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No kidding. Who is honestly against moves like this? I mean very few issues are black and white and defending Ukraine is as close to being on the right side of history as one can get. They were invaded by a much larger country that suppressed them for so long. They are a democracy that is trying really hard to further the will of their people. Russians are committing genocide against the local population. Supporting Ukraine and watching the Ukrainians fight back for their freedom is one of the few great parts of history that inspires.

Yeah. I get being cynical about all of the wars the U.S. has been part of in my lifetime.

But if you can't see how helping the Ukrainians is unequivocally the right thing to do, I don't know what to say. To me it's nice to be the good guys for once and point our defense industry at something worthwhile.

There's already a huge handful of conservative communities and almost every conservative I've ever met is suddenly very upset with our military budget and without any proof think Zelensky is just pocketing the money.

But it has felt like they're still the minority for the time being.

I gotta say, the tankie infestation of the fediverse is giving me serious second thoughts about this place. I get that it will get better over time as more people join and dilute the crazies, but I currently have a very hard time suggesting lemmy to people because of this.

They were always there. Lemmy literally is developed by tankies and genocide deniers.

War sucks, and most veterans and their families know it. But when forced to fight Ukraine is standing, and I hope that Western support doesn’t waiver. I’m sure Putin is hoping to interfere in moar elections as an out.

Could you imagine if his lil orange minion was in power?

Shudders.

Ps, people make sure you are registered to vote.

If you shoot a missile costing millions to hundreds of millions at everything, your country will be bankrupt very quickly.

Long range missiles roughly do work the way you described, but if you press the "erase this spot" button and then the tank or soldier moves, you just wasted a missile. You also first need to find the tank, and your missile can be shot down.

Of course there are missiles that are able to track moving targets, but that gets even more expensive, less reliable, etc.

Missiles also have a hard time dealing with heavily reinforced/underground targets, and missiles can't occupy territory.

Who will win: a country that has 100 long range missiles, or a country that has 10000 soldiers spread out in more than 100 groups, with rifles and a couple hundred short range missiles (think Javelin) for good measure?

Because anti-air deletes missiles. Also you can't hold territory with just missiles. You need land presence, and for that you need soldiers. And since soldiers are more useful alive than dead, we built thick metal boxes that can roll around the battlefield so they can be protected while being transported to important locations. The metal boxes themselves also have big ass cannons attached that will utterly destroy any other vehicle or building an enemy might be using as cover. These are just some of the reasons soldiers and tanks are still used.

1. Because missiles cost $1+ million each.

2. Because long-range missiles flying at 500mph will take 3 or 4 minutes to hit their target. The target can move, hide, or otherwise escape the missile

3. Because bullets near instantly hit their target (within 5 seconds) in battlefield conditions. Tanks in particular fire hypersonic 3000mph shells, you're dead in 2 seconds (at 3000m range), though the soundwave hits you at the 10-second mark.

4. Because bullets are extremely cheap. Artillery shells, such as the 155m are famously like ~$500

5. Tank shells are likely under $2000 IIRC. So you can fire lots of tank-bullet for the same price as missile. More accurately (due to speed an information). And firepower: 40 shots of a tank can affect a battlefield more immediately than a missile. A tank can fire and near instantly kill targets it can see out to 3km ranges (~2 second travel time). A missile or rocket taking 60, 90, 120+ seconds to reach long-range targets just cannot affect the battlefield in the same manner.> How do armies still march and drive around in tanks when the enemy can just push a button on their phone and cause explosions where they are?

How do armies still march and drive around in tanks when the enemy can just push a button on their phone and cause explosions where they are?

Because missiles take a long time to fly. Even at modest 50km ranges, you ain't affecting the battlefield in time (~500mph missile will take over 3 minutes to reach 50km).