It’s kinda cool but seems a bit expensive at this moment.

Meh, he’s just saying this because a) he can and b) to dissolve a popular talking point in far left/right circles. He can leave office, unlike the actual dictators/dictator-wannabes who are accusing him.

The US was eager to walk over Russian security

Why do you think Russian security interests override the security interests of the countries neighboring Russia?

Also

• a good reason to fight

The motivation of russian soldiers is about as sound as was the motivation of US troops in Vietnam. “Protect the free world from communism by attacking another country”. Yeah, ok.

The US had an active force of half a million troops at the height of that attempted occupation and a total of more than 3 million troops had been deployed in Vietnam over the course of the 6 years of war. The US committed various terrorist acts and warcrimes. By the numbers, they had superiority in pretty much every way. At some point it looked like there were doing fine, and they utterly lost. They lost 58k soldiers.

Sounds vaguely familiar to me.

A cynic might say that we’d then just have a slightly more powerful and even less innovative IBM.

Microsoft, because I lived through the 80s and 90s.

Most companies become evil after they grow big. Some companies become big by being evil. Microsoft is the latter.

Not Lemmy though. Based.