Some folks have the mistaken impression that I think the US military can just beat everyone up unilaterally, and win any war?
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RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116160627758292678
Some folks have the mistaken impression that I think the US military can just beat everyone up unilaterally, and win any war? No. I think the polar opposite.
"Lethality" is not as useful for winning wars as coalition building. But even on the lethality point, the US military is less lethal than it was when it had people like this. It's just more violent and cruel now. Some people mistake that cruelty for lethality.
Competence matters. The ability to negotiate matters. If you have no ability to even fake empathy? Then you are constitutionally incapable of being a good negotiator. Because effective negotiating requires the ability to see the world through the other party's eyes.
No, this is not a glorification of war.
@mekkaokereke
What I think is it sucks that folks like you and me suddenly are in the position of having to keep in consideration the "lethality" of the US military at all. -
RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116160627758292678
Some folks have the mistaken impression that I think the US military can just beat everyone up unilaterally, and win any war? No. I think the polar opposite.
"Lethality" is not as useful for winning wars as coalition building. But even on the lethality point, the US military is less lethal than it was when it had people like this. It's just more violent and cruel now. Some people mistake that cruelty for lethality.
Competence matters. The ability to negotiate matters. If you have no ability to even fake empathy? Then you are constitutionally incapable of being a good negotiator. Because effective negotiating requires the ability to see the world through the other party's eyes.
No, this is not a glorification of war.
@mekkaokereke I went to an interesting lecture twenty years ago by General Rupert Smith, a senior commander in the British army in the 90s, on how warfare had changed from total war between nations (with uniforms and a front line) to war within nations, where the enemy is everywhere and nowhere and indistinguishable from sympathetic civilians, and just being good at shooting is no longer enough
He spoke about the theatre of war being like a dramatic theatre, with stagehands and actors and a goal of presenting a compelling narrative, to earn and build trust with the people whose country you've just deployed a tank division into
I suspect that kind of nuanced thinking may be lacking a bit now
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@mekkaokereke
What I think is it sucks that folks like you and me suddenly are in the position of having to keep in consideration the "lethality" of the US military at all.@ohmu @mekkaokereke the military for decades has worked on actually reducing the amount of lethality it needs to achieve a policy outcome. We carpet bombed cities in WW2 to try and destroy single factories. Today we can put a single missile into a single room from hundreds of miles away.
Killing people has always been secondary to a policy objective, and we've known that since the dawn of time. The DoD's focus on lethality as an outcome is a regression.
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RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116160627758292678
Some folks have the mistaken impression that I think the US military can just beat everyone up unilaterally, and win any war? No. I think the polar opposite.
"Lethality" is not as useful for winning wars as coalition building. But even on the lethality point, the US military is less lethal than it was when it had people like this. It's just more violent and cruel now. Some people mistake that cruelty for lethality.
Competence matters. The ability to negotiate matters. If you have no ability to even fake empathy? Then you are constitutionally incapable of being a good negotiator. Because effective negotiating requires the ability to see the world through the other party's eyes.
No, this is not a glorification of war.
Military alliances require trust and negotiated surrenders require the loser to either be desperate or else to believe the victor will honor their commitments.
The US has spent the last forty years, and especially this administration, betraying its alliances and breaking its commitments.
So any war we start, our former allies won't want to help and our opponents will see no benefit in surrendering. Iran won't surrender because they know - and they're *right* - that Trump will bomb them again as soon as the Epstein files are back in the news.
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RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116160627758292678
Some folks have the mistaken impression that I think the US military can just beat everyone up unilaterally, and win any war? No. I think the polar opposite.
"Lethality" is not as useful for winning wars as coalition building. But even on the lethality point, the US military is less lethal than it was when it had people like this. It's just more violent and cruel now. Some people mistake that cruelty for lethality.
Competence matters. The ability to negotiate matters. If you have no ability to even fake empathy? Then you are constitutionally incapable of being a good negotiator. Because effective negotiating requires the ability to see the world through the other party's eyes.
