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knobber_jobbler t1_j9t18b7 wrote

He knows full well the UK can't send any. He's an idiot try to play to the crowd. It doesn't have any it can send and if it did, it would need permission from several other countries to do so. It's not going to give is tranche 1 Eurofighters away which are the next up to be retired. All the Tornados are scrapped. Harriers are now owned by the USMC. Jaguars are scrapped. Hawk t1s would be useless.

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Doobie-D2000 t1_j9tie9s wrote

He's very interesting. I honestly believe he is a pompous fool, but I think his public show of intense support for Ukraine now and when he was PM is very telling. He seems like the type of guy that's chasing getting his name in the history books but in a good light. He has realized being the champion of defense for Ukraine and for the UK to lead support in arms for Europe is a sure fire way to get Churchill vibes in the long term view.

It doesn't matter if the jets they send are useless. It will start a Domino effect and everyone will then send jets.

Look at America. Nobody would send leopard tanks until America sent Abrahams. Ukraine doesn't need Abraham tanks. They are logistically a nightmare when combined with all their other tanks. They are essentially "useless".

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knobber_jobbler t1_j9tk6d6 wrote

Absolutely. Right now the history books will show him as philandering idiot who presided over the greatest foreign policy blunder - only comparable with Chamberlain, the tens of thousands of COVID dead and the repeated corruption surrounding him and the Tories. He's desperate to rectify his image. Unfortunately for him, the internet exists.

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Card_Zero t1_j9txy5o wrote

I don't think Brexit was awful, and I'm not certain history books will paint it as a disaster. Currently it's seen as awful because of economic impact and because of the desire to have a strong Europe to oppose Russia, along with the insinuation that Russia was trying to engineer the breakup of Europe. However, a United States of Europe would also have been a bad thing. Unions, federations, and so on are tricky because minimal collaboration between equals is ideal and maximal central government is what tends to emerge. I know it seems irrelevant in the current climate, post-covid and with Russia rampaging around, but Brexit had an overlooked role as a backlash against that.

(It's a valid role if you're troubled by giant octopus-like central governments, I mean. Not everybody is, and I know this is an unpopular opinion, as will now be redundantly demonstrated by downvotes. It is however an aspect of the picture.)

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knobber_jobbler t1_j9tzhq1 wrote

Every economist and diplomat disagrees with you. Brexit is a financial and diplomatic disaster for the UK. There is no United States of Europe and the UK would have no say in stopping it now anyway. In fact the UK leaving will likely increase ties between EU countries going forwards. We've shot ourselves in both feet.

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daniel_22sss t1_j9vvhaq wrote

Honestly, if I would take all of these claims on face value, it would sound like NATO and USA don't have anything working that could be sent, and god knows how these militaries even exist. UK "doesn't have anything", France "doesn't have anything", Germany "doesn't have anything", USA for some reason can only give 20 HIMARS and 31 Abrams... Nobody has enough artillery and ammo for it... Its like, geez guys. What even is NATO military? In the first Gulf War all of you had so much stuff, and now it feels like nobody has anything and Ukraine is getting last scraps.

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knobber_jobbler t1_j9vztwi wrote

In 1991 the cold war had just ended. The UK was still fielding jets built in the 50s. It has Buccaneers, Phantoms, Jaguars, Tornados etc. Today the RAF is quite literally bare bones. If you've read various defence journals over the last decade you'll have seen the Harrier force cut to free up cash for Tornado. Tornado scrapped for a Eurofighter upgrade. F35 numbers slashed etc. Typhoons were being stripped for parts to keep others flying etc. Tranche 1 is to be scrapped after only 20 years of service and not upgraded. 20 years is nothing for a jet that has a considerable service life. The UK quite literally has no jets to give away. It's not like you can just give away modern, complicated hardware anyway as it needs a complete support and logistics service. It's not as simple as sending over some tanks made in the 60s where all you need is some ammunition and an instruction manual that hasn't changed in principle since the 30s.

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