Torenico [he/him]

US troops were killed by an “ISIS attack”

Wild friendly fire incident, happens every now and then…

I will never get tired of latin american families choosing names such as ROOSEVELT, WASHINGTON, VLADIMIR and LENIN for their kids. Unfortunately in the next couple of tears we’ll see the DONALDS and OBAMAS

So with the arrival of the first batch (6 out of 24) of ex Royal Danish Air Force F-16AM/BM MLU to join the Argentinian Air Force, the US scores a point against China in South America. The whole deal of this weapon system transfer fiasco was to prevent Argentina from incorporating a similar number of JF-17 Thunder fighter jets, which would have been not only a much cheaper option but also a superior one because the jets would be, as we say here, “0km” (totally brand new), and they would come with chinese assistance as well as the possibility to explore other options such as radar systems, missile systems and even upgrades for the Navy and the Army. At the expense of Argentina’s shaky finances, the US prevented China from entering the region through military hardware.

There is, still, an unavoidable reality: The purchase of these jets means the Argentinian Air Force can recover supersonic interceptor capabilities. Since the Air Force retired it’s Mirage IIIs/IAI Neshers weapon systems in the mid 2010s, the defense of the entire national airspace was left up to the old and subsonic A4AR Fightinghawk figherbomber (less than a dozen are available for duty) as well as a number of light attack/advanced trainer IA-63 Pampa series (which don’t even carry air-to-air missiles). With the arrival of the F-16s Argentina can now recover some of it’s balance against it’s two historical rivals: Chile and Brasil. But is it really the case though? I’ll try to explain to the best of my abilities:

In the case of Chile they have been operating the F-16 platform for about two decades now. The total amount of airframes is 46, not all would be immediately ready for service but I think that number should be higher than 6. The variants operated by Chile are 10 C and D Block 50/52+ variants, which joined in 2005, and 36 examples of the F-16AM MLU and F-16BM MLU purchased second hand (as well as a single F-16A example for training) from the Netherlands starting one year after the arrival of the C and D variants. Apart from the numerical advantage, at least on paper, Chile has two operational E-3 Sentry AEW&C aircraft, with a third used for spares. Argentina has none of that. The Chilean Air Force also operates a small number of old but modernized F-5s.

In the case of Brasil there is simply no competition at all. For the time being Brasil is in the process of incorporating a fleet of JAS 39 Gripens (seeking over two dozen airframes in total) while phasing out their larger fleet of F-5 and AMX International attack aircraft. However, the main news is that Brasil conducted a live fire exercise of a METEOR BVR missile fired by one of their Gripen E aircraft not long ago(Source in Portuguese) which tips the balance on their favour. On the other hand, Brasil has an actual industry supporting it’s armed forces. EMBRAER is a highly valued company which produces not only commercial aircraft (third largest in the world behind Boeing and Airbus) but also military aircraft as well, including technical support for their existing airframes. In comparison, Argentina has the state-owned FAdeA (which briefly belonged to Lockheed Martin in the 2000s) which is planning to fire around 200 workers this week. That should tell you everything. They have a number of Embraer E-99 aircraft for AEW&C and SIGINT operations. This entire force is also joined by a small number of A4KUs purchased from Kuwait which flew from their former aircraft carrier São Paulo (Clemenceau class). In comparison, Argentina’s Naval Air Arm retired it’s Super Etendard and Super Etendard Modernisé years ago after a botched purchase (blocked by Britain too).

This comparison gets even worse once we consider other factors such as the Army, Navy and also the general state of things, that is, the social, political and economic realities of the three countries. I guess you can tell which one is the absolute loser here. Despite all this, there is no danger of armed conflict among the three countries. So there’s that.

So I think these new aircraft for the Argentinian Air Force doesn’t do much apart from scaring airforceless countries like Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. There is also the United Kingdom and their permanent military base in RAF Mount Pleasant. From what I can gather the US allowed for the F-16s to be transferred but prohibits Argentina from flying them anywhere close to the islands. The UK didn’t protest much either, they always did so in the past.

There are some questions that have been raised with this transfer. First, the cost: It’s around 300 million USD for the 24 aircraft and another 350 million USD for the weapon systems. It’s A LOT of money for second-hand aircraft. According to La Nación, the danish authorities didn’t have much hope to sell these aircraft for more than 60 million USD, but then came Argentina and the US geopolitical goals which allowed Denmark to offload pretty much it’s entire fleet in one go and begin converting it’s units to F-35s for a ridiculous price. Another question is how badly worn these aircraft are? How many hours did they clock in with the Danish Air Force? They already had their Mid-Life Upgrades done, so are all 24 examples in serviceable condition? If so, for how many more years? Are these platforms durable until at least, say, 2035? 2040? Is this a stopgap measure until we explore better long term choices? What kind of armament will be shipped? Do we receive exactly how much technical support from the US and other F-16 operators? How much does it cost to keep these aircraft in flying condition? How much does a single hour of operations cost? Can the country, with it’s finances in pure agony, keep them operational?

And, I think, the biggest question of them all: Is it really worth it? We’re purchasing second-hand F-16s from a country that wanted to get rid of them so they can now fly 5th generation fighters. We paid a lot for it too. However, what happens if tomorrow Argentina takes a different political and economic path and we get on some kind of “black list” made by the US? Who is going to sell us spares and replenish spent munitions? I think we purchased a short term solution but a long term problem. In a few years these aircraft will be grounded due to lack of funds (This is, after all, the country that had one of it’s largest navy vessels sink in port due to lack of resources), and if we get on the bad side of the US they’ll suffer the same fate as the Venezuelan F-16A/Bs and the Iranian F-14 Tomcats, slowly being phased out because, while their operators do magic to keep them running, the spares do run out and the aircraft can no longer fly.

