A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.

From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.

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[+] 88 points 8 months ago (57 children)
  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (10 children)

    Guess who Canada buys arms from?

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

    That's the one facet of detachment we already have well underway. The big debate right now is German-Norwegian vs. Korean subs. German self-propelled howitzers are also a shoe-in.

    (Meanwhile, the big goal with trade is to get America down to just half of our business in a decade, and people seem to think that's ambitious)

    Edit: Oh, and the F-35 purchase is being gone through yet again, and Saab is trying to sell us their plane instead yet again.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    French make really good howitzer trucks. I was considering one since they are designed to suit 4 operators and they're roughly the same price as a house in Missisauga or Guelph. I figure you have to be able to finance one if you can live in it.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    There are a lot of reasons to despise Trump, don't get me wrong

    ... but I think his total disruption of our typical web of influence is a GOOD THING, in the long run.

    The USA imperial beast (which is really just the UK imperial beast with a change in headquarters) has played the "good guys" for far too long, it's nice to have the cards out on the table for all to see. Not the good guys. Haven't been the good guys for a very long time. Those days are gone.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 child)

    Nobody really looks at the past decades that way here, and even in the third world there's plenty of America fans.

    You tried to hedge that, but you're basically just agreeing with QAnon, on grounds of a different conspiracy theory.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    If you mean small arms then surprisingly enough its mostly Canada made or European.

    Most of Canada's armoured vehicles are either Canadian made or German. For example, their main battle tanks are German (Leopard 2).

    A lot of Canadian artillery is made up of French and British pieces.

    It's really just the Air Force that's dominated by US equipment.

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  • [+] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (2 children)

    You're certain?

    Have you head of a "kill switch"? Check it out

    Anyway, it's ALL about 'who you buy them from'. That's the point, friend

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  • [+] -24 points 8 months ago (45 children)

    Canada needs to arm ourselves.

    Against a military with a $T budget?

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  • [–] 60 points 8 months ago (17 children)

    Oh well, when you put it like that maybe we should just roll over and bite the pillow then

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  • [–] 33 points 8 months ago (11 children)

    That seems to be the answer for everything on this site. I left reddit because I didn't like all of the doom scrolling, nihilistic, bullshit posts, yet they're here too now.

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  • [–] 24 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I'm convinced it's part of state sponsored propaganda and influence campaigns. The tactic is to always belittle any idea, frame everything as pointless, and divide opposition.

    So many comments like, "if you can't even get people to go vote, how do you think they'll resist?"

    I'm tired of it. I think the only way to combat it is to set up heavily moderated areas where cynicism is flagged and removed. But man, even that's a slippery slope, to easy for mods to take over to enforce discussion only around what they want.

    But however it's going to be done, I want people ready to act. And stop with this cynical, defeatist BS.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

    Cynicism seems smart even when it's not. That seems to be the way it works, and I think I read it's been shown scientifically.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I'm deeply cynical in the ancient meaning of the term (and not in the ancient literal meaning of living like a dog): based on long experience, I am convinced that people are largely motivated by their (self-perceived) self-interest. I've met a few people with other motivations, but they're prominent in my memory because of their rarity.

    But that doesn't mean I'm checked out: I just know that there's a continuing struggle to counter that pro-nihilist brainwashing.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    For big decisions, it always boils down to MICE. Money, identity, coercion and ego. One can think of exceptions, but you basically have to look at medical pathologies.

    For little decisions, what about empathy? People will genuinely show it when confronted by something on the spot.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Beat me to it. I would love to have some place where I could go without having to read anything about US related.

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 child)

    I dont mind the presence of these articles. I like to be in the know. I like the opportunity to engage in a constructive nuanced discussion that you can no longer find on Reddit, and can be found in abundance on Lemmy.

    What effects me most is that, whether honest (human), not (bots) or covert (intelligence agencies), the defeatism, acceptance and obeyance in advance is the fundamental barrier to meaningful change. It catches, it spreads and it demoralises. It is the boot on our collective necks.

    We need to be more mindful of spreading our nihilism to each other, unless we're happy being part of the problem. More solutions, more raising each other up, less wallowing.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    It's not even just US related subjects though. There was just a post the other day about physical media(photos, dvds, etc.) and I posted a comment detailing pricing out a local NAS so you can backup your shit to it(because physical media can get destroyed) and replies I got were the whole "digital stuff can get destroyed too", "ransomware", "it's about the experiences! you can't have that with digital!", "prices are CRAZY for computer stuff!"(even though I linked products at reasonable prices and people said it isn't that price anymore, CLICK THE LINK DUMBASS!).

