• masterspace@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know why people are clowning this, pay 10M for one military grade truck or pay 10m for 200 civilian grade trucks that can have inherent camouflage…

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, disguising military equipment as civilian vehicles just means any enemy is going to target civilian vehicles, but yeah can’t argue with cost efficiency.

        • Steamed_Punk@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Probably wouldnt be too hard, with North Korea being as poor and hard hit with sanctions as it is, there are few motor vehicles in the country, and in a war time scenario they would likely be using almost every single one (except for the personal vehicles owned by party elites) in a military capacity.

        • TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          NK already has mandatory military service for 10 years starting at 17 years old. If they went to war they could just draft literally everyone else. Doubt you could consider anyone but the children and the elderly “civilians”

        • triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          “unfortunately, there was just no way around it - they built their own weapons instead of buying them for billions each from Lockheed Martin, so the US government just had to murder hundreds of thousands of their civilians” said Spacemanspliff, ruefully taking a toke in memorial of the people who’d chosen to become victims of war crimes

          • Quokka@quokk.au
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            1 year ago

            The citizens of North Korea are already victims of crimes against humanity from their own regime. Not like the US is going to make it any worse for them.

            • triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml
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              1 year ago

              just like the neutral-to-positive impact caused by some good ol’ apple pie war crimes in Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc…?

                • triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  under any coherent definition of “whataboutism”, it would mean saying “any crimes against humanity committed by the North Korean government don’t matter, because of [something an unrelated regime did]”.

                  instead, I was responding to @Marsupial@quokk.au, who was saying that the US invading North Korea wouldn’t make the citizens’ lives any worse – to which, talking about the history of how US invasions have affected people seems, I don’t know, extremely relevant?

                  unless your comment is meant to be satire about how “whataboutism” is coming to mean “any criticism of the US government whatsoever”, in which case it’s a beautiful job 👏

      • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Civilian trucks are expensive decoys compared to balloon or plywood ones, but on balance probably not that bad given that unlike having to make and store pure military decoys, functional civilian trucks make money during peacetime.

    • Roboticide@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is a valid way to camouflage rocket artillery that was seen in Iraq by US armed forces.

      It won’t stop the US and S. Korea from also just bombing every garbage truck if it comes to it, but we then waste a ton of bombs on harmless garbage trucks trying to hit ~100 rocket trucks.

      It’s a good idea.

        • FlowVoid@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          No.

          Destroying rocket launchers is a military objective. Killing civilians while trying to achieve a military objective is not a war crime. There is even a term for those civilians: “collateral damage”.

          However, killing civilians for its own sake, without a military objective, may be a war crime.

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        And after the West bombs those vehicles, NGOs will claim that the US were killing civilians. Genius!

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      1 year ago

      Probably because civilian trucks aren’t as capable as military ones. Hence why none of the respectable militaries in the world go this route.

      • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Well yes, kind of the point of guerilla asymmetric warfare is that you’re not going to succeed using the same tactics as your enemy.

        The might of the US military still lost to a Vietnamese army using lots of civilian gear and struggled to manage a bunch of Toyota Hiluxs with light machine guns bolted on in Afghanistan.

    • FlowVoid@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      A military truck doesn’t cost anywhere near 10M. Humvees cost $70-100K, a bigger military truck costs about twice that. Considering off-road capability, crew protection, and ease of repair, it’s a far better investment than a dump truck (which costs $100-200K).

      Of course those prices don’t include the weapon systems, but dump trucks don’t come standard with rocket launchers either.

  • papalonian@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This reminds me of that Russian parade a few months ago where they just rolled the same tank through a couple of times.

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Reminds me of the game Mercenaries Playground of Destruction.

    Where one faction had slick military vehicles, while another one had pickup trucks with gun turrets.

    • eee@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      This gives a new meaning to the word “shitstorm”

    • ours@lemmy.film
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      1 year ago

      C&C: Generals also had the Middle-Eastern terrorist faction who used pickup-truck-mounted guns (“technicals”) that could be upgraded from the remains of superior enemy vehicles. It was a ton of fun.

      You could also send school buses filled with soldiers.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Flashy! Nothing says “We’re super scary” quite like a hay tractor pulling a 1956 howitzer.

    Hey, Putin! All this can be yours if the price is right!

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Then maybe we should treat them as a deadly imminent threat the next time they rattle their sabre as us.

  • FReddit@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If this dumb ass actually gets into it with a real major power, the entire country will be turned into a lake of fire.

    I feel very bad for the citizens.They do not want or deserve any of this.

  • atempuser23@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That’s the threat of North Korea they are so close to Seoul that limited mobility artillery would wreak havoc.

    No one on the other end of the rocket cares if it was launched from a tractor and a million dollar mobility platform.

  • Macaque@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Uh, have they tested those? That exhaust looks like it would burn up the truck and any unfired rockets.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    North Korea celebrated its founding early Saturday in the capital with a military parade that included tractors pulling rocket launchers in front of visiting delegations from China and Russia, the Associated Press reported.

    The parade emphasized the “militia” components of North Korea’s military in an attempt to demonstrate the country’s ability to beat back a foreign invasion.

    Photos released by North Korean state media show rows of tractors towing what appear to be rocket launchers.

    The parade also featured red dump trucks that were modified to hide missile launchers, an effort to signal “the militia’s role as guerilla fighters in a war,” according to Reuters.

    No nuclear-capable weapons or intercontinental ballistic missiles appeared to be on display, in contrast with a July parade marking North Korea’s “victory” in the 1950-53 war that cemented the division of the peninsula.

