So now we can add “directly capturing a sovereign leader” to the list of crap the US has done. So what do you think will actually be “the straw that broke the camels back” for world leaders to actually do something? Think it’ll be significant or something mundane?

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    5 days ago

    Literally NOTHING.

    The us has the largest military by far even when combining the contenders militaries. Add to that most world “leaders” are feckless cowards just looking for their next payout. There will be no stopping the US. :(

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      The US may think they are invulnerable, but they are far from it, the world can crash the US economy in a couple of hours.
      Problem is it would hurt the rest of the world too, although not as bad as it would be for USA.
      But there needs to be very strong arguments for doing it. Still there has already been hints of the “nuclear” option by EU against USA if USA continues to behave as poorly as they have this past year. The nuclear option being a 10 point EU plan to retaliate economically against USA. Needless to say that before Trumps 2nd term, such a plan didn’t even exist! But with Trumps 2nd term EU has moved surprisingly quickly, as have many European countries individually.
      Also China has its own nuclear option in just selling off US treasury bonds. That would make it very hard for USA to finance the federal deficits, and could collapse the American federal government.
      But apart from that China could sanction USA on for instance rare earth minerals, that would make it impossible for USA to compete in several high tech products. The threat of this made Trump pull back on trade hostilities against China very quickly.

      The US economy depends on the rest of the world to be the size it is. And without the economy to finance the military, USA will not be able to maintain a military the size they currently have.

      • 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        China could sanction USA on for instance rare earth minerals

        China doesn’t even care about its own people, them sanctioning USA for something that doesn’t affect them at all is a far cry.

        The most they’ll do is make a statement about international laws and such and then go right back to business.

    • Aeao@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Our branches of military are individually bigger than other entire militaries.

      We hold the slots one and two for air force. Our air force being 1 and our navy being the second largest air force in the world.

      I’m not saying that’s a good thing but it’s like when the huge guy in the bar cat calls your girl. And the big guy is dumb and crazy like trump.

    • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      The world’s largest military which still managed to lose both Vietnam and Afghanistan within living memory.

      It’s not THAT hopeless.

      • Dupelet@piefed.social
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        5 days ago

        It’s one thing for the US to lose an offensive war, it’s another thing entirely for anybody else to think of dicking with them on their home turf

        • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          The answer, then, is a homegrown guerilla force, but the ones most likely to do that are already in power

          • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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            5 days ago

            I don’t think this will work either. If Trump pulls the insurrection card, he’ll just use drone strikes to obliterate any homegrown force. Sure, US citizens are armed up. But the arms that citizens have are meaningless when it comes to things like high altitude drones.

            I think this is what people outside of the US forget when they call for 2A people to rise up. The US government has made the second amendment relatively meaningless in regards to it’s original purpose. Kind of hard to fight back when you get vaporized by a dot in the sky.

            I personally think hurting the upper class in the wallet is the only way anything in the US will change. Could be done through a general strike by US citizens (although at the time being I think this is unlikely to happen, given how little money people in the working class have. they have to be able to eat and be sheltered to weather the strike, after all), or by other countries sanctioning and messing with bonds.

            Edit: if you originally meant homegrown as in US citizens. if not, carry on.

            • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              if you originally meant homegrown as in US citizens

              That was indeed what I meant, though I was being a bit facetious about the whole thing

            • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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              5 days ago

              You really think the US military would start killing their own on the command from the president?

              From what my buddy in the US Army tells me there’s a lot of political maneouvering going on that basically circumvents a lot of shit that Elon’s stupid ass tried to force on them.

      • chocrates@piefed.world
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        5 days ago

        The us has a great track record of losing guerilla wars.
        Honestly we would probably fall to pieces if anyone invaded the lower 48. The population is not ready for wartime on our soil

        • ramble81@lemmy.zipOP
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          5 days ago

          One thing I’ve always said is the US is so arrogant because it’s extremely isolated geographically and has never had a direct large scale war on its infrastructure or land in the past 150 years.

    • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 days ago

      Exactly - It will take a long time for the American military to lose superiority. Look how much materiel the Russian army still has, even though their economy is terrible they are still a nuclear power.

    • Typhoon@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      There will be no stopping the US

      Not from the outside. That’s why the American people need to do it.

    • Cricket@lemmy.zip@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      The us has the largest military by far even when combining the contenders militaries.

      While I agree with your conclusion, I don’t agree that military size has much to do with it. If you’re speaking of personnel numbers, what you claim is far from accurate. You may be thinking of military expenditures, where you may possibly have a point. However, consider that the US military wastes tons of money on very expensive gear (much of the navy and air force, for instance) that wouldn’t help much in modern warfare (drones, etc.).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel

      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/air-force-overpaid-8000-percent-soap-dispensers-military-aircraft/

    • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Do we suspect the US military will remain under consistent, united control under a cunt loser dictator like trump? We saw how they marched at his “military parade” (which was so hilariously lame that he very literally wanted a do-over)

    • affenlehrer@feddit.org
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      5 days ago

      I was wondering if e.g. Putin could do that with Zelenskyy and I believe the answer is no. I believe the people would still resist and fight. However, I’m not very sure with my answer.

      A resistance of the general population would be hard to break, even with massive military effort. There’s a big difference between people fighting for money and people fighting with intrinsic motivation.