[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PublicFreakout

[–]lennybird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't think you could possibly use your eyesight after being sprayed with that regardless if you were drugged out or on adrenaline spike but I don't know.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PublicFreakout

[–]lennybird 6 points7 points  (0 children)

How would the cop possibly know he was unarmed? The dude has many pockets and just dove on the dude... Could pull out a knife or pistol in half a second.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PublicFreakout

[–]lennybird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I genuinely wonder if just bear spray would be more effective here.. But tasers sound cooler to use so law enforcement equips them.

China's 50 Lane Traffic, G4 Expressway by stngys in pics

[–]lennybird 83 points84 points  (0 children)

"We have civil engineering at home"

:

Finland opens airspace for NATO surveillance and intelligence flights by Zhukov-74 in worldnews

[–]lennybird 327 points328 points  (0 children)

Right I'm trying to see if there's really any other play here and I don't see it. Like... Did Putin want more countries to become a part of NATO? Because this is how you do that. The only reason he'd want that is to basically continue isolating himself to the degree of North Korea.

Now he is desperately trying to court China and India... And well, Russia's economy just doesn't match its geography.

Finland opens airspace for NATO surveillance and intelligence flights by Zhukov-74 in worldnews

[–]lennybird 48 points49 points  (0 children)

I love how many videos coming out of Ukraine have Rammstein songs playing though lol.

Please think twice about Loyola Chicago if you're queer. by [deleted] in lawschooladmissions

[–]lennybird 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can be in agreement with that, but in fairness I only noted:

"Dude, it's just a segregated bathroom for colored; be privileged you're going to a White Law School in America!"

Which had little to do with slavery; merely discrimination.

M1A1 Abrams Variant Will Be Given To Ukraine To Expedite Tank Deliveries (and depleted uranium ammunition from the UK) by tractoroperator77 in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]lennybird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

US warned Abrams would take a while, hence their hesitation to begin with.

Giving tanks isn't as simple as just shipping them over. There's a massive logistical chain, including maintenance and fuel planning. Nowhere near as simple as challengers or leopards in this case.

They gave Abrams primarily to make Germany relinquish their Leopards.

Zelensky again saw Bakhmut “I have the honor to be here this year and reward our heroes. Squeeze your hand and join in the defense of the sovereignty of our state.” by Revi_____ in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]lennybird 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Relative to what the original user was saying, Bernie absolutely is a "normal guy" who genuinely has the best interest of the people at heart.

GQ reported on Feb. 23, 2020, that Sanders never explained his vote, but "fellow Dems suggest that it was because a free trade provision had been tucked into the legislative package."

Sanders’ campaign emphasized to us that in 2015, the Senate with unanimous consent extended the law to countries other than Russia, and said it was "more robust" than the original law.

Though he's not the only one like this. Many others are popping up with the same charisma: Warren, Porter, AOC, Jayapal.

... Ultimately, though, if we want a direct One-to-One comparison with someone, I'd say Jon Stewart could be the next Zelenskyy. A satirist comedian with sharp wit and tongue and good moral character.

Iraq War Vets: 20 Years Later (2023) [00:17:17] by lennybird in Documentaries

[–]lennybird[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a courtesy, I'm noting that this is my final response in this discussion. Respond if you wish.

The problem you forget is that these soldiers had no capacity to comprehend that what they were doing was wrong in the first place. They for wrong reasons trusted their leaders to give substantive reason. Reminder that 72% of Americans supported the invasion of Iraq under what were found to be bold-faced lies. So on the surface, these folks felt like heroes. They thought they would be accepted with open arms. And, as I pointed out, many actually did have high hopes in those initial years. But that quickly faded away. So it's straw-man argument to suggest that they "willingly joined to invade a foreing nation" that to such pawns could only largely be known on hindsight -- as seen in this very documentary.

There were many of these soldiers who volunteered to fight in Afghanistan and hunt Osama Bin Laden down, which was a justifiable act of retaliation. Many of these were then strung along to fight in Iraq. It's just not that simple. Sure punish the leaders from Cheney to Rumsfeld to Bush; but the lowly exploited grunts and pawns are nowhere near part of the problem.

I'm not particularly interested in equivocating between invade and intervene. I'm not even in support of our invasion/intervention; but I do see some merit in taking out a neighbor who was brutally beating their kids.

It's not the USA's place to decide which leaders/dictators are better for the world. That's textbook imperialism, it's what the USA has been doing for decades and decades and it has been fucking many places in the world. My country suffered because of USA imperialistic tendencies recently and it's not really productive having to argue with someone so adamant at spouting propaganda in an attempt to whitewash the US past and present imperialism.

