Summary

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 160,000 more Russians aged 18–30 be drafted from April 1 to July 15, amid U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the Kremlin is preparing a major offensive in Sumy, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia, accusing Russia of stalling negotiations to gain territorial leverage.

Over 100,000 Russian soldiers are confirmed dead. Ukraine reported 46,000 dead and 380,000 wounded.

  • @ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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    171 month ago

    I have a friend who insists he can defeat any animal in a fight as long as he has enough size advantage and lay on the animal and pin it down. He has apparently never seen a cat, much less a chimp.

    • @CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
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      31 month ago

      This makes me think of my nephew who is convinced that a dog like a Cane Corso or Kangal can take on a bear 1v1.

      • @Dasus@lemmy.world
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        21 month ago

        dog like a Cane Corso or Kangal can take on a bear 1v1.

        In Silverfang maybe, but not in real life.

    • @shalafi@lemmy.world
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      111 month ago

      I fought my mom’s mountain lion when I was in my early 20s. Had 20-30 pounds on that bitch. She hated men in hats for some reason no one ever figured out. Teased her a bit, looking her in the eye, on my knees on the living room floor, with a straw cowboy hat on.

      All I saw was a tawny blur, ended up on my back with my long hair coming out in hanks. The cat ended up with my hat. Along with more of my hair.

      I no longer have illusions against my chances vs. a possum.

  • Denixen
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    11 month ago

    Let’s just imagine what it would look like if Europe mobilized and armed 160,000 soldiers. The fact that it sees undoable for most tells us how badly situated we are…

    • @lumony@lemmings.world
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      51 month ago

      Pretty much the only Western-aligned nation that’s ready to fight a war is Israel.

      War, for Americans, really is just all fun and games right now. Most people haven’t seen friends die. When that starts happening and the reality of war sets in, I don’t think most Westerners will stick around. They value their lives too much.

      • Denixen
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        11 month ago

        I don’t know that it is quite that bad, I think people will surprise you. Europeans stuck with Ukraine even though it costs and while some are turning their back they are a minority and they consider Ukraine none of the their business.

        I think when another NATO or EU country is affected Europeans will see it very differently. It is an existential threat then. Russia wants to paint Europe as decadent and lazy, but Europeans stand firm when it really matters. We’ve proven that with Ukraine.

        The bigger problem for Europe is to produce armed forces in the hundreds of thousands within the next few years. Making the hardware and training the soldiers in that small off a time will be difficult.

        As for Americans… I don’t really know where we have them. I do think there is a non-negligible chance they will be in a civil war by the end of the decade or the start of the next.

        • @lumony@lemmings.world
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          01 month ago

          Europeans stuck with Ukraine

          I mean, giving weapons is different from sending soldiers. This is what I mean by “most people haven’t seen friends die.” It’s a completely different ballgame that most of us in the West do not have experience in and are not prepared for.

      • @Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        31 month ago

        Isnotreal can barely hold their own against hezbollah and hamas. They cannot fight an actual country that doesn’t have a postcolonial arranged military.

      • lemonaz
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        31 month ago

        You think Israel would help the West fight Russia? I kinda doubt it. They don’t seem the type to fight real wars, only massacre innocents they fanatically hate.

      • @kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        31 month ago

        Most people haven’t seen friends die.

        And they didn’t learn the lessons from their grandfather’s experience.

    • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      71 month ago

      With Italy having 338 000 active military personnel, France 304 000 and Spain’s 199 000, it really isn’t that hard to imagine.

      • Denixen
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        -21 month ago

        Where did you get these numbers? I cannot find any sources to support them. Active personnel of mentioned countries is half to 2/3 of mentioned numbers. And this tells us nothing about these countries ability to produce new personnel.

        Also, that’s all on paper. When UK and France discuss a ‘coalition of the willing’ to act as peace keepers in Ukraine they are able to scrape together no more than a few tens of thousands, even though it is believed that 100-200K is required to be a deterring force.