    The country’s Worker-Peasant Red Guards are believed to have more than 5 million members, The Korea Herald reported, citing a South Korean government estimate.


    The original article contains 279 words, the summary contains 162 words. Saved 42%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Finally, a new sun rises on the Tankie World Powers, as westoids tremble in their foxholes

    • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      We’d technically have to stop calling them tankies if this is the best they can do.

      Tonkies?

  • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Those Ron Deera tractors look real nice. Spacious cabs for when you need to cram your whole village in one to stay warm during the winter.

  • Jaytreeman@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I sat reading the comments and nodding along and then realized that all this discourse is essentially 'poor country can’t afford nice things '. I’d be really upset at someone that made fun of a person over the junker they drove because it was all they could afford.

    • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean, if folks were making fun of their housing I’d agree but this is the equipment they’re buying to threaten their neighbors with, instead of feeding their starving population

      • That_One_Demon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m certainly not pro military, but if I was NK I would focus on military parades too. Every year(?) the U.S. and SK practice invading NK the people who live near the DMZ are always under threat or told that they are under threat of invasion. So yeah dump trucks with missile launchers are great, because of nothing else the people near the DMZ know they can at least have mutually assured destruction on their side.

        There are entire generations of people who have lived in the fighting grounds of the U.S. and China. These parades show that these people will still put up a fight for their home.

        So yeah us rich and militaristic Americans can always have a good laugh at the poor parts of the world we threaten.

      • BLU_Raze@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        The country has never starved itself for fun. North Korea has <20% arable land and relies on other countries to provide that supply. With sanctions it is very hard to import high quality food to provide for people. The fact that the government offers free housing, healthcare, and education tells me they would do everything in their power to feed its population if they were able to trade with more countries.

    • wwaxen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is more the shitty gun they bought to scare their neighbor. Also, their kids are skipping another meal.

      • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Just to extend that metaphor a little bit:

        It’s like making fun of the cheap gun they bought to protect themselves after a gang set up shop in their neighborhood, took over their neighbors house and did a home invasion where 1/5 of the family was killed and the house itself was completely destroyed.

    • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If I had a poor neighbor that relied on me for food and financial support during hard times and then turned around and told everyone what a piece of shit I am and how much they’re going to fuck me up next time they see me, and how much better their car is than mine? Yeah, I would call them out for their shitty ass car when they pulled it out of the driveway and the door was duct taped on. And I wouldn’t really feel that bad about it.

      • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        And then after you recall how it’s all your fault that they’re on that situation? And you’ve kidnapped half their family and are using them as slaves for your interests? What do you think then?

        • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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          Not sure you’re going to be able to make me feel sorry for the Kim Jong Un regime. They do terrible things to their people and while the US is far from perfect, I really don’t think we’re the shittier neighbor. I don’t think we’re enslaving anyone either but if you have a source I’d be happy to read about it.

          • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            They do terrible things to their people and

            Just as a quick test, see if you can remember what these things are and whether they’re true or not.

            Regarding slavery in the USA, you guys run the world’s largest network of slave camps. You have 20% of the world’s prison population, mostly black and other minorities. Slavery is legalised in the American constitution.

            Recently slaves in Texas were dying in their cells at a rate of 2 per day from the heat, because the prison camps had made the water too expensive for them to drink.

            Nothing that happens in the DPRK comes close to that depravity.

    • Quokka@quokk.au
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      1 year ago

      Poor country can afford nice things, poor county instead spends money on crimes against humanity and propping up a monarchy.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I am having trouble assuming good faith in your question. The Supreme Leader there is the son of the previous Supreme Leader who is the son of the Supreme Leader before him. One family has had absolute control over that nation for 3 generations, passing from father to son. Like the Ottoman Empire monarchy they have resolved the whole uncle vs son dilemma pretty brutally.

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      Eh. It’s sad how their military needs to do this when it sucks up so much money already.

      If they just invested in their people instead of their war, north korea would be a much better place to live.

      Never forget how there is literally only one fat person in the entire state, and that’s their ‘supreme leader.’

      • BLU_Raze@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        The NYPD has more funding than North Korea’s entire military. Tell me how many people are going hungry or homeless in New York alone. The US has no excuse whatsoever for relying on slave labor, either. Oh, but thank god we have more than one fat person in New York, so the problem will be perfectly solved when another New Yorker gets fat.

        • jcit878@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          is there more hungry in new york than north korea? you want to bring up possibly the dumbest whataboutism ive heard this week, im gonna want to see your facts to back up your hilarious claim

    • Armen12@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      They have the option of joining South Korea anytime they want, that option has always been open to them

    • ccunix@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not really, more like:

      Poor guy claims to be able to afford nice things, waves a load of junk dragged from the local scrap yard in front of the local homeless guys claiming it is amazing.

    • BLU_Raze@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      This is literally it. North Korea is just a poor country that offers its citizens free healthcare and education. If a poor country in Africa became “communist,” you can bet these same people would be laughing at them when kids have to pick up guns to defend themselves from an American invasion. “Ha ha look at those inferior kids thinking they deserve to fight back. Kill them! I wish they died quicker and were sanctioned harder.”

      • Jaytreeman@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Looking at the picture again, why are they wearing hard hats?
        There’s something else going on than 'we can’t afford rocket launchers ’

        • BLU_Raze@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Do some research for 5 seconds. The country has been at war for decades for no fault of their own. I don’t laugh when the US is sending billions of dollars of military equipment when I see dozens of new homeless people every day. It’s just not funny. Military expenses are irrelevant, anyway. Feeding people could be done with or without spending on military. The difference is that North Korea is under sactions when they have like 18% arable land.