this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025

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NATO: There was officially a Russian plot to kill European weapons chief (www.politico.eu)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/world

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

Europe needs to start fighting Russians.

[–] Roflmasterbigpimp 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Weird Commentsection here. Lots of removed Comments, many banned accounts and accounts only a few hours old.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Mentions of NATO and Russia draw out the bots and shills. And I'm sure some are even tankies in earnest.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Those accounts are all one person, their original account was called Antiyanks. Not sure if it's mental illness or an obsession (or both), but they keep making accounts over and over and over, all of which get banned quickly because they're hostile to everyone. I could never imagine spending literal months of my time making hundreds of accounts just to yell at people, yet this guy does exactly that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Oh, that guy.

[–] HowRu68 78 points 2 days ago (3 children)

In case you wanna know whom they were trying to kill; it was Armin Papperger, the head of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.

[+] [email protected] -23 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Weirdly enough Im kinda alright with weapon merchants or anyone similar involved in profiteering from war taking a personal toll in it themselves.

Didnt Ukraine assasinate some russian missile specialist a while back with the west applauding it after finding out? Dont play games you dont want to have a part in seems highly fitting here. There are plenty of other ways to make a decent living.

[–] sumguyonline 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Idk if you're just trolling, but I'm a prototype engineer and I can't, and would refuse if asked, to work on a weapons system. It's even extremely difficult to decide to accept a defensive only tech, unless it's apparent it could never be used for offensive purposes(I'd build a technological marvel of a wall, but nothing that moves), and that frankly hurts financially, Dar's money in dem dar weapons manufacturing... But I will not have MY technology used to kill innocents.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 20 hours ago

Im not.

As long as we're fine with killing the enemies weapon engineers we should expect the same to ours without complaints.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think it’s sick that people downvote this in the name of civility. I understand people not wanting to make a super solid link between wealthy magic bean salesmen and societal issues and seeing it as a slippery slope, but the weapons industry? Fucking come on.

If you profit from the most literal form of human suffering, you are a statistical outlier even among outliers. I can’t think of many less ethical things to enrich yourself from than making the world a deadlier place.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It's not out of civility, and I think there are good reasons to dislike Armin Papperger; for example him being a filthy stinking rich CEO and him allowing deals with non-European countries. But, we need our militaries and we need our weapons industry. The military aid we sent to Ukraine did not materialize out of thin air. The pacifist position of "war bad, weapons bad, people making weapons bad" is infantile. If we stopped making weapons, Russia, or someone else, would waltz right in. Our military (and by extension the weapons industry) is what enables any of our diplomacy to not be completely ignored by nuclear bullies like Russia. A Russian plot to kill Armin Papperger is an attack against us, Germany, the west, NATO, not him individually.

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

My country is being invaded illegally right now with zero consequences, I know what you are saying. But there should be zero way to profit from war, from an ethical standpoint these industries would ideally be nationalized and kept far far away from profiteers.

I know exactly what “peace” with the apartheid Nazis taking a fresh bite out of my homeland means, I’m not oblivious to that flavor of “pacifism” that gets promoted by the slimiest characters. You’re pushing back against a point I never made. I empathize with a lot of the sentiment supporting Ukraine specifically because I feel like that country’s relationship with Russia is in some ways analogous to our relationship with Hafez and Bashar’s Syria.

Arguably we need the weapons more. The countries controlling the world’s economic and social levers are more than willing to punish Russia, great, but then bend over backwards, and even spit in the face of their commitments to the ICJ, because we’re just in the way of a modern colonial project. I’ll take the guns in a heartbeat. I just believe it’s an unethical thing to privatize, monetize, and eventually promote to keep the numbers going up.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I tend to mostly agree with what you're saying, but there's no common theme to our comments. I referred to nothing but the first sentence of your previous comment.

That being said, I'm totally in favor of state armories, like Springfield used to be, but that's not what we have right now. And never really had in Germany for the past 100+ years. And whether you privatize the manufacture of weapons or not, everyone involved in it needs to make a decent living. R&D needs to be done and financed, either from profit or tax-payer money. In my book the personal enrichment by a select few on the top is bad, no matter the industry. Allowing arms to be exported where they shouldn't be, is a political "failure"; it's an indirect subsidy that other states pay for to keep your own supply cheap and running. That's not an arms manufacturer's CEO's fault. He is just a regular CEO asshole, and still would be, if "working" in another industry.

[–] finitebanjo 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

TBH I kind of wish they uncovered the crime in progress than the plot, an excuse to bring NATO in and end the brutal Russian oligarchy would be a boon to this world.

[–] Zron 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I am not so excited for the nukes.

My house is inside the blast radius of a hydrogen bomb dropped on the middle of the nearest city. So if that happens, I’ll just turn to dust and that would be nice.

Unfortunately my job is far enough away that I would get to be one of the people whose eyes boil and skin turns black before they die from the burns.

Can we schedule WW3 for when I’m at home. Would rather just be vaporized.

[–] finitebanjo 15 points 2 days ago

They Sabre Rattled yesterday and they will Sabre Rattle tomorrow, but we cannot just start giving land and human sacrifices to thugs or the thugs will become our kings.

[–] fallowseed -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

going after billionaires and weapons chiefs... the west will never sing that!

[–] WhatAmLemmy 0 points 1 day ago

Won't someone think of the merchants of death!?!

[+] [email protected] -29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

From the linked article:

there had been no concrete attempt to murder Papperger but rather a "plot."

Meh. Every country draws up plans like these all the time. It's not really news unless they move to act on it.

[+] [email protected] -30 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Typical exaggeration by the media then.

The US too drafted a plan to invade the Netherlands "just in case" the International Court decided that the US should follow international law.

I'm guessing a slow news day at Politico

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Comparing strategic war plans to state sponsored assainations of private citizens..

Gold medal in mental gymnastics

[–] HowRu68 20 points 2 days ago

You mean, another day in Europe when we are both continuously threatened by our so-called ally and sabotaged by Russian/Chinese plots . Sure/s.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The US too drafted a plan to invade the Netherlands

No. The US, at one point, stated that it would use any and all means necessary to prevent ICC prosecution of US servicemembers.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The US, at one point, stated that it would use any and all means necessary to prevent ICC prosecution of US servicemembers...

...including, but not limited too, carrying an offensive attack on a friendly NATO country, to cover up any possible attempts at justice.

Nice effort at jedi mind tricking your way around it lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

He's not 'jedi mind tricking' you. He's correcting you moving the goal post to suit your argument.

You stated they had plans. A political threat and drafting invasion plans are two VASTLY different things.