        We are talking about a force of several hundreds of thousands to be trained, armed and moved to a front to fight within a few months or at least within a year, in addition to already existing forces, a large part of which are unavailable to train new recruits because they are deployed.

    • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      41 month ago

      Europe has 450 million people. It will be easier for them than Russia with 146 million people. Stop spreading FUD.

  • @TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    951 month ago

    This is America’s future. Conscription is in Project 2025 and make no mistakes about it. The Christian Nationalist Death Cult would love to send you to the front.

    • @Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The religious nutters will form a White Christian unit copying the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, march with the goose step and all of the sick fucks will have Jerusalem Cross tattoos.

      Conscription will start after the US economy completely swirls down the shitter leaving all sorts of skid marks.

    • @futatorius@lemm.ee
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      161 month ago

      The Christian Nationalist Death Cult would love to send you to the front.

      To fight for Russia against Ukraine or Israel against Iran. Maybe if they’re in a good mood, you’ll be able to choose which genocide you participate in.

    • @index@sh.itjust.works
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      31 month ago

      Isn’t conscription already a thing in USA? Many countries silently paused conscription but it’s just there

        • @invertedspear@lemm.ee
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          81 month ago

          That’s the other guys point. We haven’t used it since the 70s, but the system is still in place to be used. Easy to fire it up again.

          • @tikifire@lemm.ee
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            91 month ago

            My point was at least half or more of the US population has little-to-no-memory of what that was like.

            My dad was drafted during the Vietnam era but I’m in my 50’s and have no actual memory of that time.

            I know it happened but I was really young when they stopped the draft and we’ve had several generations born since then who also have no memory of it.

            It would be politically dangerous for a government to restart a draft absent an actual world war-type situation or a dictatorship.

            • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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              21 month ago

              That’s what people don’t understand about the Vietnam War. People were against the war, but if it was waged by volunteers, then most people would have accepted it grudgingly. It was the draft that made everybody lose their fucking minds.

              Imagine being a teenaged boy in America, during the 60s, knowing that when you turn 18, you will be eligible for the draft. The government will literally kidnap you from the bedroom in your parents’ house, where you have spent every night of your life. You’ve never experienced any aspect of adult life, you’re probably a virgin, but now you’re given a few weeks of basic training, and sent halfway across the world to a country you couldn’t find on a globe a few months ago, to kill or be killed. The life expectancy of an inexperienced new draftee thrown into the war zone was extremely short.

              Complicating the issue was that many fathers were supportive of the war, because they had fought in WWII, but that was a war with a clear reason and objective. Nobody could clearly articulate why we were in Vietnam, nor what would define a “victory.”

              Obviously, extreme fear defined every young man in America, as well as their families. HitlerPig and his henchmen love instilling fear into people, and a draft is a particularly insidious way to do that. I have no doubt that when HitlerPig launches his wars (there will almost certainly be more than one, it will be a World War, after all), he will gleefully demand a draft, and use it to threaten and punish his enemies.

              I will say this unequivocally: There is no way that I will allow my son to be drafted into a HitlerPig war. And if somehow they get their hands on him, I will have nothing to lose, and will become a very dangerous individual. Of my personal red lines to not cross, that is my bightest and reddest.

    • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      11 month ago

      Kapo Stephen “PeeWee Himmler” Miller has said that he wants to reduce the population of America from 335 million to 100 million people. An incompetently managed war that is wasteful of human lives is a perfect way to accomplish much of his objective.

    • @kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      11 month ago

      This is America’s future. Conscription is in Project 2025

      Americans could still prevent that future if a few million of them got off their asses and took action against the fascist takeover of their country.

      But that would get in the way of watching American idol, and HoneyBooBoo reruns, wouldn’t it…

    • @CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      According to this article, project 2025 doesn’t do that. It proposes requiring students to take the military ASVAB test. Which honestly isn’t the worst idea. In my high school they recommended people who didn’t know what they wanted to do for a career to take it even if they weren’t going into the military.

