r/worldnews • u/UNITED24Media United24 Media • 11h ago

Russia/Ukraine CIA Chief Told Moscow Russia Is Getting Weaker—Putin Reportedly Canceled Their Meeting

https://united24media.com/world/cia-chief-told-moscow-russia-is-getting-weaker-putin-reportedly-canceled-their-meeting-22121
11.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

839 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

333

u/BenDover42 10h ago

No and if they would have kept their head down a while after Venezuela they looked so sharp there between intelligence and military. It’s been a mess in Iran. They struggled against the new age of drones it would appear but let the boys down at Raytheon, Lockheed or General Dynamics figure out how much money they’ll make and they’ll release some insane tech in a year or two.

332

u/Apprehensive-Pin518 9h ago

I mean if looking sharp means ignoring international law then yeah they looked real sharp.

112

u/SpecialistCut7101 9h ago

Think like one of his supporters though, ignore laws and morals, focus only on what makes us look strong.

His supporters like looking strong. They do not like looking weak and they do not like paying a ton for gas.

69

u/Parliamen7 9h ago

Enforcing the world order you created is wahat makes you stronger

105

u/Good_Restaurant15 8h ago

Problem is their whole schtick is nothing but a dumb person's idea of what a smart/strong person looks/acts like.

They don't know what it means to maintain 'world order', they only know how to grift, and chaos is their means to do it.

29

u/TheMaskedMan2 6h ago

Their average supporter seriously thinks that all that influence was
‘weakness’ and ‘being taken advantage of’.

18

u/GipsyDanger45 5h ago

And that USAID was a waste of money, they don’t understand global issues or what “soft” power is.

7

u/Alundil 5h ago

This is because it's IN the name. It's "SOFT" power and so they, simplistically, think it's lesser than other forms of power/influence.

•

u/Worthyness 1h ago

Maga only respond to big loud noises. Soft power doesnt make big loud noises and looks like empathy. An empathy is a sin for some reason.

17

u/Itsjeancreamingtime 6h ago

The crazy thing was the JCPOA was probably the single best diplomatic success in American foreign policy history in terms of harm mitigation, but nooooo we needed $5 gas

7

u/ExitLiquidity2026 4h ago

JCPOA was a softlanding for a moderate Iran to be integrated to the normal world. This should have paved way for Iranians to end hostilities towards USA, move towards a moderate oil player.

Republicans, in their classical stupidity and hate, fucked it all up.

2

u/2bad-2care 6h ago

I love how they managed to completely and throughly piss away decades of soft power buildup in a matter of months. /s Absolute morons.

3

u/ExitLiquidity2026 4h ago

The worst part is they still actively refuse to believe they are fucking idiots.

1

u/Optimal_Juggernaut37 1h ago

they only know how to grift, and chaos is their means to do it.

They are the door-to-door salesman of global domination. A nation built on the backs of confidence men, gangsters, grifters, prospectors and thieves.

•

u/Good_Restaurant15 30m ago

A nation built by slaves, then stolen by everyone you mentioned. Capitalism is the real enemy.

42

u/sandgoose 8h ago

In their minds the world order US imperialism created has resulted in the US being taken advantage of. They are... not smart people.

2

u/Daniel_The_Thinker 7h ago

I mean there are definitely cases of that, countries that benefit from that world order without buying in.

Trump is the loudest on that but he's not the only president to feel that way.

-7

u/Expensive-Sundae-831 7h ago

Of course they're not smart people. But you'll be saying this the rest of your life. Perhaps a different observation to make is to ask, why aren't humanity's "better angles" able to overcome this?

•

u/Parliamen7 1h ago

You mean better ancles

•

u/Expensive-Sundae-831 1h ago

beetle ankles.

11

u/leostotch 8h ago

OK but you're talking about what actually makes you stronger, not what makes them feel stronger.

5

u/SpecialistCut7101 8h ago

I really preferred the one we had just a few years ago, not a fan of “might makes right” since it might kill us all

4

u/ABHOR_pod 5h ago

You’re forgetting the most important aspect of conservative thought, which is that rules are meant to restrain others, not to control you. Enforcing the world order means putting other countries in their place beneath you, not following international law.

This is the one true ideology of all conservative or right wing movements and it’s one that’s never disproven.

2

u/Specialist_Cow6468 8h ago

You’ve gotta knock like 30 IQ points off where you’re at my friend. Yes, that is strength. It’s more about the appearance of strength in this context though

1

u/Flomo420 2h ago

Chief of police burning down the department to send a message to the criminals that he is super badass

9

u/iytrix 4h ago

That’s impossible to do because I can’t fathom what looks strong to them. They wore diapers over their clothes…..I’ve never interacted with people that have that low of thinking power, and I interact with thousands of the public daily. The closest I can grapple with it is their brains are just off and they wait for what to think. Like there is no “looking strong” action, just do anything and say “we so strong” and THEN that looks strong to them.

Paying more for gas and food is probably the only thought I’ve seen them have on their own, but even when told it’s not that bad a LOT of them got quiet. It’s like they’re taken the NPC modern insult and turned it into a badge of honor.

