Do you think this kind of thing is worrying or not?

  • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    This is how all military branches have always pressured Congress for more budget. They give a public disquisition with doomsday scenarios about our rivals/adversaries so the public will see the press coverage and call their Congressional reps to demand the military gets built up.

    • NeilBru@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      This is how all military branches have always pressured Congress for more budget.

      That’s fairly accurate, but that is the military’s job.

      However, the CCP military rapidly upgrading their orbital and suborbital capabilities should give pause to those who want free and open democratic societies and republics.

      Military jingoism and scaremongering can and do exist simultaneously. It’s our job to elect people who can responsibly address both hyperbolic alarmism and real threats from aggressive and encroaching adversaries.

      Basically: give them some money, but not all of it.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s something of a cycle that aggressors will claim capabilities that are terrifying and then the US overreacts. When we heard about the Foxbat we built the F-15, even though the former eats its own engines if used at afterburner for more than a minute and would melt if it hit the top speed.

      The Space Race happened because we thought the Soviets had way more capability than they did.

      Hell, the B-52 only exists because we were convinced the Russians had thousands of bombers.

      In reality, the Soviets lied so completely to their population and leadership that they also thought they had that stuff, even though they were basically forcing captured Nazi scientists to copy Western designs.