• AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Imperialism and general fuckery, no…but to my knowledge this is the first time the US has opened a conflict by just straight up taking the head of the foreign government.

      Unless, of course, you’ve got something that says different.

        • AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Noriega didn’t surrender until 2 weeks of conflict had passed.

          Again, has the US ever opened a conflict by kidnapping a head of state?

          • setsubyou@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            There’s also the US-backed coup in Hawaii where they put the queen under house arrest first thing.

              • baines@piefed.social
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                4 days ago

                the only technicality was it wasn’t the ‘US government’ doing this, they just okayed it after

                completely unrelated rogue gunboat guys, we promise

              • flandish@lemmy.world
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                4 days ago

                i am. it’s manufactured consent at the minimum and a fucking act of war at the maximum. see what the us did in the gulf of tonkin for instance. the us does not care as it is a terrorist state.

                i bet the new guy is … oddly friendly with oil corporations

                • AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  You’re conflating guilt or culpability with level of military involvement.

                  Did they result in equivalent loss of life? Damage to property? Commitment of forces on both sides?

                  One is a literal invasion. The other is missiles hitting fishing boats. Both are disgusting. Both are wrong.

                  But you cannot say that they are an equivalent level of military involvement.

                  • flandish@lemmy.world
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                    4 days ago

                    military involvement is a binary. if a nation state uses violence it’s used violence.

                    this is indeed an invasion. so was the missiles hunting boats. was 9/11 just planes and towers?

                    military action is a binary and this is why it’s so damn serious. but to say it’s different because the mechanism of injury to the target is not equal is to distract from the point: acts of war are always acts of war.

                • AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  How?

                  One is strike operations on individual vessels operating in international waters and, while illegal and reprehensible, doesn’t even come close to being equivalent to an amphibious landing invasion of a nation utilizing all branches of the US military.

                  Are you even remotely serious?

                  • wicked@programming.dev
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                    3 days ago

                    Your original argument was that this conflict was opened by kidnapping the head of a state.

                    Faced with a counterpoint, you’re arguing it’s not like a much more serious invasion.

                    True, but that’s not invalidating the fact that it was not opened by a kidnapping.

          • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            I suppose that depends on whether or not you consider the wars against the indigenous people here in North America actual wars.