6

u/portobox2 5h ago

I cannot and will not divorce myself from reality so distinctly. Its like asking someone to really endeavor to think like an ant; serve the colony, serve the "King," consume consume consume.

8

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

3

u/SpecialistCut7101 8h ago

If the workers had access to good public education (they don’t) they wouldn’t be regarded drones.

1

u/alexefi 8h ago

they do not like paying a ton for gas.

the do now, because cult leader told them so. what a few extra bucks to own the libs?

1

u/Resident-Fly-4181 4h ago

All that winning, big beautiful winning, so much winning that it's incredible how much winning is going on.

36

u/Bleyo 8h ago

Regardless of how you feel about Trump and his decision, it's fucking insane that our military flew into contested airspace and arrested a foreign president with no casualties.

12

u/mannyman34 7h ago

If you think that wasn't pre orchestratred with members of the venezualen government I got some coins and shoes to sell you.

11

u/Thisguymoot 3h ago

If you think that doesn’t also speak to how exceptional that operation was, I got some coins and shoes to sell you.

Everything that went into planning and making that possible, years of it, of having the right intel assets in the right places, was a textbook worthy example of a successful SMO. Compare it to the rushed and haphazard attack on Iran.

-1

u/Flomo420 2h ago

If you think that doesn’t also speak to how exceptional that operation was, I got some coins and shoes to sell you.

They found some traitors within the Venezuelan government to betray their leader and open the door for them

Shit birds of a feather and all that

3

u/Bleyo 6h ago

So?

2

u/dragonmp93 6h ago

Delcy Rodriguez says hi.

3

u/magicninjaswhat 8h ago

"Regardless of how you feel about Trump and his decision, it's fucking insane that our military flew into contested airspace and arrested a foreign president."

FTFY

5

u/Fun-Twist-3705 5h ago

"arrested a foreign president. dictator"

FTFY

•

u/magicninjaswhat 1h ago

Unprovoked and without congressional approval. Then also stole their oil. We aren't the good guys here and it was done completely illegally. There's 0 justification that makes this ok

0

u/TalesNT 4h ago

I think the issue is how they were recognized internationally, even if we all knew the vote counts were a joke. Also, if the US had issues with Dictators they wouldn't have helped install like 15 dictators over the years in Latam.

5

u/Fun-Twist-3705 4h ago

I'm certainly not defending Trump or US. Obviously their goals weren't "liberating" Venezuelan people or "bringing democracy" there (and they aren't even pretending this time).

they were recognized internationally

Pol Pot, Sadam, Asad, Gaddafi and a bunch of other dictators who were evil to various degrees also were. Until they weren't. So that's kind of meaningless, historically if western countries stop recognizing your regime as legitimate it effectively ceases to be 'recognized internationally'. That's almost always a political pragmatic decision and rarely has much to do with what the dictator is doing or treating his people.

1

u/Bleyo 6h ago

No US casualties, obviously.

First day of basic training we were told that our job is to kill people and break their shit and if you weren't ok with that, you should leave.

2

u/the_blackfish 7h ago

No US casualties, I take it your meaning?

-2

u/_Thick- 5h ago

Do people in the Divided States care about anything else?

1

u/Optimal_Juggernaut37 1h ago

our military flew into contested airspace and arrested a foreign president with no casualties.

In a country half the size of Alaska, with population less than 10% of the USA and a combined active military less than 10% of the USA active military.

Is it really that insane? Nuclear capable superpower sweeps in to kidnap president of a country 1/10th its size and annihilates any resistance.... golf clap

3

u/TheArmoredKitten 8h ago

Sharp like a knife in the hands of a crackhead. You don't have to be respected to be feared.

1

u/Akiasakias 3h ago

International "law" is just voluntary agreements made between countries. Its not what people think it is.

1

u/Apprehensive-Pin518 3h ago

if it is a voluntary agreement it is not law.

1

u/Akiasakias 3h ago

International law is a system of rules, agreements, and customs that govern how sovereign nations interact with each other. But those nations remain sovereign, which simply put means they can do whatever they want. They are only as constrained as they choose to be.

1

u/Alphabunsquad 2h ago

Acting irrationally and dangerously but appearing competent will at least project power opposed to acting irrationally and fucking failing at everything you are attempting.

1

u/Optimal_Juggernaut37 1h ago

When did they ever give a fuck about international law?

1

u/Fun-Twist-3705 5h ago

That seems orthogonal? The operation in Venezuela was pretty smooth and seemed like an easy win no matter how someone frames it (of course what really happened is that they simple made a deal with the current regime to allow them to stay in charge if they gave up Maduro...).

All things being even overthrowing dictators is a good thing, it's just really important why someone is doing that and what's the plan for the aftermath.

0

u/ElCazaPuta 4h ago

The reason is to steal their oil and no it's not good to go around overthrowing who u think is a dictator

0

u/MercantileReptile 7h ago

Some extortion and neo-colonialism is so sharp and witty.

-7

u/djabae 9h ago

They looked powerful and efficient. Nobody cares about international law.

