And this the first big mistake of become a soldier in a war during this times. That’s why many europeans will not fight for their countries aswell, there isnt a rich paycheck waiting you, only misery and death, warlords games sitting on their red chairs around long table, I can’t believe that still there is someone doing the soldier, expecially the attackers, who are this people to accept invading another country? Thiefs, murders, evil guys.
why many europeans will not fight for their countries aswell, there isnt a rich paycheck waiting you
I’m not many europeans, and I’m afraid you’re partly correct, but should the need rise I will fight for my country and any amount of money isn’t in the equation. I want my kids to grow up in a free country like I did and fight for it, like my grandparents did. I really hope things don’t escalate to that, but I’ll do it if necessary and I’m pretty happy I don’t need to go by myself.
From my current location you could reach Russian border in 3-5 hours by car (as it always has been) and I’m somewhat far away from the eastern border by our standards. Ukrainians are witnessing what our eastern neighbor is capable of all day every day and if I have anything to say for it it’s not going to happen here.
But Putin wasn’t supposed to lie to THEM, they’re all bros and whatever, dude did Putin a solid and went to war. Kinda like narcissistic dictators (is that redundant?) just say whatever they want to get the most support they can at that minute. Hopefully others have and others will continue to learn from this and make some changes for their country. I’m not holding my breath though.
I have little sympathy but I have sympathy. Many of these volunteers did so for the money. It’s a major part of their recruitment strategy. “You fight for your country, your family has more money, and if you die there’s enough for their comfort.” This is their country that’s been lying to them their whole lives. And they’re doing it for their family.
I feel no sympathy for their deaths in battle, but this isn’t Russians vs Ukrainians here, this is poor people being convinced to die for their rich leader’s ego and he isn’t even giving their family the money he promised. And many of these people likely think they’ll be conscripted anyways so they may as well take the cash when it’s an option
It’s capitalist Russia. They do exaggerated versions of what we do. We exist as a mostly empty country deeply reliant on our fossil fuel resources, they exist as a nearly empty undiversified petrostate. We have gerrymandering and voter suppression, they have political candidates disappeared. We promise education and healthcare in exchange for service and cheap out to the point of near uselessness, they promise cash and send a bill instead. We have income inequality, they have oligarchs. We have bigotry problems, they ban certain groups from participating in public life.
Honestly, I think Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto 4 said it really well. “War is when the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other”
but this isn’t Russians vs Ukrainians here, this is poor people being convinced to die for their rich
I’m certain Ukrainian civilians are dying every fucking day because of RUSSIA. I can’t tell if the RUSSIANS murdering the civilians are wealthy or not, jus that they endorse the murder, rape, and torture of innocent Ukrainian people.
Honestly, this war is NOT a class struggle, I disagree with your premise and think you’re just trying to drag an innocent Ukraine down to Russia’s level.
I appreciate the separation between those two concepts, and find that too few people look at it that way.
Every last one of them needs to be booted off Ukrainian soil, of course - that also goes without saying - but the Russian Army has a long history of lying to their citizens, promising money that never appears, and pulling small numbers of people from e.g., remote villages so that surviving families believe they’re one of the few and don’t see the larger losses at scale.
I can’t locate my well-thumbed copy of Grau at the moment, but I’m reasonably sure he substantiates the above at least as far back as Afghanistan.
Thanks it comes from coming to terms with the reality of America as an American. I watched people get roped into a jingoistic furor to die in the sand on the other side of the world for what? Oil profits? In a time that we desperately needed to be decarbonizing and instead were being sold bigger and bigger cars. Most of our troops survived and they were invaders who deserved to be shot at, but we didn’t get back the folks we sent out, we got shattered and broken versions of them. They didn’t profit off it, rich folks who wouldn’t send their kid within any distance of an IED did. It was the poor and desperate who fought, just like in Vietnam.
Poor folk from all over the world keep getting sent to kill each other.
I volunteered to fight for leopards and then they ate our faces, says lady in an actual leopard shirt. Are we sure the writers strike ended? This just seems so lazy.
well, it's not incoherent to give a volunteer supplies, or even a basic stipend to cover supplies... If the 200,000 she mentioned was rubles, that's not even $2,200, that's not a soldier's pay, that's a small stipend—especially if they don't give you a uniform or even fucking feed you.
Volunteer troops usually are contrasted to conscripts not to professionals. The United States for example fields an all volunteer professional military ever since the end of the Vietnam war. Unpaid troops are usually militias, and they can be contrasted to professional troops. That said militias often provide stipends or some form of compensation.
Add comment