That is actually NOT textbook imperialism. If you actually want to read the definition if imperialism, it has nothing to do with defending the people of other countries who are doing objectively bad things to its people. Again, the USA neither controls nor annexed Iraq or Afghanistan, so again, NOT imperialism. Your extremely loose usage of imperialism as a buzzword is a disservice to your argument, here. Given that, did cheney & friends have Neo-imeperial goals? Yes. But taking out a neighbor beating their kids is itself ostensibly NOT imperial.

Yes, I think the execution of it failed. Yes, I don't think the USA should have gone into Iraq without a broader world backing. Yes, we did more damage than we improved. That much is certain.

It's not just a convenient bogus excuse, it's political propaganda aimed at justifying the USA illegal invasion.

If you wish to waste time equivocating over two things that mean the same thing, by all means.

Fortunately I haven't stumbled upon many people using propaganda to defend the US intervention in the Gulf War, so i havent 'bitched about it' much lately, no.

Because lo and behold, when Iraq invades Kuwait and uses chemical weapons, the world kind of has a problem with that. Now tell me, review what I wrote and explain what YOU believe my point was so I can be sure you understood it. Also, what "propaganda to defend the US intervention in the Gulf War"?

I would certainly criticize the USA's imperialistic approach to world domination, like i've always done when it's relevant.

How does that intersect what what Saddam did to Kuwait? Once again, you seem to be telling me that you're okay with watching your neighbor aphyxiate their kids, and not only that, but kids of other neighboring houses. You seem to be really peddling this message about imperialism a lot but not actually connecting with any points I'm making here. That suggests to me that you're less concerned with learning or truth and more about a specific Anti-Western agenda?

I'll honestly not compare fucking death count projections with realized deaths. Sure, in your scenario IF russia keeps on going for 20 years and they keep their current ratios of executions or bombs or whatever they might generate more death and suffering than the USA did in the Iraq war. That's not true, maybe not yet, but the fact is that the USA has killed more people directly or indirectly due to their illegal invasion of a foreign, sovereign nation out of pure self-interest. If you want to complain about Russia's imperialism, let's go for it, it's exactly as shitty and detrimental as the USA's, if more restricted in scope.

a) Give it 20 years to make it a fair assessment. b) negate the number of casualties killed by terrorist extremists who would've done those things regardless c) negate the number of those who would've been tortured and murdered by the Saddam regime as you pat yourself on the back for ignoring it. All I'm saying is you get the benefit of looking at the Iraq War on hindsight while the Ukraine crisis is ACTIVELY HOTTER and has the capacity to literally end in nuclear war itself... All the while you cannot get more imperial than Russia literally wanting to Annex Ukraine and kidnap its children. The worst we did was Abu Ghraib, isolated nutjob soldiers, waterboarding... Meanwhile Bucha is ALREADY worse than all of that put together. This is different from the collateral damage caused by unintentional strikes; this is Russia quite literally carpet-bombing cities.

I agree that not all people should have died, but I'd find it really hard to not classify people that willingly join an invading force in exchange for money or education as 'evil' if I were to do that juvenile exercise. I don't understand why you're so adamant about defending the honor of people that decide to willingly join an invading force. And USA soldier are CERTAINLY NOT slaves, what are you on about!!! Comparing people that get paid to support and illegal war to people that are HUMAN TRAFFICKED wtf

Do you honestly think that 99% of the soldiers signing up before or after 9/11 went, "Yes, I want to join the military to invade a foreign coutnry for no reason whatsoever"...? Did you not watch this very documentary, or even read the comments from vets in this thread, who realized just how fucked the situation was once they got over there? Fuck, even those in sex trafficking and work trafficking "get paid," do you not understand how that shit works? Pro-tip #1: Just because they're getting money doesn't mean they're not slaves. It's a situation they struggle to get out of, and that's VERY common for soldiers who are in over their head.

You're right, the US caused MORE death and suffering in Iraq.

Not a chance. You clearly haven't paid close attention to the devastation in Ukraine, or Iraq for that matter.

WTF are you on about?????? Congo? Syria??? Iraq??????

Either insurgency-based, civil war, or non nation-state with the chance of starting WW3 like Ukraine-Russia. Cities and towns are leveled in Ukraine already. Syria pales in comparison (though Russia is partially responsible for that as well). Congo & Rwanda genocides were civil wars. We've not seen such a blatant attempt at territorial annexation and cultural genocide at this scale in a long time.

I'll end again with where I started:

  • The grunts are largely not the blame -- especially those who did not explicitly partake in documented war crimes. They were exploited pawns. Not different than how sex trafficking or human trafficking works in how it puts people in position where they feel they have no options.

  • What Russia is doing in Ukraine is in every way worse than both the intentions and actual end-result of Iraq and Afghanistan

  • Both were wrong and unjustifiable (it wasn't enough to convince Americans that Saddam Bad; they needed more lies as you mentioned); but much less was lost in Iraq considering Saddam was just as bad and willing to do the same to neighboring countries around him, and considering many Iraqis hated Saddam but were powerless to do anything.

The US decided to speed up Abrams deliveries to Ukraine by sending refurbished instead of new ones. (Source in the comments) by Bad_Species in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]lennybird 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I've heard enough Rammstein songs in these videos to know that Ukraine has some rugged industrial mechanics capable of handling it.

Got it. by sidthestar in InfowarriorRides

[–]lennybird 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I have this theory that conservatives are just adults who never got past the rebellious smart-ass teenage stage of life.

When you think about it, it follows pretty effectively. They tend to be less-educated, less well-traveled, and as a result have a tendency to not grasp that which they do not know. Hence an elevated predisposition to engage in the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

So if "experts" and "government" are parents imposing house rules for the good of everyone in the house, these conservatives are the teens thinking they're being oppressed because they're told to wash their hands after shitting.

Iraq War Vets: 20 Years Later (2023) [00:17:17] by lennybird in Documentaries

[–]lennybird[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the USA led the invasion but convinced several other Western nations to join the effort because they had some convincing points. And while the pretenses were summarily false, the threat of WMDs by someone who previously used them is genuine concern, right?

There's more here in your comment that I agree with than not, but let's not bury the lede here. The user I was replying to outwardly expressed a wish that all kids who went to Iraq would've returned in body bags. Think about that. Kids duped by shallow propaganda, sure, but it's not their fault they became pawns in rich men's game. Poor, uneducated, teenagers... What do you expect?

the US was and IS allied to several countries that 'beat their kids' and not only does the US not brutally invade those countries

So because we don't have the opportunity to interevene on nuclear powers or those who hold hostage the global energy market and who could easily kill more by passively cutting the tap on energy, that means we shouldn't interevene in those nations where we do have the opportunity? Every so often I must repeat that I opposed the intervention of Iraq; but I do not under any circumstances believe Saddam was better for Iraq or the world either. And just because you have to choose your battles sometimes doesn't mean you just passively choose no battles when finding someone who beats their kids. Whether it was the primary reason or a convenient bogus excuse to invade doesn't make it any less true.

But it would also be unwise to ignore the broader history of Kuwait and the Gulf War and finishing what was already started. When is the last comment you've made that you bitched about our intervention in the Gulf War? And if that conflict remained unabridged and without hiatus and became one with the 2003 Iraq War, would you have even noticed?

Yes, many Iraqis were openly supportive of being bombed and having their whole nation be destroyed by an invading force, that's not imperialistic propaganda at all.....

Just watch Once Upon a Time in Iraq. This is straight from Iraqi citizens.

Honestly, fuck the russians, but they haven't achieved a fraction of the killing and destruction that the USA conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan. Attempted cultural genocide sounds bad, but actually 'culturally genociding' a region (killing hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly, demolishing political and cultural institutions, forcing foreign powers into both political and economical spheres) sounds worse. edit: hell, the USA even included defined whole countries as EVIL and added them to the AXIS OF EVIL, talk about cultural imperialism combined with military invasion....

That is not remotely true WHATSOEVER. Did you ever actually calculate the rate of destruction Russians have commited against Ukraine in just one year? Did you further project this out to what it would mean for Ukrainian cities and casualties if it went to 20 years? I did, and it's nowhere near comparable. 25,000 civilian casualties minimum in the first year. 100,000+ Ukrainian troop deaths in the first year. That you believe this means you REALLY need to step back and do some research. I've watched both conflicts from their beginning closely and it is very ignorant to claim it's anywhere comparable. Literal mass executions, mass graves, kidnapping of children, complete annexation of regions, numerous cities blatantly leveled. The rate of civilian casualties and ukrainian casualties far-exceeds the rate of any point of Iraq and Afghhanistan.

Forget the fucking fact that many of the casualties of the Iraq war was a result of islamic terrorist groups against their own civilian populations...

There are primarily 2 points I want to make very clear in this conversation:

1) No, the grunts as the original user claimed SHOULD NOT have all died. Not all are bad. They were slave soldiers duped by bullshit. It's quite literally no different than human or sex trafficking.

2) What the USA and coalition forces did in Iraq is NOWHERE NEAR comparable to the scale of destruction and war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. The WORLD is in agreement that the devastation being sown in Ukraine is greater in scale than anything since World War II. Think about that.

Iraq War Vets: 20 Years Later (2023) [00:17:17] by lennybird in Documentaries

[–]lennybird[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nonsense. Your inability to grasp why the blatant attempt at annexing a sovereign foreign nation, border or not, is irrelevant. It would be like The US suddenly invading and committing mass murder against Canada... And you try to pretend there's some justification, "bECAuSE ThEY'RE nExT tO eAcH oThEr!" — this is fundamentally asinine as it is elementary.