3

u/Apprehensive-Pin518 9h ago

apparently.

1

u/Fun-Twist-3705 5h ago

It's not something that Trump came up with. France, Britain and other western countries did the same to Gaddafi and intervened in Syria for many years.

I mean Trump sucks, dictators like Maduro are not better than him they just can't do even as remotely as much harm on the global scale of course so it's easy for everyone to ignore them and let them do their thing.

0

u/bjos144 4h ago

Yes. Evil but competent. Short sighted in terms of maintaining the global order that serves the US well, but in the moment tactically adept.

The Iran situation looks both short sighted AND tactically incompetent.

21

u/Freshwater_Spaceman 9h ago

Is there any incentive for ‘insane tech’? The government is so corrupt that they’re just funneling money their way regardless of outcome. This is how empires fail.

1

u/Fun-Twist-3705 5h ago

US tech is already pretty insane, was for decades. The issue is just its very expensive and not really suitable for long lasting attrition warfare in a peer or close to a peer conflict. Long term even US can't afford to waste Patriots to destroy missiles that cost a fraction.

I'm sure they can make even more 'insane tech' the question is whether they can manufacture cheap weapons on a large scale suitable for drone warfare and obviously the "cheap" part is very unlikely.

4

u/Daniel_The_Thinker 7h ago

I mean the coverage is a little one-sided.

Is Trump achieving his goals in Iran? Hell no.

But its basically open season on the leaders of the Iranian government, the US has killed their leader, their cabinet, and a bunch of high-ranking military officers.

Our missiles work, our missile defense struggles from the same problem it always has: its cheaper to fire a missile than shoot down a missile.

6

u/akopley 9h ago

The cost ratio was way off on shahed vs patriot interceptors.

3

u/WtIfOurAccsKisJKUnls 5h ago

Good thing we don't fire patriots at shaheds, we use those on actual missiles

4

u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 6h ago

after Venezuela they looked so sharp there between intelligence and military

We blew up fishermen and stole a head of state. We absolutely did not look sharp between intelligence and military.

2

u/Ntroepy 4h ago

Are you saying they looked sharp by kidnapping the head of state and now blackmailing his replacement so US oil companies can reap massive profits by stealing millions of barrels of their oil?

I wouldn’t really call that “looking sharp” as much as asshole, bully behavior that blatantly ignores international law. But we’re big so fuck international law, right?

2

u/Feathrende 6h ago

By "looked so sharp" do you mean "looked so unbelievably unreliable that most places will forever think thrice before considering dealing with the US"? If so I agree!

3

u/Brodman1986 9h ago

I think china already has that tech.

1

u/sparkax 8h ago

Even way back in the 60's, they knew it was all Wall Street running the show and making bank off of all of the dead and dying American service members over there.

One of my favorite lines from Country Joe McDonald and Fish's I Feel Like I am Fixin' to Die Rag:

"Well come on Wall Street don't move slow
"Why man, this is war-a-go-go
"There's plenty good money to be made
"By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade
"Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb
"They drop it on the Viet Cong"

1

u/blipblooop 6h ago

Raytheon lockheed and gd are in the business of making drones that cost between 2 and 400 million. The new age of 2 thousand dollar drones doesnt make them enough money. 

1

u/mchu_284 3h ago

insane tech is a drone with nuclear powered engine armed with laser? is it meant so?

1

u/John-AtWork 3h ago

A massive advantage of drones is that they are cheap and can overwhelm traditional defensive measures. We will probably see AI drones bringing down drones soon, but the gap is real for now.

1

u/Alphabunsquad 2h ago

I mean there isn’t really any tech that could control the Iranian situation. Their geography vs the geography of the other gulf states leaves everyone pretty fucked. Probably the only thing that could defeat Iran would be an insane amount of political infiltration or an insane committal of troops on the ground while accepting that pretty much all middle eastern oil production will be destroyed while Iran is being rooted out.

That said, the US does need a cheaper way to defend against cheap drones and that has been exposed.

0

u/VanCurious779 7h ago

Oh fuck off with this bullshit. No they won’t, they’ll keep lobbying to make the same outdated shit that already make and look after their true motive, to increase profit for stock holders.

Fuck outta here with this industrial complex glazing.

0

u/thecashblaster 7h ago

hey struggled against the new age of drones it would appear but let the boys down at Raytheon, Lockheed or General Dynamics figure out how much money they’ll make and they’ll release some insane tech in a year or two.

They were already working on anti-drone tech. It's just getting sped up now.

0

u/Hautamaki 6h ago

The boys at Raytheon et al vetoed US cooperation with Ukrainian drone makers because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to compete on price, so I'm not too hot on them right now either

1

u/BenDover42 6h ago

I’m talking about anti drone technology. Not drones.

2

u/Hautamaki 6h ago

Well my understanding is that drones are some of the best anti drone technology but either way, they should be learning from Ukraine but they don't want to have to compete on price so they are vetoing all US cooperation.

0

u/YourWifesBoyfrien69 5h ago

Venezuela population 30 mil, Iran 90 mil. I guess that's the difference. Size does Matter.