this post was submitted on 07 May 2024
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Memes

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[–] JohnDClay 7 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Defense of Ukraine is a great example of how weapons can be used for good. But definitely not all that these companies do, as Gaza shows.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Russian invasion has been a goddamn goldmine to weapon manufacturers. Not only those selling to Ukraine but also got a lot of European countries to re-arm and restart domestic production.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yup, who would have though that Russia invading their neighbour suddenly caused the entirety of western Europe to start the largest investments in military and weapons manufacturing since the cold war?

Looking at the results of this war so far (major expansion of NATO in the North, massively increased military spending in all of NATO, massively increased size of the Ukrainian military), you would almost think Putins goal was something completely different than preventing NATO expansion and "de-militarizing" Ukraine.

It's almost like the best way of preventing your neighbours from building huge militaries and joining alliances is by cooperating with them and helping them feel safe, rather than threatening, coercing and bombing them.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It is pretty funny how for us Finns, Putin managed with one move to do what decades of pro-NATO propaganda couldn't and push us to join.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Lol at the people downvoting this like that isn't exactly what happened: NATO had wanted Finland to join for years, but they didn't want to join, for fear of provoking Russia. Putin shows the world that appeasement doesn't work, and Finland joins in a heartbeat.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is lemmy.ml. It is what it is

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I actually hadn't realised that yet, thanks for pointing it out, I thought I was going crazy with the amount of people suddenly supporting Russian invaders

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago

It's sad, but countries like Russia show us very clearly why nations that want peace need to prepare for war.

I would love to not need to spend a cent on our military, or weapons manufacturing, but the hard reality is very clearly that if we aren't capable of mass producing weapons, we'll likely be invaded and killed.

That's a major part of the issue Europe is facing now: We've scaled down weapons production since the 90's, and now that we suddenly need millions of artillery shells it takes time to rebuild production capacity.

Hopefully Russia gets the picture soon, that we'll keep scaling up until every Russian invader is gone, and we can go back to not spending money on war...