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The West Needs an Arms Race - WSJ


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2022 Jul 10, 10:09am   918 views  10 comments

by RWSGFY   ➕follow (4)   💰tip   ignore  


The invasion of Ukraine shows that Russia rejects the norms of civilization. The only way to overcome it is with superior weaponry.

Rich, sedentary civilizations have always been vulnerable. Plato wrote that the gods destroyed Atlantis because it had grown wealthy and debauched. The more a civilization produces, the more alluring a target it becomes: Bronze Age kingdoms fell to the sea peoples; Germanic barbarians took apart the Roman Empire; the Mongols conquered China’s empires. In the Islamic world the succession of Umayyads, Abbasids, Mamluks and Ghaznavids reflected Ibn Khaldun’s cyclical theory of history—bloated sedentary economies get dismantled and consumed by predatory barbarians.

This cycle was broken by the development of firearms. Technological advance became an instrument for successful conquest. The Vikings left North America because of the ferocity of the natives, but the next wave of invaders conquered the Indians with ease. The difference? Guns.

No zealot or rogue king selling his followers on the certainty of victory in war can stand against superior technology. When the Mahdi tried to build an Islamic state in Sudan in the late 19th century, the machine guns of Maj. Gen. Horatio Herbert Kitchener ensured British victory at the Battle of Omdurman. A similar fate befell rebels in Matabeleland in 1896-97 in modern-day Zimbabwe. The leaders of the 1899 Boxer Rebellion in China promised their followers invulnerability against the bullets of foreign devils. This turned out to be an exaggeration.

For much of recent history, technological progress was the only route to success for a nation. Even the Soviet Union understood. The Vietnam War, the Iranian revolution and Sept. 11 each turned the wheel again. The barbarians had the advantage because their adversary had grown flabby and satisfied. It was impossible to fight Osama bin Laden the way Kitchener fought the Mahdi’s followers, not because al Qaeda had advanced weapons, but because a civilized nation couldn’t fight an uncivilized war.

The only war a modern, prosperous, open society is willing to fight is a comfortable one. This has been noticed by the world’s rogue dictators. Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is a challenge to the prevailing international order, presided over by a sedentary, prosperous U.S. hegemon. Unless this challenge is met by superior technology, it will likely succeed.
A new arms race is the only option for the West. The Russian offensive flounders in the face of superior firepower. On battlefields where there are no modern weapons, the barbarian Russian army, with its tactics of cannon fodder and indiscriminate shelling, slowly prevails. Where the Ukrainian defenders have been equipped with Western artillery, Russia’s stockpiles explode into fireworks and its fodder troops are burnt like chaff.

A world without a war is only a dream. When the strong and just refuse to fight with the weapons they have, thugs and bullies can do what they want. The West must build precision weapons that can take out Russia’s nuclear silos—and let Mr. Putin know that they aren’t afraid to use them. Develop drones that can hunt and kill terrorists. An open society can’t dictate to rogue states how to live. But it should be able to prevent aggression like the invasion of Ukraine.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/arms-race-ukraine-russia-himars-conquer-conquest-invade-nuclear-drones-11657119063

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1   RWSGFY   2022 Jul 10, 10:10am  

Time to go full Reagan on their war criminal asses.
2   Ceffer   2022 Jul 10, 11:43am  

Article gets the 'Sweeping generalizations based on falsifiable history' award for a non-syllogistic arc of sword rattling.
4   Ceffer   2022 Jul 10, 11:59am  

A Russian female writer who is staff of a Moscow rag writing an American jingoist article for a Western fake news outlet? Will wonders never cease?

Did we run out of lamebrain, derelict Kommie fashionable Ivy spawns?
https://www.facebook.com/yulia.latynina.7

Her background is literature, so making shit up is part of her gig.
5   Patrick   2022 Jul 10, 5:35pm  

RWSGFY says


The invasion of Ukraine shows that Russia rejects the norms of civilization.


The invasion of Iraq shows that America rejects the norms of civilization.

Saudi Arabia attacked America on 9/11, not Iraq.
6   Someone_else   2022 Jul 11, 12:36am  

out of 2,970 people listed, only 446 appear in the Social Security death index. Of those only 249 have a confirmed death certificate on file. Of those, not a single one has a valid “last address of record” on file.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/37270708/CNN-9-11-Memorial-Victims-SSA-Death-Index-Cross-Reference
7   richwicks   2022 Jul 11, 1:42am  

RWSGFY says

https://www.wsj.com/


I like how people still cite propaganda as if anybody with two braincells or more to rub together believes it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-stop-nuclear-weapon-deal-jcpoa-bomb-aggression-11634678972
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-us-show-it-can-win-a-nuclear-war-russia-putin-ukraine-nato-sarmat-missile-testing-warning-11651067733
https://www.wsj.com/articles/oath-keepers-cached-weapons-for-jan-6-capitol-attack-prosecutors-say-11642693058

It's not even useful to wipe your ass with. How can you believe such nonsense? You have a "news" organization constantly promoting war, and lying to the public, and you continue to cite it as if somebody should be fucking stupid enough to pay attention to it. For how many decades do they have to lie before you realize "hey, these assholes, all they do is lie.."

I can find more false stories in the WallStreet Journal than I can find authentic ones, quite easily. Just go back a decade, or two and see what they got right. You might as well be listening to Rachael Maddow. Fuck, Alex Jones is more reliable, and he's just a hyperbolic clown.
8   richwicks   2022 Jul 11, 1:42am  

Patrick says

RWSGFY says



The invasion of Ukraine shows that Russia rejects the norms of civilization.


The invasion of Iraq shows that America rejects the norms of civilization.

Saudi Arabia attacked America on 9/11, not Iraq.


They had help of the US intelligence organizations, probably the British, and almost certainly Mossad.
9   GNL   2022 Jul 11, 2:12am  

richwicks says

Alex Jones is more reliable, and he's just a hyperbolic clown.

Saw a video not too long ago showing how much he's gotten right.
10   richwicks   2022 Jul 11, 2:25am  

WineHorror1 says

richwicks says


Alex Jones is more reliable, and he's just a hyperbolic clown.

Saw a video not too long ago showing how much he's gotten right.


Isn't it surprising that somebody that just puts random people on gets it more right than a professional "news" agency?

I'm dead serious when I say there is no media outlets in the United States, at least anything called "mainstream news" isn't. It's just relentless stupid propaganda.

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