    And it's all an asinine argument because you can DO BOTH. Have your physical photos AND back them up digitally.

    It's all or nothing with some people and it's infuriating. It feels like I'm arguing with children over ice cream flavors. Yeah, chocolate is good, but I prefer strawberry and then it devolves into "CHOCOLATE ONLY FOR EVERYONE!".

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Stupid either/or thinking seems to be getting increasingly prevalent. I think it's being promoted to train us to not think in a nuanced, resilient way. It's like their goal is learned pseudo-autism.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Make the USA bleed for every centimeter of land. Get even the MAGAts to be tired of the significant losses they reconsider. This didn't stop with Venezuela and won't stop with Iran. If the USA starts coming to the negotiating table you strike first. Because we just showed we cannot be trusted at all.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    This didn’t stop with Venezuela and won’t stop with Iran.

    Very little has actually changed in Venezuela, besides some manipulation of the oil market.

    Here's the thing. Regardless of where Trump is attacking, the US can inflict state terror by aerial bombardment, which is costly in money terms but doesn't lead to many US casualties. But if the goal is actual regime change, rather than just destruction of infrastructure and a high civilian body count, that requires occupation. Boots on the ground lead to high casualties and Americans coming home in body bags. So far, Trump hasn't gone there, because (despite his incompetence, narcissism and greed) he is also very concerned about his popularity.

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  • [+] -8 points 8 months ago* (2 children)

    As opposed to what?, taking on the largest military force in world history with a few guns, a dozen fighter jets?

    Not you of course, other people.

    It would be a slaughter and the US would be done day one by lunch. This is reality, not Hollywood.

    Fucking Toronto collapsed into depression and inactivity two weeks into COVID lockdowns.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago* (4 children)

    Worked for Afghanistan. No one thinks that we have a chance in a conventional warfare scenario, and we absolutely don't, which is why we will not make it a conventional warfare scenario. It will be an insurgency where everyone looks just like them. And that insurgency will 100% spread south.

    Pretty sure our military budget is higher than Al-Qaeda's.

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  • [+] -7 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Worked for Afghanistan.

    Ignorant comment. 176,000 Afghanis died and they are still at war. This thread is a bunch of clueless keyboard warriors.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    That's not how budgets work. The US has a massive air carrier fleet where do you think they got that from did it just spring into existence no they paid for it.

    the world is using moving away from using the US dollar as the world's default currency. They're not going to have unlimited amounts of money for much longer.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Thats also the reason why they could get bankrupt. USA is doing Hitlers war economy at this point. Get loan for war, rob other countries (in this case oil) and try to pay off the debt.

    We will see if this will work out in the end... I do not know much about state financials, but this seems insane to me: https://www.usdebtclock.org/

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  • [–] -3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    They’re not going to have unlimited amounts of money for much longer.

    unless they invade other countries and take it. See Venezuela.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    They haven't taken anything. The US oil companies have zero interest in Venezuela primarily because setting up operations would be prohibitively expensive.

    Cost benefit analysis is a thing and the Trump administration are far too stupid to be able to cope with it. Essentially it may not actually be worth exploiting another country, this being a concept that Trump cannot understand because he has the brain of a chronically depressed fruit fly.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Finland won the winter war outnumbered 100 to 1

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Their deadliest sniper was subject to more air and artillery strikes than some military units and he kept fighting.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah they are built different. And so are we. Imagine these southerners invade us in the winter lol

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    What's Canadian for sisu?

    Imagine these southerners invade us in the winter lol

    They asked someone in the Greenland government how they'd counter a winter invasion: "We won't go out and rescue them."

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    How much of that $1T is actually translating into anything useful on the battlefield, versus lining Trump cronies' pockets? And how many of the expensive systems that are actually purchased are vulnerable to attacks by cheap drones or other asymmetric tactics?

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I suppose Franch and Poland shoulda done the same.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Likely hundreds of thousands of lives were saved by surrender. Read some history. Most of those armies would have countered the Nazis with swords and horses.

    Pretty sick of keyboard warriors advocating we spend like the US for war toys, to end up exactly like the US, a nation of people in crippling debt, no health care, with a huge number of war machines.

    Also, Franch is not a country, it is an experimental French-Ranch dressing from Madrigal Electromotive.

