Should Trump just give them what they want and launch a first strike on Russia?

Why do you want to talk like that? Drink! Dance! Tell stories! The Russians are not the 'enemies' of the US, as much as the left wants them to be.

@puck61: I know that better than anyone else does. I lived in Russia for 14 months. My best friend is from Vladivostok. I'm a Roma Gypsy, my people are spread from Russia all the way to France. I don't consider them my enemy or my country's enemy. It isn't just "the left" that wants to make them bad guys. It's most of the west in general. And I don't like it. I don't like that the Russians want to make the Americans or the British look like their enemies either.

We have too many special snowflakes who can't function without their coloring books and being coddled like children. Give it a few more years and any country would pretty much flatten us.

But I agree about Russia (not in a bad way.) Russia had (I think but not certain still has) an all female sniper force whose leaders said they prefer females to be snipers.

@satanburger:I don't think Russia would kick the shit out of us-- but it woudl be an unpleasant thing for all of us --I don't look forward to a new cold war or a hot war. And I guess no one does but neocons and Democrats

@beckychandler: "Neocons and democrats" are not the words you're looking for. The war machine stands to gain from conflict between nations. Republicans, democrats, libertarians, whatever. They're all equally profitable. Look at a soldier. What do you see? A lot of people see brave and commendable young men and women putting themselves at risk in exchange to defend the freedoms of their country. You know what the war machine sees? They see military uniforms, boots, goggles, helmets, fireproof gloves, and their favorite of all, guns. These things cost money to manufacture and distribute. Outfitting the average U.S. soldier costs around $18,000 each. It cos four and a half billion dollars just to pay for the air conditioning for soldiers that fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. The equipment, the guns, the flak jackets and jeep and helicopters and tanks, all that shit comes through military contracts. The government pays for it to begin with but the money comes back to them since the people who produce for the contract are usually in, or closely related to, the government itself. In the end, the money that has to replace it comes from taxpayers and subtracted from other parts of a nation's budget. War is an economy.

@BlueMetalChick: The US Army's digital camouflage pattern that most people incorrectly call ACU is a great example of the war industry. It is probably the most useless camouflage pattern in US history and yet somebody made a fortune on it and will make another fortune switching everything over to multicam.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow: That's an exceptional example, and I'm willing to bet it was an intentional farce.

@BlueMetalChick: Not sure but it was revealed that of the various versions of it that were tested they actually chose the one with the worst performance results. But if you think about everything the army issues to soldiers in that pattern it gives you an idea of the money involved. What bothers me about it too is that pattern also happens to be a complete fuck up of an attempt to customize what was basically a Canadian invention. To their credit the USMC actually managed to get it right.