U.S.A. Politics Thread

[PhantOS]

ZOV 56, google translated journal of russian paratrooper
https://czmyt.substack.com/p/zovpdf-machine-translation-to-english

A month and a half has already passed since I returned from
the war in Ukraine, yes, yes, I know that you can’t say this word
“war”, it was banned, but still I will say exactly “war”, understand
correctly, I’m already 33 years old and all my life I have been telling
only the truth, even to my own detriment, such a “wrong” one and I
can’t do anything about it. So this is a war, our Russian army is
shooting at the Ukrainian one, and she is shooting back, shells and
rockets are exploding there, have you ever heard the sound of a
shell approaching you? If not, then it’s a pity, it’s an unforgettable
feeling from the vibration and whistle of air when all the insides turn
over, it’s just breathtaking, then if you’re lucky, you hear an explosion
and think that this is definitely your day, of course, if you understand
that nothing has been torn off by the blast wave and your body is not
took some kind of fragment, but if not, then the day didn’t work out
and this time you were unlucky, in short, the job is still ... At the same
time, the military on both sides are dying, as well as civilians who
were lucky enough to live where they decided to start a war, calling
her special operation. Oh, yes, we must also not forget about the
accompanying war hunger, illness, sleepless nights, unsanitary
conditions and life with constantly overshooting adrenaline that
consumes the resources of your body giving strength, speed and
reaction, but then when you return from the war zone, you feel like a
survivor lemon and you realize that your health is not at all the same.
Then there is also the morally painful pressure of your conscience
on your heart and soul, if they are, of course, because you do not
freely ask yourself the question of why you are doing this and for the
good of what. Why are you risking your life and leaving your health.
Why are you polluting your and so perhaps not the most cloudless
karma.
ZOV
56
Machine Translated by Google
Now I will tell you how I had to see this war and how I got into
it in general. I am aware of the responsibility for spreading the
word about my service, but to hide this, for me, means to
continue to increase the losses. I was evacuated from the front
line near Nikolaevsk because keratoconjunctivitis of the eye
began, after another shelling on us, the earth flew into the trench
and got into my eyes, it’s not pleasant, but consider bullstuff, I
was lucky, my eyes began to inflame and one of them began to
close, after a few days, the paramedic said that I needed to be
evacuated. without treatment, you can be left without an eye, I
was taken to the Med Detachment in Kherson, occupied by us,
from where I was evacuated to Sevastopol. The feeling that you
experience when you leave the war zone is indescribable ... Two
months of dirt, hunger, cold, sweat and the feeling of the presence
of death nearby. It’s a pity that they don’t let reporters to our front
lines, which is why the whole country cannot admire the paratroopers
overgrown, not washed, dirty, thin and embittered, it’s not clear
what else, stubborn Ukrainians who do not want to be denational socialistfied,
or their mediocre command , unable to equip them even during
hostilities. Half of my guys changed clothes and went in Ukrainian
uniforms because it was of better quality and more comfortable, or
their own was worn out, and our great country is not able to dress,
equip and feed its own army. For example, from the very beginning
I didn’t have a Ratnik kit and crossed the border without even
having a sleeping bag. A week later, the guys brought the old one,
not the commanders, please note, with a broken lock, to say that I
was glad to say nothing to him. Sleeping on the ground in a torn
sleeping bag in winter, on the front line, and in Ukraine and in March
there were frosts, this is another trip. In short, somewhere in the
middle of March, my legs and back began to hurt, I thought for a
long time that it was muscles or ligaments and stupidly endured
limping and attributing everything to the fact that we hardly took off
armor and helmets, but later I learned that from sleep on frozen
ground, lack of water and food, combined with loads, I earned
osteochondrosis of all
Machine Translated by Google
himself is mixed with a sense of guilt towards colleagues
the internal dialogue from a roostertail of conscience, patriotism and
common sense stops. If we look at templates then
relaxed and thought about the last two months of my life, about what it was, why I
needed it, did I do something
“And how did Ukraine threaten Russia?”
many there were less fortunate than me, it was necessary to go five hours
this starfish and a feeling of annoyance that your comrades remain
people of Russia, but then common sense begins to contradict and
it was quickly forgotten, Japan claims our islands.
that they are finally leaving there, because I was not injured
the answer will be that I am a military man, a paratrooper, I am obliged to fulfill
started, I am obliged to serve for the good of my country and protect
feel joy at the same time that you are leaving
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland are already in NATO. Finland now
step in front of the exit door (there were not enough seats for everyone) and
