this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 2 points 34 minutes ago

I got the second Punic war, but I think that's just a freebie. I also spent a lot learning about the Falkland's war just to annoy Argentinians online.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (3 children)

I'm glad I missed this.

btw, did you know that the Australian government killed almost 1000 Emus in the Great Emu War and still lost?

The military used over 10,000 rounds of ammunition. that would mean they used around 10 rounds per Emu.

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 1 points 25 minutes ago* (last edited 25 minutes ago)

They also used actual military tactics to fight the Emus, like mapping their routes and setting up ambushes. In one of these, they managed to get close to a flock of about a thousand emus and attacked them with machine guns only allowing the escape of... lemme check... about a thousand emus.

[–] domdanial@reddthat.com 2 points 2 hours ago

I typically have a 60% accuracy in Helldivers 2 and I'm fighting swarms of giant bugs. I think I'll forgive the Australians for 10 rounds per bird, especially since winging an emu probably doesn't stop it.

[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 hours ago

Compared to the amount of bullets expended per casualty in any modern war that is actually very good. The US probably fired thousands of bullets for each insurgent killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 18 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

i got the soviet-afghan war and wow did that recontextualize a lot of things about the modern world

[–] loonsun@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] lime@feddit.nu 15 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

bear in mind i was 10 during 9/11 so a lot of it was just upending things i had taken for granted. but like, how the US was pretty much allied with the taliban throughout the 80s, giving them training and weapons to fight against the soviet-friendly progressive, secular government of afghanistan.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The Soviet-friendly Afghan government wasn't a) progressive and b) wasn't secular. The government is explicitly Marxist-Leninist who oppressed and forced people to drop their religion as part of state atheism.

The progressivism and secularism you refer to was during the kingdom era before being overthrown by the communist Afghan military. The more liberal attitude is only contained in a bubble in the capital city of Kabul. The rest of 80% of Afghans are still religious conservatives living rural and in poverty. An Afghan female former politician lamented not seeing this because she grew up in liberal Kabul.

Also more importantly, it's a misconception that the US helped the Taliban. The mujahideen was composed of various factions, some are secular, some are conservative, while some are more Islamists. But, the ultraconservative elements only came later in more definite form under the Taliban, which defeated both the secular and conservative forces.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

forced people to drop their religion as part of state atheism.

Sounds like

progressivism and secularism

To me

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Forcing someone to change their beliefs is considered progressivism and secularism? I did not get the memo that progressives are authoritarians. What were the Afghans resisting the Soviets for then?

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Charlie Wilson's War is a pretty great movie about that, starring Tom Hanks, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Aaron Sorkin, although it's more of a political satire and plays it fast and loose with the historical details.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 4 points 8 hours ago

My case was Paraguay War a few weeks ago and I learned so damn much that school completely glossed over. What surprised me the most was just how much of a madman Solano Lopez, the Paraguayan dictator, was. You dare bring bad news to him? You bet your ass you'll be flogged. You failed to follow one of his suicidal orders? Off to forced labor camp. You didn't put him above God and Christ? Say your prayers, you'll be ~~shot~~ bayoneted in order to save bullets.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 41 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

The best class I took in college was an intercession course about the Vietnam War. We had to read an entire book pretty much every day, which was great prep for grad school.

I basically learned that the entire war was completely unjustified, it was horrific and brutal on both sides in ways that aren’t talked about, but that ultimately the United States had absolutely no business interfering. Vietnam had spent years under French colonial control, which they overthrew under their own power. They had already asserted a desire to rule themselves.

Tonkin was also a genuine false flag, which just isn’t acknowledged? We manufactured the cause for an extremely unpopular war. So many young man died or were disabled because of something that was pointless.

That class was first that really got me to question the patriotic narrative I was taught about American history in high school.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Vietnam got a rough fucking deal in the 1900s. Shortly after the US left, the Cambodians under Pol Pot invaded, and they were brutal

[–] ours@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago

And Vietnam ended up kicking Pol Pot off which is impossible to argue as anything but a win for humanity.

[–] bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

Twice, the buggers

[–] Not_mikey@slrpnk.net 13 points 12 hours ago

Of course we can't acknowledge it, because then we can't make the same "mistake" again and people will start questioning real causus belli like saddams WMDs which we'll find any day now.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

Hey, the Falklands is the one I'm obsessed with and it's actually really interesting. Only "modern" war between near peers before ukraine.

[–] kalpol@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

I'm sure you've come across it but David Hart Dyke's book on the loss of HMS Coventry is one of the more vivid depictions of grief I've read.

[–] bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Iran Iraq war also known as first gulf war?

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Wut

The Iraqi army got absolutely obliterated

[–] bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War

That’s not the US led UN backed war following Iraq‘s invasion of Kuwait. Iran and Iraq had a long and brutal war with tanks, planes, helicopters, mines, trenches, and more in the 1980s.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 0 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

Near peers? Pretty sure there's a whole ocean separating Argentina and Britain, even if the islands where the conflict occurred were "just next door" to mainland Argentina.

[–] Adm_Drummer@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago

That's not what the near in near peer means...

It's a measure of military capability between nations. A Near Peer would be a nation that shares similar capabilities for force projection or in otherwords the powerscale is 1:1.

I think they meant "near" as in "evenly matched".

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] ours@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

But it's the Disney sequel trilogy.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago
[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 30 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Klear@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

Pretty sure they made a video game series about that.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 6 points 14 hours ago

the century of war between Berwick-upon-tweed and Russia

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