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Our roads are bad. We lack decent public transportation. Our internet speeds are slow and overly exspensive. We do not have most of the infrastructure we need.

Jack Ma calls it warfare you call it defense. Whatever term you wish to use is fine with me. The trillions we spent on defense in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly was not well spent.

We do have an obligation to defend the Ukraine against Russian attacks. That was the deal they made with us when they gave up nukes in the early 90s.




The deal with Ukraine only requires us to defend them against nuclear attacks, and even then, the only requirement is to seek action in the UN. For conventional attacks, our only obligation is not to attack ourselves.

This is such a common misconception. I wonder where it came from. The Budapest Memorandum is short and understandable. Is this just a game of telephone gone badly wrong, or is there propaganda at work?


The only actions explicitly addressed in the memorandum involve nuclear attack, the other sections point to other treaties that arguably should mandate defense.


Thanks for the correction. I suppose propaganda is at play in the misconception. Also it wouldn’t make sense for Ukraine to not want a better security guarantee given the history between Russia and Ukraine.


Part of that deal was also that Ukraine would not be part of the OTAN, but a firewall between the OTAN and Russia.


Yes, NATO expansion riled Russia and this is the result of imperial hubris on the part of the U.S.




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