joe Biden to send weapons to Israel, seeking to rebuke the Democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges Israel to do more to protect civilians during its war with Hamas....
The Republicans voted to pass a bill in the House to send the weapons. It will almost certainly fail in the Senate but, even if it doesn’t, Biden would have to sign it into law. I don’t see Biden signing a bill to override himself, and there is no way that Congress would get the required 2/3 in each chamber to override. This bill was just a performative stunt.
This isn’t wrong, but this argument gets made over and over and over again in every political thread on almost every topic, whether or not it fits the flow of the conversation. People don’t want to be preached at and it’s going to be self defeating.
EDIT: Tone deaf establishment apologists are going to lose again and still not understand why. “Republicans suck more” is far less compelling than some people think, no matter how true. Winning elections and winning arguments are different things.
President Joe Biden and his administration have been accused of being complicit in enabling a famine in Gaza by failing to sufficiently act on repeated warnings from their own experts and aid agencies....
The majority of Palestinian deaths came after the last ceasefire. The UN Security Council demanded another ceasefire exactly like the armchair diplomats demanded, and yet it made no difference at all. At what point do people realize that foreign policy is complex as fuck and that knee jerk solutions, however well intended, are not the real answer?
We don’t need a ceasefire, we need a peace. That requires careful application of power and influence across multiple warring cultures with a crazy web of often contradictory alegences. That’s the goal that the Biden administration has been working towards, and abandoning Israel would be a disaster for everyone.
With or without US support, Israel can destroy Gaza. Israel has twice the population of Palestine, is far better armed already, and their people are better educated and have access to food and medicine. Israel also has a right wing Prime Minister who’s entire political image is based on anti-Palestinian racism. Throw in the fact that he might face trial as soon as he leaves office, and it becomes clear he is not backing down.
The new shipments recently announced are for some time in 2026 at the earliest. They are of no assistance to Israel until then and, until that time, they are leverage.
I make no defense for Israel’s actions in this conflict, the illegal settlements, or the apartide system they benefit from. I also disagree with a whole lot about the Biden administration’s response to this conflict, and to the protests within the US. However, it’s a far more complicated situation than many understand. People should also keep in mind that foreign policy strategies often collapse if talked about publicly.
The college protests actually seem to have raised the pressure on Israel, and have started to spread in Europe. I think that joining with that effort is probably the most impact that average citizens can have. That and donate to charitable organizations bringing aid to Gaza, even if that aid is currently being blocked.
Trump’s gang has given populists a bad name. The only requirements for being a populist are that you believe there is a wealthy class that dominates our politics to serve their own class purposes, and you think that is a bad thing. I consider myself a left wing populist.
Just the fact that he felt the need to address them himself on TV is evidence that he feels pressure. I never claimed they were changing the course of history, but if you have better suggestions then please make them.
I don’t know where you got that 300k number from, but I clearly said that I disagree with much of Biden’s response.
Saving Palestinian lives is sadly not a strategic goal of US foreign policy. This is true for Biden, his election opponents, and every US President since WWII. However, general stability in the Middle East is very much a strategic goal, and that is not well served by Israel’s recent actions. So yeah, the US is going to support it’s ally Israel while working towards peace. This is not out of altruism, it’s in service to it’s own strategic interests. Everything in foreign policy eventually comes down to competing interests and power, and that’s not just an American thing.
The US abandoning Israel would throw the whole region into turmoil. Iran and/or it’s proxies would become far more hostile and Israel would no longer be willing to even pretend to tolerate a hostile force within its own boarders. Both Gaza and the West Bank are just gone. Israel would start cutting deals with US rivals which would have global implications.
US pulling out of Israel would be the most chaos inducing event in world history.
You don’t think Russia and China stand to benefit from Israeli knowledge of US arms technology? What about the massive PR win for Russia? They already use an imagined Nazi threat to justify their wars of aggression.
There are three regional powers in the Middle East. The US has Israel and Saudi Arabia, and Russia has Iran. You don’t think Russia wants to flip that math? Controlling that much oil would eliminate whatever vulnerability they have to sanctions.
Israel is hardly discredited, whatever the hell that means. Maybe in Internet culture, but not in geopolitics. Russia is doing almost exactly what Israel is on a much broader scale right now. The International community cares about as much about the Palestinians as they do about the Rohingya or the Darfuri, both of which are suffering ongoing genocides that I bet you didn’t even know about. The world should care, but it really doesn’t.
