this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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Analysis: China has been accused of being provocative by sending warships into the Tasman Sea, but on the other hand, New Zealand plays its part in US moves that provoke Beijing.

I admit there has been good coverage of these issues in our media lately, but I'm still concerned that the media and government will stab us in the back, increase military funding, and bring up the idea of a draft. After seeing Ukrainian men beaten and thrown into vans to be taken to their deaths, I'm not enthusiastic about NZ becoming the Ukraine of the Pacific.

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[–] fallaciousreasoning@lemmy.nz 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hey mate you make some good points, but you're coming across pretty strong here - do you reckon you could tone it down a little: https://lemmy.nz/post/63098

[–] BalpeenHammer@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sorry but I am upset. I am upset that we are going to be forced to cut more public services in order to buy expensive weapons from the US to counter an imaginary threat.

We should all be upset at this.

[–] fallaciousreasoning@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah agreed, its definitely not fantastic :/

[–] BalpeenHammer@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Your kids get marmite on toast, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumann, Lockheed Martin get fifty billion dollars.

Did you know that it takes more than 6 million dollars to train an f-16 pilot?

Did you know that an f-16 uses more than 70,000 litres of fuel per hour?

I am using the f-16 because that's one of the cheaper ones because it's an older single engine plane.

Other planes cost much more.

And what's that f-16 going to do for us? Jack shit. Recently Egypt bought a bunch of Chinese jets because the F-16s US was selling them couldn't hold the longer range missiles while the Israeli F-16s could. In a conflict with Israel all their planes would have been wiped before they could even detect the Israeli planes.

[–] passwordforgetter@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Your kids get marmite on toast, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumann, Lockheed Martin get fifty billion dollars.

This! But I go much further.

The New Zealand government isn't acting in good faith, they spread false information about the war in Ukraine, they will spread false information about China too if we let them. They will create a narrative that China is bad and China is bombing the children's hospitals in Taiwan, or that China is using chemical weapons 1,000,000 times against Taiwanese soldiers. The government and media will tell lies to get New Zealanders emotionally worked up, in favour of a war against China.

I won't rule out everything that ilovethebomb says. The Chinese government could get angry with another country and invade them - just think about what could happen in 30 years or 50 years from now. There will be more wars and somehow people in the future will be surprised. Some people are apparently surprised that Russia and Ukraine are at war. I was watching RT today and they said that the Americans have built up their air base at Tinian. The same island where the bomber "Enola Gay" flew after nuking Japan.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Enola-Gay

https://www.rt.com/news/589851-china-us-base-expansion/

The Chinese Defense Ministry has called on Asia-Pacific nations to be on the lookout for US military deployments in the region, citing the Pentagon’s plan to rebuild a World War II-era airfield on a small island north of Guam.

[–] BalpeenHammer@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 weeks ago

The USA spends more on the military than the rest of the world combined. Twice as much!

They have bases everywhere including nine in Japan and over 14 in Korea.

US is well prepared for war with China. Look at all these military bases surrounding China https://solidarity.net.au/highlights/us-bases-positioned-war-china/