We drove in a PAZik, the driver, and in the cabin there were 20 wounded, dirty,
exhausted people, uniforms in the blood, on the faces of those who were
was there at all. At that moment and still inside of me is not
leg joints.
which are there, and you leave them.
good or vice versa bad, why did you participate in it and how
Everyone around is talking about the fact that Ukraine wanted to join NATO. But
do we attack all the countries that want to join NATO?
to ask questions.
there and it is not known what will happen to them next, a feeling of happiness for
six, I don’t remember exactly, it was at this moment that I finally
evacuation I was carried out as a patient, so I sat on
So about the evacuation, and then bam, and you are taken out from there and you
orders and do not have the right to be cowardly and not go to war when she
joins NATO. Turkey shot down our plane not so long ago, but we
sections of the spine, protrusions, a hernia in the neck, a
sequestered hernia in the lower back and incomprehensible pain in
seriously wounded, pain and longing were read, those who are easily the joy of that
Machine Translated by Google
Damn it, the United States borders on us in the East, but
for some reason all this is not a reason to start a war. We're
not attacking them, or is it just for now? It turns out that this
is not the reason. “If we had not attacked Ukraine, would it
have attacked us?” Many echo the TV that we launched a
preemptive strike, but how can you believe that Ukraine would
have attacked Russia, Crimea, if the Armed Forces of Ukraine
could not even hold their borders, they are waging a defensive
war suffering huge losses, anyone knows that the war in defense
is easier than attacking. How could this country, which defends
itself with difficulty, slowly but losing its territories, attack? And
wouldn’t it be easier for our army to strengthen the borders and
defenses around Ukraine and, in the event of their attack, meet
the enemy on the defensive, break their offensive potential and
go on the counterattack, after all, in this case, our losses would
be much less, and the world community would not be able to
accuse Russia of an aggressor and glorify our country as an
occupier and invader. It turns out that Ukraine was going to attack
Russia is also not true? “Ukraine was enslaved by national socialistsm and
they infringe on the Russian population?” But strange as it may
seem, when communicating with people who were in Ukraine
before the war, no one could remember a specific case that
someone somehow infringed or offended him for having a Russian
surname or not being able to speak Ukrainian. And some isolated
cases of domestic conflicts on ethnic grounds can be found in any
country in the world. “We attacked to save the DNR and LNR” What
are the DNR and LNR? Indeed, in fact and legally, these are two
regions that were part of Ukraine, which rebelled and decided to
become independent. Wouldn't it be the same if Karelia wanted to
go to Finland, Smolensk region to Lithuania, Rostov to Ukraine,
Yakutia to the USA or Khabarovsk to China, isn't it the same? Why
are we defending the LDNR? Did ordinary people in Donbas feel
better? After all, in the Russian Federation we
Machine Translated by Google
aircraft, even then they began to say that such a job was not worth any
money. But we are the defenders of the fatherland, the paratroopers,
the pride of the fatherland and money are not the main thing, and if you
have to get the order “Forward!” to the War, then something serious must
have happened, maybe the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already capturing
Rostov or the Americans have landed on Kamchatka! Without laughing, I'm
serious, at first I assumed that something like this happened, since we went
to break through the border of Ukraine and received an order to capture
Kherson, I did not see another logical explanation. Oh sorry, I didn't introduce
myself...
they would not have tolerated this, just as they did not once
give independence to Chechnya, paying for it with thousands of lives.
Why did we do the same with our neighbors? But at the same time, the
top of the LPR and DPR, despite the support of the Russian government,
could not provide their people with social security and give them security,
which is why people fled en masse to Russia, Crimea and Ukraine.
Communicating with people who fled the war in Donetsk and Luhansk, I did
not hear cases of national socialistsm that are shouted about from our media. But all as
one talked about the fact that they fled from the war and that they just want
to live and work in peace. If we tried in every possible way to help the people
of Donetsk and Luhansk, then why didn’t we limit ourselves to providing
everyone with Russian passports, we have a lot of empty land that a human
hand has not touched, please let them come, live and work with us, why do
we need territories in fact foreign state? What for? Are we short on land?
Really all those who wanted to live in Russia have not yet received Russian
passports and moved to us?
First, they decided to motivate us with money, and on February 23, our
divisional commander announced that we would receive $ 69 per day,
which at that rate was about 7000 rubles, (although here we were thrown
and in the end we received 3500 rubles per day) from the very first day when
we realized that this was not the Crimean operation "Polite people" and not