The problems in the Middle East are about a lot more than US meddling. Much of it goes back to before the US even existed. Not that the US has helped much, but it was the British Empire that setup ridiculous borders that all but guaranteed eternal conflict.
Israel is only a regional power by virtue of the US propping it up.
Where did you pick that nonsense up? Annual US aid amounts to around 15% of Israel’s military budget. That’s $3.8b compared to a GDP of $500b. It is a regional power with or without the US. US aid is in exchange for maintaining a major US military base in Israeli territory and access to Israeli intelligence. Israel spends more money on purchasing US weapons than it receives in US aid. US weapons also rely on technology designed and produced in Israel.
Why on earth would either Russia or China want to take that on, when they could just do nothing and watch Israeli power plummet.
Why on earth would Russia or China want to watch Israeli power plummet when they could use it to project power into the Middle East and access it’s resources? Why do you think the US is there?
And a lovely bit of whataboutism
It’s not Whataboutism, I was just explaining how foreign policy works. It’s clearly a topic of which you know very little. I’m not saying it’s OK that Israel commits a genocide because others do it, I’m saying that the international community doesn’t react to genocide like you or I do. They will praise, condemn, or ignore it based on their own national interests. That’s not how I think it should work, it’s how it does work.
The question was what can we as individuals do? Anyways, US aid generally accounts for around ,15% of Israel’s defense budget, and there are plenty of other countries from which to buy bombs.
Where did I say it was beyond anyone’s feeble comprehension? I’m just pointing out that it is complex and people are treating it like it isn’t. “Peace in the Middle East is a difficult and complex topic.” shouldn’t be a controversial statement.
I’ll forever cherish the image of Ted Cruz making calls for Trump after Trump accused his father of involvement in the JFK assassination and called his wife ugly.
Let me preface this by saying I’m not a fan at all of Bill Burr, but he recently went on Bill Maher’s show, and said he was with the students. He’s also said some inflammatory things in the past, so I’m not sure. Are we cool with Bill Burr, now?
He has a lot of good opinions, but not consistently good opinions. He reminds me a lot of how many viewed Russell Brand or maybe Joe Rogan years ago. When good opinions come from a shallow philosophical framework, always expect things to go sideways eventually.
It felt like it was uncool to have even a touch of racism when Obama got elected and through his presidency. But since the MAGA movement, I feel like subtle and out-right racism has increased. Like a gateway was opened....
My experience as a suburban white kid growing up in the Reagan era was that racism was just something to learn about in history class. Part of me really misses being that naive.
Maybe Ukraine would win if we gave them bigger planes? (sh.itjust.works)
Video on Trump Truth Social page references ‘unified Reich’ (thehill.com)
Faced With a Russian Onslaught, Ukraine Struggles to Keep the Lights On (www.nytimes.com)
As Ukraine struggles to hold back Russian advances, the country’s officials say they are once again facing the formidable challenge of keeping electricity flowing as Moscow’s forces increasingly strike power plants....
US House votes to force weapons shipments to Israel, rebuking Biden (www.reuters.com)
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would force President Joe Biden to send weapons to Israel, seeking to rebuke the Democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges Israel to do more to protect civilians during its war with Hamas....
Microsoft's quest for short-term $$$ is doing long-term damage to Windows, Surface, Xbox, and beyond (www.windowscentral.com)
Joe Biden has done more than arm Israel. He’s complicit in Gaza’s devastating famine (www.independent.co.uk)
President Joe Biden and his administration have been accused of being complicit in enabling a famine in Gaza by failing to sufficiently act on repeated warnings from their own experts and aid agencies....
Speaker Mike Johnson's appearance at Trump's felony trial marks a remarkable moment in US politics (apnews.com)
Do we like Bill Burr now?
Let me preface this by saying I’m not a fan at all of Bill Burr, but he recently went on Bill Maher’s show, and said he was with the students. He’s also said some inflammatory things in the past, so I’m not sure. Are we cool with Bill Burr, now?
Did Obama Becoming President Make People Hide Their Racism?
It felt like it was uncool to have even a touch of racism when Obama got elected and through his presidency. But since the MAGA movement, I feel like subtle and out-right racism has increased. Like a gateway was opened....