this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Oliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

I got the second Punic war, but I think that's just a freebie. I also spent a lot learning about the Falkland's war just to annoy Argentinians online.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

I'm glad I missed this.

btw, did you know that the Australian government killed almost 1000 Emus in the Great Emu War and still lost?

The military used over 10,000 rounds of ammunition. that would mean they used around 10 rounds per Emu.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

They also used actual military tactics to fight the Emus, like mapping their routes and setting up ambushes. In one of these, they managed to get close to a flock of about a thousand emus and attacked them with machine guns only allowing the escape of... lemme check... about a thousand emus.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

I typically have a 60% accuracy in Helldivers 2 and I'm fighting swarms of giant bugs. I think I'll forgive the Australians for 10 rounds per bird, especially since winging an emu probably doesn't stop it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Compared to the amount of bullets expended per casualty in any modern war that is actually very good. The US probably fired thousands of bullets for each insurgent killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

i got the soviet-afghan war and wow did that recontextualize a lot of things about the modern world

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

bear in mind i was 10 during 9/11 so a lot of it was just upending things i had taken for granted. but like, how the US was pretty much allied with the taliban throughout the 80s, giving them training and weapons to fight against the soviet-friendly progressive, secular government of afghanistan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The Soviet-friendly Afghan government wasn't a) progressive and b) wasn't secular. The government is explicitly Marxist-Leninist who oppressed and forced people to drop their religion as part of state atheism.

The progressivism and secularism you refer to was during the kingdom era before being overthrown by the communist Afghan military. The more liberal attitude is only contained in a bubble in the capital city of Kabul. The rest of 80% of Afghans are still religious conservatives living rural and in poverty. An Afghan female former politician lamented not seeing this because she grew up in liberal Kabul.

Also more importantly, it's a misconception that the US helped the Taliban. The mujahideen was composed of various factions, some are secular, some are conservative, while some are more Islamists. But, the ultraconservative elements only came later in more definite form under the Taliban, which defeated both the secular and conservative forces.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

forced people to drop their religion as part of state atheism.

Sounds like

progressivism and secularism

To me

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Forcing someone to change their beliefs is considered progressivism and secularism? I did not get the memo that progressives are authoritarians. What were the Afghans resisting the Soviets for then?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Getting rid of religion would be a major leap forward for humanity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

As much as I want religion to be gone, you can't force people to change their beliefs overnight. We frown upon forced conversion by one religion on another; why can't atheist apply the same standard to theists? That was the mistake of communist Afghans and it only led to a severe backlash of inducing the mostly conservative Afghans to become ultra-consenservative Islamists. Every reaction has an opposite but equal reaction. Social changes has to be organic.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

ah yes, Islamists, the group of people well known to be religiously open and totally not forcing their shit on everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It is well known communists cracked down on religion because they are staunchly atheists.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Same as always

People that make those decisions want to continue to make those decisions

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Charlie Wilson's War is a pretty great movie about that, starring Tom Hanks, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Aaron Sorkin, although it's more of a political satire and plays it fast and loose with the historical details.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

My case was Paraguay War a few weeks ago and I learned so damn much that school completely glossed over. What surprised me the most was just how much of a madman Solano Lopez, the Paraguayan dictator, was. You dare bring bad news to him? You bet your ass you'll be flogged. You failed to follow one of his suicidal orders? Off to forced labor camp. You didn't put him above God and Christ? Say your prayers, you'll be ~~shot~~ bayoneted in order to save bullets.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Hey, the Falklands is the one I'm obsessed with and it's actually really interesting. Only "modern" war between near peers before ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

I'm sure you've come across it but David Hart Dyke's book on the loss of HMS Coventry is one of the more vivid depictions of grief I've read.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Near peers? Pretty sure there's a whole ocean separating Argentina and Britain, even if the islands where the conflict occurred were "just next door" to mainland Argentina.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

That's not what the near in near peer means...

It's a measure of military capability between nations. A Near Peer would be a nation that shares similar capabilities for force projection or in otherwords the powerscale is 1:1.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

I think they meant "near" as in "evenly matched".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Iran Iraq war also known as first gulf war?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Wut

The Iraqi army got absolutely obliterated

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War

That’s not the US led UN backed war following Iraq‘s invasion of Kuwait. Iran and Iraq had a long and brutal war with tanks, planes, helicopters, mines, trenches, and more in the 1980s.

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