835
submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags into its fourth month, the U.S. government under Pres. Joe Biden has found a clever new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons and ammunition they need to defend their country.

It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.

Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.

All this hardware is U.S. military surplus—and is available to Greece, free of charge, under a U.S. legal authority called “excess defense articles.” Federal law allows an American president to declare military systems surplus to need, assign them a value—potentially zero dollars—and give them away on the condition that the recipient transport them.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 213 points 9 months ago

Fuck the republican traitor filth.

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] Ekybio@lemmy.world 169 points 9 months ago

Biden: Does something good again

Repblicans, unable to stop him: "Sorry Putin, we failed you. This time."

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I hope Putin does the, "don't fail me again... Republicans (mechanical breathing noises)" thing, and then they fail him again.

[-] b3an@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago

Putin: Also, you are to wear these clown shoes and refer to yourself as "Mary".

Putin: I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] TigrisMorte@kbin.social 116 points 9 months ago

At least he used an ally instead of an enemy as Reagan did.

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 42 points 9 months ago

Technically Reagan did use an ally first: Israel. The Iranians were a little pissed when they saw the Israeli customs stamps on their weapons.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 113 points 9 months ago

Great news!

Apropos nothing:

The Republicans are falling in line with disgraced ex-president Donald Trump’s personal hatred of Ukraine—and equally personal fondness for authoritarian Russia. The Republicans’ allegiance to Trump—and therefore to dictators and military aggressors—wasn’t an issue for Ukraine until they narrowly gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November 2022 elections. When earlier funding for Ukraine ran out in late December, Rep. Mike Johnson—the extremist House speaker—refused to put additional aid to a vote.

The direct language is a pleasant surprise, and honestly more than I expected from FORBES. Have they always been this willing to call out Trump and his enablers?

[-] GhostMatter@lemmy.ca 30 points 9 months ago

I'm surprised too. This is Forbes staff too, not a random contributor.

[-] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 96 points 9 months ago

Remember when Republicans used to yell "better dead than red!" to show their hostility to the USSR and communism?

Now too many of them are preoccupied with twerking for the authoritarian roach that emerged from the USSR's corpse (and which still has a lot in common with it).

Also, the Republican party is now the red party, which is pretty funny.

[-] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 31 points 9 months ago

Nothing surprising for everyone who already knew that what they disliked about the USSR wasn't really the totalitarianism, just the lower wealth unequality.

[-] oatscoop@midwest.social 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

More so that sort loved the USSR: it provided the ultimate boogyman they could use to justify just about anything.

Accuse your political foes of being commies, and "investigate" them. Advance Christian nationalism by pointing at the "godless Soviets". Need to get your political donors want some sweet defense contracts? -- well we need weapons to fight the reds.

The USSR did the same thing with the "decadent west".

[-] mochisuki@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago

And just as it was back then, the red menace was ALWAYS about distracting the masses away from voting against corporate interests

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (58 replies)
[-] rusticus@lemm.ee 94 points 9 months ago

Umberto Ecco's rule #8 of fascism: "The enemy is both strong and weak."

Hey Republicans, which is it this time? Is Biden a demented old fool or a dictator? lol.

Dark Brandon strikes again.

[-] AlfredEinstein@lemmy.world 77 points 9 months ago

For most of my lifetime, any American screeching about the President arming NATO allies in order to prevent Russian expansion into Europe would have been seen as a traitor.

Lead poisoning is a helluva drug.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] tired_n_bored@lemmy.world 73 points 9 months ago

Good news. Fuck Republicans. Slava Ukraini.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Spitzspot@lemmings.world 46 points 9 months ago

Slava Ukraini!

[-] Fades@lemmy.world 33 points 9 months ago

Hell fucking yeah!

[-] alvvayson@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago

The Democrats outsmart Republicans yet again.

Next up: border secured just in time to win the November elections.

[-] TheJims@lemmy.world 37 points 9 months ago

Define securing the border, because that goal post is mounted to a bullet train by republicans as long as trump isn’t president.

load more comments (41 replies)
[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 23 points 9 months ago
[-] doctorcrimson@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago

Turkey's been on our Shit List ever since they started flying Russian Jets, fuck em.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
835 points (96.5% liked)

News

23360 readers
1893 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS