As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags into its fourth month, the U.S. government under Pres. Joe Biden has found a clever new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons and ammunition they need to defend their country.

It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.

Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.

All this hardware is U.S. military surplus—and is available to Greece, free of charge, under a U.S. legal authority called “excess defense articles.” Federal law allows an American president to declare military systems surplus to need, assign them a value—potentially zero dollars—and give them away on the condition that the recipient transport them.

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Are we still pretending bOtH sIdEs or are we just skipping straight to “democrats are evil don’t vote for them” now?

    • Nudding@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      As a Canadian, yeah both of your right wing parties are essentially the same. Brown kids will be bombed and oil will be pumped.

        • Sami_Uso@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Dems will lead themselves there, just like they did in 2016. Stop blaming voters for your party’s incompetence.

          • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I’m blaming morons spreading discontent and shitty ass ideas and that’s fully fair. Thanks for changing the subject though

            • Sami_Uso@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Why are you so worried about “spreading discontent” in a small community message board? Don’t get me wrong, you should be about this election, but don’t you think it’s a little late now?

                • Sami_Uso@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  They’ve had 4 years. What is the Dems message at this point besides “not trump”? What do they stand for in this election? I get their emails the same as you everyday, they say nothing except “beat Trump”. We’re way past “addressing discontent” at this point.

                  People are frustrated, people are upset and the only thing the Dems have in 4 years is “at least we’re not that guy”. Is that really going to work again? I think the discontent is absolutely warranted at this point, my dude.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          I was wondering when someone would finally call me out on that lol

          But I’m quite serious about hating America. No one should be president and we should do everything possible to make that a reality.

          • Nudding@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Seems like it’s usually just you and I down here lol. Let me guess, disillusioned American?

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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              11 months ago

              Yeah, I voted for Biden to “stop fascism” and now he’s doing a genocide and on the brink of war with Iran.

              • Sybil@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I voted for Biden to “stop fascism”

                i’m afraid it had the opposite effect.

              • Nudding@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Yeah it’s rough, but if you’re radicalized young enough you can hopefully foster positive change over your lifetime.

                Its too late for the star trek future but we can still be part of positive support structures, enjoy the time we have, etc…