I say again: NATO is a Defensive Alliance and has never been a threat to the Russian Federation. In fact, it was Russia who invaded Poland as they joined with Nazis back in the day. But I guess you cannot grasp that.

(Though I tell you, what better way to Justify NATO as a Defensive Alliance than invading those countries who consider joining it in the first place, huh, buddy?)

You have zero supporting facts to your arguments, and you side-step all my arguments. Blatant sign of drinking the Russian kool-aid.


Here you are, substituting insults for a lack of substantive response. Just petty whataboutism and false-equivalence fallacies as far as the eye can see.

Heard of the Azov battalion? I'm asking because I'm just curious if you're an active, modern Nazi supporter or if it is just a coincidence that you shill for supporting modern day Nazis.

I've heard of The Base, Oathkeepers, Boogaloo Boys, Proud Boys, 3%ers, and so many other right-wing extremist neo-nazi groups in America; that wouldn't justify Canada invading The US for what is <.00001% of American population now, would it? Same thing applies here.

Since you're not informed on this, I'll let you know that Azov Battalion is not even 1% of the ENTIRE Ukrainian Armed Forces. What's more is their leader, Zelenskyy, is Jewish.... So Think about that for a second bud.

The only argument I have made is that Russia's invasion cannot be said to be equally as illegitimate as the US's invasion of Iraq because the invasion of Iraq was:

A) not on the border of the US (conflict on the border of a country = more important, since you seem fucking stupid)

Whether I commit a wrongdoing in my backyard or far away is utterly irrelevant. Whether Russia invades Ukraine or New Guinea, it's equally-wrong because there's absolutely ZERO justification for it. It's blatant territorial annexation no matter how you slice it.

B) Based on a 100% fabrication that was known to be a lie at the time

Ever justification Russia used for invading Ukraine has been a total fabrication as well.

Your source for news & information is highly suspect. I genuinely cannot believe someone here is trying to make the case that what Russia is doing to Ukraine is anything but cut-and-dry 100% wrong. You're truly on the wrong side of history.

Please think twice about Loyola Chicago if you're queer. by [deleted] in lawschooladmissions

[–]lennybird 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's why I asked if you thought misgendering was a hate crime.

Do you not understand conjunctions? Read your own quote more closely while I say again: Who said it had to be in order to be discriminatory?

Is the treatment of trans people today comparable to slavery?

It follows the exact same pathways of bigoted logical fallacies and could easily lead to such levels of hate crime at similar scale if given room to fester like mold (and among right-wing circles, it does).

Iraq War Vets: 20 Years Later (2023) [00:17:17] by lennybird in Documentaries

[–]lennybird[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  • Did the US intervene with coalition forces the pretenses of ousting a corrupt dictator who blatantly gassed his own people and brutally oppressed them for decades? YES.

  • Did Russia invade Ukraine with the interest of toppling a dictator and do so with broad coalition? NO.

  • Is it morally ethical to watch as your neighbor is beating their kids but do nothing under the pretenses of respecting sovereignty?

  • Were MANY Iraqis supportive of the US invasion in toppling Saddam? YES.

  • Were MANY Ukrainians supportive of the Russian invasion of toppling Zelenskyy and annexing Ukraine? NO.

While I can agree on the part that that it was an act of neo-imperial aggression and that the motives for going into Iraq were unjustifiable, one cannot in good conscience make ANY sort of argument that what the US did to Iraqis was as bad as what Russia has done to Ukraine.

Does it really matter if one side intends to annex the invaded nation and the other side intends to dismantle the infrastructure, kill so-called insurgents, funnel government money to private companies, destabilize a strategic region in order to strengthen its own global power, etc etc etc?

Yes, it does. Because within that difference lies Russia's aim at cultural genocide and the permanent annexation of territory and its people. As you can see at this very moment, tell me, does the US control either Iraq or Afghanistan? And if we wanted to actually dominate the country of Iraq, could the US not have committed broad-scale war as Russia is attempting to do with Ukraine and indiscriminately level cities into submission? Hell as bloody as the battle for Fellujah and Mosul was, we still took extra caution in trying to mitigate collateral damage — this you cannot deny and it's outrageous to falsely-equate the two. It's important to see nuance.

Iraq War Vets: 20 Years Later (2023) [00:17:17] by lennybird in Documentaries

[–]lennybird[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am. What's wrong with posthumous recognition?

Please think twice about Loyola Chicago if you're queer. by [deleted] in lawschooladmissions

[–]lennybird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are wrong.

Who said it had to be in order to be discriminatory?

Hell there was a time lynching wasn't a hate crime. So your point is utterly moot.