exercises, but a full-fledged war began and crossing the border of Ukraine
under the salvos of MLRS missiles, accompanied by combat helicopters and
Machine Translated by Google
Guards ml.s-t. Filatiev 6 DSHR, 2 DSHB, 56 DSHP,
7 VDD. Yes, yes, exactly that 56 DShB, which our MO S.K. Shoigu
decided to disband right on the eve of this war. Probably in order
to level the chances of Ukraine against Russia, last year the
Brigade was disbanded, equipped, well-organized and equipped
Brigade of 3,000 paratroopers, consisting of three assault
battalions, a parachute battalion, a reconnaissance battalion, a
tank battalion, which has its own artillery and air defense, is being
disbanded, in the brigade there were almost no vacancies, a
brigade that had been created for 20 years in the city of Kamyshin!
They disband the destinies of families and scatter them all over
Russia. They create a regiment from the brigade, well, like a
regiment, from the regiment one name, leaving only one parachute
battalion on a regular basis and transfer it to the Crimea in the city
of Feodosia, combining it with the separate 171 assault battalion
already located there, and from these two battalions they form a
“regiment”, a regiment consisting of an airborne battalion, an
airborne assault and a reconnaissance company (whose number
is equal to a platoon). Not only is this not a regiment! Also, the
airborne assault battalion was not fully staffed in terms of numbers.
Moreover, our great reformers decided to create, as we were told,
the Night Experimental Airborne Assault Battalion by putting the
entire battalion on ordinary UAZ vehicles, not armored! So that's
exactly how my 2DShB was sent to war, I also forgot to mention
that the battalion consists of three companies, my company went
to war with about 45 people, and the other two 60 people each,
and that airborne assault battalion consisting of 165 attack aircraft,
brilliant , well, in principle, it’s me, everything looks better on the
reports, because the battalion is about 500 people, the number of
troops around Ukraine was about 200x thousand in the same way.
In my opinion, given the corruption and the system of photo reports
that are now so bred in the army, when the command hides
problems, about 100 thousand Russian servicemen crossed the
border of Ukraine on the first day, and this is against 200
Machine Translated by Google
thousands of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Thanks to endless ridiculous experiments and a lack of common
sense, the army has finally ceased to be an attractive and promising
place for the “best youth”, a situation when there was a shortage in
military universities, and contract service (which we have been going
to since 2003) has finally become a place where people from the lower
social circles (to which, unfortunately, I also belong), because the less
educated and law-savvy you are, the easier it is to manipulate you. In
addition to all this, the institute of military service was destroyed, turning
it into a mixture of a kindergarten with a colony settlement, when the
soldiers of military service, having rewound their term, go to civilian life
without learning anything, then telling their friends about it and anyone
who had the opportunity prefers to simply avoid such a useless waste
own life. But once upon a time, it was the conscript soldiers who
successfully fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya, successfully in terms
of the fact that they carried out the tasks assigned to them and did not
suffer such losses as the current “professional army of the Russian
Federation” has already suffered in Ukraine. Yes, I forgot to tell you that
I have been in the 56th Children's Ballet School since 1993 and have
been observing its collapse for 30 years. I remember 1999, the
beginning of the war in Chechnya, then, as a teenager, I accompanied
my father there to go to war. At about three in the morning, the 1DShB
lined up on the parade ground near the headquarters and the regiment
commander brought the combat order to the battalion that it was
necessary to make a forced march, that it was necessary to engage in
battle with the bandit formations of the self-proclaimed Ichkeria (doesn’t
it remind you of anything? Didn’t Ukraine also react to LDNR?), that it
is dangerous and if one of the soldiers for some reason does not want
or cannot do this, then it is necessary to get out of order, that the
reasons may be different, one in the family, religious or a sick mother,
but then no one went out of action, not one, although apart from the
officers, the battalion (about 500 people) consisted of conscript soldiers
aged mainly from 18 to 20 years. It was a qualitatively and fundamentally
different army. This is the army that they had in
Machine Translated by Google
very light and comfortable
1999. Yes, it was not perfect, it needed order and reforms,
but the army of that time was head and shoulders above the one
that had been “reformed” over the past 23 years. As for the
current one, a huge number of contract soldiers refused to go to the
war with Ukraine. Which also played a role in the failure of the
"special operation". I remember that all the two months that I was
on the front line, we daily hoped that we would be replaced and
allowed to move to the second line to rest, wash, wash, but this
never happened, because as it turned out there was no one to
change for ...

