The billionaires have thus far been too cheap to amass private armies to directly enforce their own will. Why, when you can lobby Congress for the price of a used Hyundai Sonata to get the Army to do what you want?
The government holds the power of violence and Trump holds the power of the government. The billionaires will be reminded of that if they get out of line. Coincidentally, this is the arrangement of modern Russia.
Modern warfighting is outrageously expensive. Guided munitions can cost hundreds of thousands each. Armored vehicles cost millions. Combat aircraft, tens of millions. And it continues to cost tons of money just to keep them in a bunker ready to go.
They will balk at the cost of owning/operating even a single Arleigh-Burke destroyer.
There is a reason they’re all too happy to keep letting you and me indirectly fund their military aspirations through taxes.
this is part of why it’s important for everyone to pay attention to the asymmetric warfare being conducted in Ukraine. for one, it’s a genocide, don’t look away and speak for their liberation just like i hope everyone is speaking up for all colonized peoples, like Mayans, Darfurians, Congolese, Palestinians, and Uyghers. for another the skills demostrated may become necessary in the near future
You can have all the expensive equipment you want. They don’t have the numbers. When your enemies are all around you and this military historically fucking sucks at combating insurgency, you’re going to lose.
The military would be smart to tell this dude to pound sand before they, and a bunch of people die in a new civil war that they can’t win against the most armed civilian population on the planet.
The billionaires have thus far been too cheap to amass private armies to directly enforce their own will. Why, when you can lobby Congress for the price of a used Hyundai Sonata to get the Army to do what you want?
The government holds the power of violence and Trump holds the power of the government. The billionaires will be reminded of that if they get out of line. Coincidentally, this is the arrangement of modern Russia.
they have been too cheap thus far.
I’m pretty sure that Bezos had enough money to bribe moderate chunks of the army.
Personnel is one thing.
Modern warfighting is outrageously expensive. Guided munitions can cost hundreds of thousands each. Armored vehicles cost millions. Combat aircraft, tens of millions. And it continues to cost tons of money just to keep them in a bunker ready to go.
They will balk at the cost of owning/operating even a single Arleigh-Burke destroyer.
There is a reason they’re all too happy to keep letting you and me indirectly fund their military aspirations through taxes.
its mostly asymmetrical/cyberwarefare now anyways. russia and china are both are good at this, but not militarily.
this is part of why it’s important for everyone to pay attention to the asymmetric warfare being conducted in Ukraine. for one, it’s a genocide, don’t look away and speak for their liberation just like i hope everyone is speaking up for all colonized peoples, like Mayans, Darfurians, Congolese, Palestinians, and Uyghers. for another the skills demostrated may become necessary in the near future
You can have all the expensive equipment you want. They don’t have the numbers. When your enemies are all around you and this military historically fucking sucks at combating insurgency, you’re going to lose.
The military would be smart to tell this dude to pound sand before they, and a bunch of people die in a new civil war that they can’t win against the most armed civilian population on the planet.
They don’t need one. They need a sniper.