        • @InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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          61 month ago

          You went to the shit schools, I went to school in the south, they gerrymandered them so the kids of poor parents took them while the rich kids didn’t (and got actual schooling).

          • @7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            31 month ago

            Yep 100% went to a shit school. I’d not be surprised if the asvab paid the school for each person that took it

        • @CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world
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          21 month ago

          It’s a 3 hour aptitude test. Are you good at math? Are you good at electronics? Etc. I would imagine it’s a minor speed bump to joining the military.

            • mosiacmango
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              11 month ago

              No. The hardest math is some insanely light algebra too. X = 5y kind of stuff.

              It still opens the door to enlistment and being harassed to join the military, conning poor kids into making a mistake.

              • @CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world
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                21 month ago

                I mean, I was harassed to enlist despite actively going to college (officers usually get a commission after college), despite repeatedly telling them I was not interested and never taking the test.

          • @entwine413@lemm.ee
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            31 month ago

            Just don’t ace it or every branch of the military will start harassing you at home trying to get you to join.

          • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Just fail it

            So you can be shuffled in with the grunts rather than the officers?

            The military loves putting dumb-dumbs through basic and stacking them on the front lines to catch stray bullets.

            • @hddsx@lemmy.ca
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              31 month ago

              I mean, you can also fail out at basic too IIRC.

              Also, you need a college degree to be a commissioned officer.

          • @wirebeads@lemmy.ca
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            51 month ago

            Or if ever American says they’re gay, they’d never join the military because DEI and such.

            Or just be black, brown, Asian, trans, a celebrity or rich. America doesn’t want any of that in the military either

            • @Triasha@lemmy.world
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              31 month ago

              They don’t want poc or women to be career.

              They want women pregnant, so they are “safe” in that sense. They want white officers commanding brown conscripts to go do the dying.

      • @TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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        431 month ago

        They are planning to make all public school kids take the test but not the private school kids. It will be for conscription. They will know where to throw your ass to make the meat grinder run better. That’s the only reason for this bullshit

          • @bassomitron@lemmy.world
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            111 month ago

            Private schools don’t have to follow the same requirements as public schools already. The person above you is just inferring that since they’re already separate in the current system, the new ASVAB requirement would also be separate. But until it becomes an actual law, it isn’t super useful arguing hypotheticals in this context.

    • @MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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      -21 month ago

      Lol have you seen kids these days? I’d be surprised if more than 15 percent are fit for service, and of that 15% maybe half would pass a drug screen.

      • @ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        301 month ago

        Kids in the 1960s were the same, and the USA still sent them off to get killed, maimed, and traumatized for the rest of their lives.

        • @lumony@lemmings.world
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          1 month ago

          All in the name of… checks notes

          Fighting communism.

          Really puts into perspective who is pulling the strings over in the Land of Freedom. Here’s a hint: their children are never the ones to die in a war.

          It’s genius, really. Convincing the working class to literally sacrifice their children for a system that supports the ruling class. Brilliant.

      • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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        11 month ago

        They won’t care, they’re just cannon fodder.

        Remember, over the next decade, many jobs are going to be replaced by AI and robotics. All the technology exists to convert every fast food outlet to be fully automated. Imagine how many young, unskilled people will be unemployed when the fast food companies shift from humans to robots.

        With all the coming automation, we could see a permanent unemployment rate of 30%, or even more. We will be faced with two solutions: Universal Basic Income (which will be very unpopular with the Sociopathic Oligarchs and MAGA), or reduce the population by the amount of the unemployment rate.

        An incompetently managed war, with an unforgiving draft (unless you are a rich nepo-baby), is a perfect way to accomplish that.

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen
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      291 month ago

      Nah I’m too trans to be let in even as a conscript. They would rather just kill me domestically 🎉

  • Grass Cat
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    71 month ago

    on the bright side the Russian meatgrinder companies should see increased sales