[Ad Bot]

[Deus Ex]

who the forget is reading all of that

[Drydess]

i agree with this. a unique perspective perhaps, i believe strongly in the idea that invaders have a moral obligation to execute the fastest and most effective invasion possible in order to limit loss of civilian and military life.

the strength and finality of a first strike largely determines how many people will die in the future of the conflict. i like to look at the iraq invasion as one of the strongest shows of force followed by the weakest outreach and de-escalation efforts possible. a cohesive modern military force can execute a strong strike that knocks out most of a country's comms and air support, but the large size of an army leads to logistics and communication errors. these errors stack up leading to underequipped, outnumbered squads of soldiers prone to perpetrating war crimes. coalition soldiers quickly lost the support and positive perception of the local population, and most/all attempts to outreach and establish infrastructure with local tribes ended in civilian deaths as well as ambushes against coalition soldiers. not unlike them, russia will also be faced with a population of people who hate them and reject their presence if they do succeed at their invasion.

all invaders should have a strong and determined strike plan followed by a stronger, kinder humanitarian effort. however, most armies lack the latter and end up leaving countries in failed state status. failed states are exceptionally prone to insurgencies and terror, and fighting against these forces is arguably more complicated and resource and time consuming than planning an invasion. insult to injury, guerilla/asymmetrical warfare has never been studied well and we (the world) have very few examples from which to study. most written documents on asymmetrical warfare and counterinsurgency were written during and after the 1930s, as the gap in combat effectiveness between armies began to increase drastically with new weaponry. ironically, i live in a country founded on independence, militia and insurgency that actively tries to prevent other countries from reaching the same goal. you think with a history so embedded in asymmetrical warfare, the government would plan counterinsurgencies that were more effective and less detrimental to civilian life. instead, Americans are generally remembered in most parts of the middle east and south america as imperialistic invaders and not freedom fighters.

in the coming years, invasions around the pacific are highly likely. hoping for permanent peace is unrealistic and naive, instead i hope for competent invaders that bring not just armor and soldiers, but doctors, translators, humanitarian corridors ready to salvage and preserve whatever human life, property and society survives combat.

this has nothing to do with what I told you. not only is it wrong to “hope for competent invaders” when there are maybe 10 countries in the world who have put armies into foreign countries since 1993, but the US is not a “competent invader”. the fact that you quoted the drone program as some sort of tactical success for minimizing civilian casualties (see daniel hale’s drone papers) demonstrates your lack of understanding of american warfare and, more importantly, diplomacy. you said that the drone strikes are good but there’s not enough intelligence around it to confirm the target is an “unlawful enemy combatant” (lol) beforehand and afterwards, my answer is that this is by design because there is zero incentive for them to actually do this when terrorism (unlawful attacks on civilians) creates more people to spend money to kill. it’s like when an IT guy unplugs the server and plugs it back in so that he can make sure his boss doesn’t fire him because there aren’t any IT problems going on at the time he can actually fix.