No, this is not a glorification of war.
@mekkaokereke It's Sparta, but really stupid.
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RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116160627758292678
Some folks have the mistaken impression that I think the US military can just beat everyone up unilaterally, and win any war? No. I think the polar opposite.
"Lethality" is not as useful for winning wars as coalition building. But even on the lethality point, the US military is less lethal than it was when it had people like this. It's just more violent and cruel now. Some people mistake that cruelty for lethality.
Competence matters. The ability to negotiate matters. If you have no ability to even fake empathy? Then you are constitutionally incapable of being a good negotiator. Because effective negotiating requires the ability to see the world through the other party's eyes.
No, this is not a glorification of war.
@mekkaokereke If all you can do is beat people up, you have to either be physically strong enough to beat up the entire world simultaneously or the entire world will get sick of your shit and beat you up simultaneously. I'm less sure the former is even possible with every blunder.
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RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116160627758292678
Some folks have the mistaken impression that I think the US military can just beat everyone up unilaterally, and win any war? No. I think the polar opposite.
"Lethality" is not as useful for winning wars as coalition building. But even on the lethality point, the US military is less lethal than it was when it had people like this. It's just more violent and cruel now. Some people mistake that cruelty for lethality.
Competence matters. The ability to negotiate matters. If you have no ability to even fake empathy? Then you are constitutionally incapable of being a good negotiator. Because effective negotiating requires the ability to see the world through the other party's eyes.
No, this is not a glorification of war.
@mekkaokereke as a vet who fought in Afghanistan, our record is abyssmal. We lost in Vietnam, we lost in Afghanistan, we lost in Iraq and we are clearly losing in Iran. But at least we spent more than it would have cost to do free education and medicare for all.
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@mekkaokereke as a vet who fought in Afghanistan, our record is abyssmal. We lost in Vietnam, we lost in Afghanistan, we lost in Iraq and we are clearly losing in Iran. But at least we spent more than it would have cost to do free education and medicare for all.
@Chasteen @mekkaokereke war profiteers didn't lose
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@mekkaokereke as a vet who fought in Afghanistan, our record is abyssmal. We lost in Vietnam, we lost in Afghanistan, we lost in Iraq and we are clearly losing in Iran. But at least we spent more than it would have cost to do free education and medicare for all.
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@mekkaokereke It's Sparta, but really stupid.
@mekkaokereke honestly, since Sparta is something the fash like to romanticize (heh), i'm guessing actual Sparta was also more stupid than we think
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@mekkaokereke honestly, since Sparta is something the fash like to romanticize (heh), i'm guessing actual Sparta was also more stupid than we think
@LeBonk @mekkaokereke Of course it's was, hence the reference.
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@RuthODay2 @Chasteen @mekkaokereke I'm not sure I'd call Granada an ass-kicking. That was incredibly embarrassing to watch from the outside. Intense Fremdscham in play there.
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@mekkaokereke as a vet who fought in Afghanistan, our record is abyssmal. We lost in Vietnam, we lost in Afghanistan, we lost in Iraq and we are clearly losing in Iran. But at least we spent more than it would have cost to do free education and medicare for all.
- if only more of our politicians went to the movies...
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- if only more of our politicians went to the movies...
@Illudium_Q36 @Chasteen @mekkaokereke this has been living rent free in my brain for a while now
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- if only more of our politicians went to the movies...
@Illudium_Q36 @Chasteen @mekkaokereke this frame makes me uneasy: Vizzini was proved wrong while still laughing the end of that line...
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- if only more of our politicians went to the movies...
@Illudium_Q36 I seem to recall Trump not being much of a Rob Reiner fan. @Chasteen @mekkaokereke
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- if only more of our politicians went to the movies...
@Illudium_Q36 @Chasteen @mekkaokereke Just for fun, I wish Pete Hegseth knew what a jezzail was.
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- if only more of our politicians went to the movies...
@Illudium_Q36 They'd have to know where Asia is for that to help. @Chasteen @mekkaokereke
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