I think you are mistaken. The rest of NATO arguably outmatches the US in arctic combat capabilities by a pretty big margin. Most US war equipment would fail almost immediately. The Nordics have more arctic trained soldiers than the US and equipment that's been designed and tested in that environment.
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The US is also totally unprepared to deal with the kind of cold it would encounter in Greenland. Nordic military forces have way more experience, and they are far better equipped. Most US tanks and artillery would not operate reliably in Greenland.
Trump made a joke about Greenland defense forces having two dogsleds. That would be two more than the US has, and the dogs would actually function, unlike US troop transports.
We put that fire out completely in 2020 but left all the faulty wiring in place. Now suddenly the house is on fire again. Funny how that works.
I think it's fair to say she was, but that just makes it even more of an outrage that she was killed. She might not have been marching around with a picket sign chanting slogans, but filming ICE in the way she was is definitely being done, at least in part, as a form of protest.
People have a basic responsibility to (at a minimum) check their assumptions and ask some very basic questions before resorting to attempting a violent overthrow of the government. I'm not prepared to excuse every act of violence by anyone who thinks they are justified.
The result for the people killed would be pretty foregone.
American losses in revolutionary war, 25k. Vietnamese losses in Vietnam war, 882k. Afghan deaths in US occupation, 241k. These figures don't include those that died in the societal upheaval that followed.
Deaths at the hands of ICE, around 30. Public opinion of ICE has plummeted with the majority of Americans actually supporting abolishment. We are getting more and more frequent incidents of residents and protesters sending ICE packing by filming them and asserting their civil rights. ICE in turn is getting more violent, which is only going to drive public opinion and the courts to further oppose them.
Have you not been following the news? That happened, multiple times, and the courts shot him down. Protesters actually shooting at ICE will give him what he needs to satisfy the courts of a civil emergency.
It's working fine. ICE morale and recruitment are both in the toilet, and it seems like every day we get more incidents of ICE actually being driven off by increasingly savvy local resistance. Meanwhile, every documented incident of unjustified ICE thuggery is driving public opinion further against ICE.
Honestly, it's working far better than I would have dared hope. But, as soon as protesters start shooting ICE, public opinion will swing back the other way, and Trump will finally have his justification to fill the streets with actual military.
Did I say it absolves us? No, I'm pretty sure I didn't.
Post: Russia does bad shit!
Reply: US just did some bad shit too!
Me: Russia contributed to that as well!
The topic of the post is Russia. I said nothing to implicate or excuse the US.
I'm responding to Russian whataboutism deflecting criticism towards actions that Russia also had a hand in. Russia didn't create MAGA, but they sure as hell helped fund it. That's relevant.
So, yes?
By recent events are you referring to events following the Russian backed fascist takeover of the US government?
It's just more sane washing of the Trump regime.
17% don't believe in the rule of law and should be rounded up and imprisoned / executed by the next administration for... reasons.
That user is saying that the fact that Russians face more danger for protesting means that any lack of protest reflects less poorly on Russian people than on Americans
And, as I said, Americans face plenty of risk too, but only if they do the kinds of protests that actually might achieve something. No, the US government isn't going to murder a protester's entire family, but they will lock up the breadwinner and leave the kids with no safety net programs. Plus, you can forget ever getting a decent job once you have a conviction on your record. Americans also have more, so they have more to lose. The risks are different, but just as real.
You are making a separate argument.
Of course I am. It would be pretty silly to make the same (bad) argument - even flipping the sides. Do you think they are prepared to admit that the US has more freedom, because I sincerely doubt it.
the average American is fairly content (and often even thrilled) to live with the violence their government has perpetrated
Absolutely false. These foreign interventions are always extremely unpopular, including the topic at hand. The ruling class is another matter entirely, but average Americans do not back these interventions. I will agree they have a tendency to ignore many of the less noisy interventions, but that's true everywhere. If things are working in people's favor, they don't tend to dwell on them - unfortunately.
Also, the majority of Americans do not support Trump or the Republicans. Were it not for our fucked up election system and a whole lot of help from mother Russia, the Republicans would have zero power at the national level.
How familiar are you with recent Russian history?
Familiar enough. I'm not unsympathetic, but it doesn't invalidate anybody the arguments I made.
people are obviously terrified that life will go back to how it was in the 90s before he took power.
You don't think that MAGA is motivated by terror? Rural America is collapsing, and they have been taught to fear the cities their entire lives, not to mention the fact that they have no skills to get a job there, and no money to find a place to live. Russia has no monopoly on fear.
This judgement of blaming Russian "culture" for this rather than the neoliberal shock therapy
How familiar are you with extended Russian history? Russia was like this long before they could blame it on "the west". I do blame Russian culture, just like I blame American (especially southern) culture for it's problems. We've all got cultural baggage.
rampant nazism and social murder of the 1990s
Bullshit. There is no more Nazism in the US than anywhere else - at least until fairly recently. (And it would be great if the Nazis weren't all getting Russian funding). There has certainly been an odor of fascism in the neoliberal consensus. I'll give you that but, again, I'm not sure America is different from anywhere else in that regard.
So people who live in a country aren't responsible for the actions of their government? Then why hold the American people responsible for Venezuela? Why should they be expected to protest? The government just does what it does.
Russia brutality suppresses dissent because, at some level, the Russian people and culture accepts it. A handful of rulers can't control a much larger population unless that population at some level consents. Millions of individual self interested decisions form the web that keeps everyone in line. That's true in Russia, and it's true in America.
Also, as I pointed out, brutal suppression also happens in America, it's just that the elites use different tools to make protest irrelevant, and only resort to brutality when other methods fail. They use protest as a mechanism to vent unrest harmlessly.
One reason you don't see as much protest in the US is that people don't believe it works because it pretty much doesn't. A bunch of people hold out their signs, then either get mocked or ignored by the media. Break out of that system and actually start disrupting society in a meaningful way, and then the brutality comes out.
LOL, Russia brutality crushes protest and America doesn't. Point Russia? You guys are hilarious.
The reality in America is a bit more complicated. There are two kinds of protests, those that are pointless and easily brushed aside, and those that might actually achieve something.
America sets up "free speech zones" and a whole myriad of laws to make sure the second kind of protest is always illegal, and it has no problem using brutality to shut them down.
Protest in America is almost always performative and relatively pointless. What matters is political activism and educating and energizing voters. That's the only thing that has ever made a difference in the US. For protest to be effective at all it has to move voters, but opportunities to do that with corporate media pushing back are rare.
Maybe you'll believe the Center for European Policy Analysis
The Article 5 wording is vague. It states that an attack against one member “shall be considered an attack against them all.” What is quoted less often is that each member state only has an obligation to take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force.”
In other words, Article 5 does not commit member states to deploy military assets if an ally is attacked. It only commits them to some form of response.
But, what do they know anyways?
I live in the US and I'm divesting from the US.