US intelligence released a story the other day that russia might start striking more civilian infrastructure, which is hilarious because striking civilian infrastructure and utilities is the first thing that the US does in a war. in yugoslavia, close to 8 thousand serbs died from the bombings— most of them because there wasn’t running water, power, gas, or food supply chains in lieu of the embargo.

you said that, in iraq, the US’s problem was that they didn’t ‘follow through’ to create a stable country after the war (officially) ended. this is of course true, iraq is a stuffhole now and never recovered from what the US did; however, I’m telling you this is intentional. iraq is something of a cliche for criticism of American foreign policy, but that’s only because it is the perfect example. saddam hussein would not exist without the US backing he had; Kurdish uprisings which led to the anfal genocide were a direct result of the US lying to them; 1 million iraqis and kurds and syrians in iraq, mostly children, starved because of oil for food, most of them dying before they even knew they were iraqi, but the only reason cited being that they were iraqis. saddam’s domestic intelligence network wouldn’t exist without the US sanctions. al qaeda, backed by iraqi islamists, wouldn’t exist without the US. the poverty in iraq now, and subsequently CIA, wouldn’t exist without the US’s approval of it.

my point here is as follows: the US lies about the circumstances of a country to manufacture public disapproval. then, the US makes these circumstances a reality through sanctions, impoverishment. then, the US backs local separatist groups to create fear and report it as “tensions” or “civil war”. then, the US enters the conflict directly, using expensive bombs and some expensive troops to unstrategically inflate the conflict. then, the US enacts regime change in the country, backing a weak, corrupt, controllable administration who operates as a US puppet-state. finally, the US abandons the country while maintaining their hold on many of their possessions, such as oil or food or bank holdings. if you’re lucky like iraq you get to be invaded 2 more times due to other circumstances the US created

it has been like this since korea and the philippines at least, it has never changed, and it never will unless diplomacy is taken seriously by the public, and media and government are held accountable by the public. the US is THE MOST destructive and powerful country in the history of the world, it is not ‘strange’ to criticize it in the ukraine conflict, it is strange to NOT criticize it. US foreign policy exists to create ‘shocks’ to justify upward transfer of wealth, that is the simple reality, the group of people in power exist to serve themselves and not the public and not any moral higher power who saves foreigners

[Drydess]

off topic a little bit, but there’s been an extremely annoying trend lately where pundits and ‘brown townysts’ in news agencies with a billion-sized following are able to label people as purveyors of “misinformation” without interrogating or providing a single example of this occurring. the worst offender is the daily beast, who exists solely as a hitman for intelligence agencies, but it’s very prominent in the guardian and nyt as well (the rest of them typically just pretend alternative views simply do not exist). one of my old professors randomly got hit with one of these after a piece he wrote got picked up by an alternative news site, now he’s “under review” with the school.

he probably won’t be laid off or anything on its account, but it’s extraordinary how much this has ramped up since covid and ukraine. at least with covid ‘disinformation’ their reasoning was that it would “save lives” to censor it, nothing like this is the case with ukraine however and social media are simply acting as fact-checkers now except without having to provide any supporting arguments for it. you get banned for posting NPR or DW articles about ukraine from 2015 lmfao, the only rationale they have this time is that “it’s misinformation because your beliefs are wrong”. it’s insane so few people are talking about this and instead babbling about transgenders or ‘putler’

[Drydess]

joe biden can’t cancel all student debt because then the democratic party might start winning more elections

[Conan]

more like dems wouldnt get as much money from rich donors or something cause cancelling student debt would require an offset probably made up via tax increases