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  • [–] 382 points 8 months ago (14 children)

    People like this are literally going to cause the end of the human race with their “beliefs”. We have a bunch of religious fanatics killing at the behest of a demented pedophile and his genocidal buddy.

    Religion is a cancer.

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  • [–] 79 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 39 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    That's a very interesting article but does 2019 qualify as "the other day"?

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  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    At what point does it become socially acceptable to say to these people, “Fuck your god”?

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  • [–] 19 points 8 months ago

    I'm not sure when that point was but it's solidly in the past.

    Someone needs to interrupt these fucking monsters and tell them nobody cares about their imaginary friends

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Religion can certainly be problematic but I think its worth bringing up how monotheism specifically acts as a mind virus at its worst. It's inherently exclusivist and closed minded, priming people to see those that don't believe in their god as not human and can even act as justification to bring pain, suffering and death upon nonbelievers. It's also inherently centralized and authoritarian which is why it to works synergistically with oppressive forms of governence.

    Polytheism is riddled with mystical thinking but, generally, beleiving in more than one god makes it more difficult to use it as a justification to hurt people that don't believe in your god. By having a wide variety of divinities it is naturally decentralized.

    Christianity wiped out Roman polytheism with relative ease and ushered in a millenia long dark age. Politicians/Rulers of long past and even today recognize the coercive and unifying power of monotheism and are often keen to wield it to stamp out dissent and concentrate power.

    Monotheism is also effective at priming people to accept autocracy. If you believe in one supreme all knowing deterministic god then it's not that hard to believe in a human ruler wield absolute power as god's chosen one.

    Democracy and monotheism in many way incompatible phiosophies. It's why the Greeks, South Asian and indigineous confederacies were able to arrive at democractic systems at various periods in history (they were not monotheist) and also why the West had to institute seperation of church and state to become democratic.

    I say this not to disparage spirituality as a whole. I personally have been made better by it and believe that it's core to the human experience but acknowledge that some do not feel a need for it. What we need to be wary of is monotheism. It has brought great civilizations to ruin and promotes conformity of thought which stifles human ingenuity.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    They are not religious people. Unless you take paedophillia as a form of religion. I mean, they seem to have been in some crazy paedocult.

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  • [–] 141 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    Jesus fuck can these arseholes just get raptured already ..

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  • [–] 23 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    The rapture already happened, that’s why people are calling themselves Christians but never actually following Christ’s teachings. The actual believers are long gone.

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  • [–] 23 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    The actual believers are long gone.

    All three of them!

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    It was a very small event on November 3, 1973. Interestingly one of the three raptured made big news, but it was covered up. He was a pilot.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I don't know if you hinted on this, but the story is wild:

    A passenger on National Airlines Flight 27 was blown out of the window of an airplane at an altitude of 39,000 feet (12,000 m) over the U.S. state of New Mexico, after the number 3 engine on the Douglas DC-10-10, exploded and fragments penetrated the fuselage. The jet had been en route from Houston to Las Vegas when the accident happened at 4:40 in the afternoon, and made a safe emergency landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to the subsequent NTSB investigation, the cockpit voice recorder showed that the engine explosion happened immediately after the first officer asked the captain "Wonder— wonder if you pull the N1 tach will that— autothrottle respond to N1?" and the captain replied, "Gee, I don't know." The first officer then said "You want to try it and see?" Thirty-four seconds later, the explosion happened. An extensive search was unable to locate the passenger, machinist George F. Gardner of Beaumont, Texas, who had been sitting by the window in seat 17F.

    Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_1973#3

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago

    I read the Wikipedia article and it looks like the NTSB concluded that conversation and the subsequent "test" they did were inconclusive as the root cause of the engine failure. That specific engine had numerous problems reported prior to the flight and had been taken off and replaced before having even more reported after. It seems to be just coincidental. What's just as wild to me is that the passenger that was ejected from the plane was even wearing his seatbelt. Explosive decompression still said nuh uh and ripped him out the window.

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  • [–] 67 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Really wish these death cults would get on with it and leave the rest of us the fuck out of it.

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  • [–] 65 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    What could be worse than incompetent, racist lunatics? Incompetent, racist lunatics that are also religious fanatics.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    You forgot to mention the whole dictator plans, that's the pressing concern here.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago

    The fascism almost means less when you acknowledge that they are literally trying to destroy the world, well, other than that's how they plan to do it. But that's what they're trying to do, destroy the world with fire like "god" said "he" would do. They are trying to force "god's" hand by lining up all the prerequisites from their fucking fairytale. Religion is the worst cancer on the planet.

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