[Aide33]

more like dems wouldnt get as much money from rich donors or something cause cancelling student debt would require an offset probably made up via tax increases

or god forbid, they would have to stop funding the military

[Foxscotch]

more like dems wouldnt get as much money from rich donors or something cause cancelling student debt would require an offset probably made up via tax increases

the reason is most likely student loan asset-backed securities
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/081815/student-loan-assetbacked-securities-safe-or-subprime.asp
if all of these loans were forgiven, all of these securities would be worthless, and that would be Bad for investors. it would be like 2008, except with student loans there's not even real estate that can be recovered to soften the blow. there is no collateral for a student loan

now to be clear, I still think they should probably be forgiven, at least for the people who actually need it most. this is obviously an imaginary problem, just like most other economics bullstuff. but like all other imaginary economics bullstuff disasters, it will still somehow be the poor people who are hurt the most. the system is fundamentally flawed

[Deus Ex]

forgive student debt without plugging the hole and ending student loan programs is a great idea bc then you can buy another few million votes in a few years when the situation occurs again, print more money and cause inflation, taxing the very people who need it by devaluing the currency they own

but whoop whoop no debt teehee

handicapped but that's abt what I expect from this admin

[mod-man]

it’s insane so few people are talking about this and instead babbling about transgenders or ‘putler’

people have been pointing this out for the past 6 years. hell i could argue it's been discussed for the past 20. but it wasn't until 2017 you started getting called a right winger or conspiracy nut for pointing it out, so that might be why people just rolled over on it

[Aide33]

forgive student debt without plugging the hole and ending student loan programs is a great idea bc then you can buy another few million votes in a few years when the situation occurs again, print more money and cause inflation, taxing the very people who need it by devaluing the currency they own

but whoop whoop no debt teehee

handicapped but that's abt what I expect from this admin

except he has plugged the hole, you didnt read the legislation at all

on top of forgiving 10-20k of the student loans, he made it so that anyone paying student loans only has to pay back a small amount per month (5% of their total income minimum) and all of that interest free

this makes it so that instead of being investment vehicles for interest the loans just become loans to help students, this has cut down the repayment time for some people by like 20 years.

even if he was bribing people, literally why the forget arent politician bribing people, it's their literal JOB TO DO THAT, to help working people.

holy forget you americans are so loving cucked into giving the government forgettons of money and defend them when they give none of it back and do nothing with it.

i do not understand how brandon has devalued our currency when almost every other currency on earth is now worth less than ours

[Aide33]

when the government takes 30% of your salary elsewhere in the world: "give us it back in the form of social services and aid for the working class"

when the government takes 30% of your salary in the us: "oh sorry mr government keep giving more to ukraine and raytheon, i didn't mean to upset you i dont expect anything in return i am pulling myself up by my bootstrapts by working for 7.5/hr at mcdonalds for 80 hours a week, hike my taxes and cut taxes for the rich, mr bezos deserves an extra 5 trillion dollars he works so hard"

[Mardalf]

Wait some people actually think that? wow.

[Deus Ex]

Totally defending the government not giving us money back after stealing it

handicapo brain prevented you from making a proper point, u just had to try to go for the throat and make urself look dumb, a real shame

[PhantOS]

this has nothing to do with what I told you. not only is it wrong to “hope for competent invaders” when there are maybe 10 countries in the world who have put armies into foreign countries since 1993, but the US is not a “competent invader”. the fact that you quoted the drone program as some sort of tactical success for minimizing civilian casualties (see daniel hale’s drone papers) demonstrates your lack of understanding of american warfare and, more importantly, diplomacy. you said that the drone strikes are good but there’s not enough intelligence around it to confirm the target is an “unlawful enemy combatant” (lol) beforehand and afterwards, my answer is that this is by design because there is zero incentive for them to actually do this when terrorism (unlawful attacks on civilians) creates more people to spend money to kill. it’s like when an IT guy unplugs the server and plugs it back in so that he can make sure his boss doesn’t fire him because there aren’t any IT problems going on at the time he can actually fix.

US intelligence released a story the other day that russia might start striking more civilian infrastructure, which is hilarious because striking civilian infrastructure and utilities is the first thing that the US does in a war. in yugoslavia, close to 8 thousand serbs died from the bombings— most of them because there wasn’t running water, power, gas, or food supply chains in lieu of the embargo.

you said that, in iraq, the US’s problem was that they didn’t ‘follow through’ to create a stable country after the war (officially) ended. this is of course true, iraq is a stuffhole now and never recovered from what the US did; however, I’m telling you this is intentional. iraq is something of a cliche for criticism of American foreign policy, but that’s only because it is the perfect example. saddam hussein would not exist without the US backing he had; Kurdish uprisings which led to the anfal genocide were a direct result of the US lying to them; 1 million iraqis and kurds and syrians in iraq, mostly children, starved because of oil for food, most of them dying before they even knew they were iraqi, but the only reason cited being that they were iraqis. saddam’s domestic intelligence network wouldn’t exist without the US sanctions. al qaeda, backed by iraqi islamists, wouldn’t exist without the US. the poverty in iraq now, and subsequently CIA, wouldn’t exist without the US’s approval of it.

my point here is as follows: the US lies about the circumstances of a country to manufacture public disapproval. then, the US makes these circumstances a reality through sanctions, impoverishment. then, the US backs local separatist groups to create fear and report it as “tensions” or “civil war”. then, the US enters the conflict directly, using expensive bombs and some expensive troops to unstrategically inflate the conflict. then, the US enacts regime change in the country, backing a weak, corrupt, controllable administration who operates as a US puppet-state. finally, the US abandons the country while maintaining their hold on many of their possessions, such as oil or food or bank holdings. if you’re lucky like iraq you get to be invaded 2 more times due to other circumstances the US created

it has been like this since korea and the philippines at least, it has never changed, and it never will unless diplomacy is taken seriously by the public, and media and government are held accountable by the public. the US is THE MOST destructive and powerful country in the history of the world, it is not ‘strange’ to criticize it in the ukraine conflict, it is strange to NOT criticize it. US foreign policy exists to create ‘shocks’ to justify upward transfer of wealth, that is the simple reality, the group of people in power exist to serve themselves and not the public and not any moral higher power who saves foreigners

i agree with your opinion on the outcomes of armed conflict, but i disagree on the reasons. armies tend to bring their most expensive ordinance and the most well-funded operators of said ordinance. however, moving expensive people and weapons through a warzone is a logistics  nightmare, and keeping them operational and combat-effective is difficult. the drone strikes we hear the most about in the US are the ones that target high-value leaders and end up killing civilians, but the ones that occur most frequently are supporting strikes and strafing runs for ground troops under fire.

during an exchange of combat, the situation may rapidly deteriorate. if soldiers are unable to maintain fire superiority and begin taking excessive casualties, air support and artillery become necessary. this is the main application of our drone program and also where the most civilian casualties end up being caused by. every second troops are on the ground and in the air, they risk dying at any moment. the air force is especially vulnerable, and portable air-to-surface missiles (even small arms fire) can destroy million dollar drones and choppers flying lower to the ground. under these stuffty conditions, soldiers' decision-making skills are disrupted, and the chances of civilian casualties climb by the second.

none of this makes it right, and there is no real excuse for civilian death. it also raises the important point that nobody would have to die if the army wasn't there in the first place. once an armed force arrives, the question is no longer 'why are we here' but 'how can we achieve our objective as fast as possible with as little casualties to our men, our enemies and civilians as possible.' this is where it helps to have a dedicated plan to minimizing losses of everyone involved.

the US certainly isn't the beacon of peace when it comes to warfare. after all, the country remains the only one in the world to have used nuclear weapons against human targets, not just once but twice. operation desert storm was a hugely successful operation compared to the nuclear bombings and the korean and vietnam wars, and the decision to knock out iraq's air superiority and comms from day one likely prevented millions of people from dying. an unsuccessful first strike would've meant that coalition troops would have to bring heavier armor into the cities and more civilians would've been displaced and killed. the decision to stay in the middle east and maintain a presence is what cost the people of iraq many more lives than necessary, and is where the US begins to look like an incompetent russia-like invader. many of the problems that remain today are directly the result of US intervention, but these losses would've been much greater had the show of force invasion failed.