We also angered Ukraine too lol

Anyways death to “israel”

And to make things worse our 56 billion in debt translates into no material benefits for us, meaning no bridges, hospitals, schools and power plants were built using these loans.

This country has always lived off on debts, since pretty much the 1860s. At least back then these loans were used to improve productive capacities and had some returns, but these days we just take loans from the IMF for the sake of it, or we take loans to finance other loans that are reaching their deadlines.

I can’t believe Infantino is actually worse than Blatter, and Blatter was the literal king of corruption hahaha

Imagine being born under genocidal conditions, seeing those around you starve, get sick and die. Imagine understanding that those responsible for such tragedy lives quite literally next door, people call it “israel”.

Still, after all these experiences, the guy decided to actually help “israel” in exchange for getting killed last or for some horrible “luxury apartment” in Dubai or some shit.

Trump: Maduro has to leave the country. If not we will kill him

Meanwhile Maduro:

In case you’re wondering how the argentinian media is reacting to the US saber rattling against Venezuela: In general it’s near total indifference (towards the potential humanitarian disaster that this would imply) with a tendency to show support towards the US and not to question Trump’s motives and overwhelming use of force.

Oh but the sheer horror and indignation they showed during October 7th and when a few iranian ballistic missiles struck the genocidal entity known as “israel”…

Weird that all elections in the US up until at least 1965 are excluded…

No, it’s the bad countries that do sham elections only.

Is there any somwhat cohesive Ba’athist remnant having some kind of political participation these days? I understand Ba’ath Party is banned from existing since 2003, but that wouldn’t stop from A) Forming underground cells to agigate for a potential return? and B) Forming Ba’ath-like parties (reformed) and run for office in either presidential or municipal-level elections.

I understand it has been over 20 years since the fall of Saddam, and that the Ba’ath Party have lost a lot of legitimacy, maybe? Is there any appetite left in the Iraqi population for Ba’athism? I suppose not but I’m curious about your opinion, since you’ve been to Iraq numerous times and I suppose you’ve talked to people about this.

The opposition to Perón’s government during the late 40s and 50s was greatly exaggerated by the oligarchy. It’s not that Perón was going to do a sweeping Castro-style Land Reform any time soon, and a lot of the very pro-worker policies carried out during the first Five Year Plan were reversed under a more fiscally-conservative second Five Year Plan, so it’s not that Perón was moving towards Socialism or anything like that. In fact, the land reform Perón promised in the 40s was shelved and never spoken about again after he made a deal with the rural oligarchy. And Perón’s economic plan was running through serious trouble after the main economies bounced back after WW2.

But still, the ruling class of this country has a severe disdain for popular governments. The first coup in this country’s history was carried out in 1930 by a proto-fascist General against the Yrigoyen government which was, at the time, very popular, even though it can’t be even qualified as a Social-Democracy because it isn’t. All Yrigoyen did was redistribute some wealth through patronage and become very popular. Yet, despite of that, they planned to overthrow the Radical government since they took power through the first “fair” elections in 1916.

And about the bombing: I’m not sure how true this is, but apparently the Navy said their planes would drop flowers and leaflets around Plaza de Mayo that day, make a few passes so that people would cheer them. In reality they carried bombs, and they dropped their ordnance on normal people including school children.

After Perón was deposed later that year, Admiral Rial, which took part in the coup, said the following to the Central Union:

Know this: this Liberating Revolution was made so that in this blessed country the son of a street sweeper will die a street sweeper.

Few things can fully describe the history of this country than that quote.

A paint factory went up in flames and exploded in Ezeiza, Buenos Aires Argentina. No fatalities as of now.

This must have been Argentina’s largest explosion since the 1995 Río Tercero Explosion (very possible it was to cover up the smuggling of weapons to Ecuador and Croatia) and that time the Navy bombed civilians in Plaza de Mayo in 1955 because they thought Perón was woke

Huh weird, this night I dreamed there was a coup being carried out in Brasil. Two actually, at the same time (not sure why).

Turkish Air Force C-130 crashes in Georgia after taking off from Azerbaijan

Looks like as if the airplane was cut in half in mid air, very weird.

Anyways, death to “israel”

This is very worrying, not just for Venezuela but for everyone else. The technology gap between the US and the rest of the world, barring countries like Russia and China, is too big and even if the US is in full economic, social and political meltdown, they can still mobilize enough high-tech systems to blow your country to bits if desired and there is nothing you can do about it. Iran serves as the example, all those years preparing for the US strike and when it came, they could do nothing about it. The fact that both the US and “israel” suffered a grand total of zero air losses in the campaign tells you something.

Venezuela has the best or the second best Armed Forces in the entire continent. Maybe there is a discussion between them and Brasil. But regardless of this, as it stands right now, they have little to no chance to stave off a US military assault, even less when the US plays with their strongest cards available – sheer maritime and air power.

I get that a lot of people are referencing Vietnam and such, even Maduro said so. But back in Vietnam the technology gap was big but it could be closed, after all, the MiG-19s and MiG-21s weren’t all that inferior to the Phantoms. The vietnamese AD systems were very good and claimed a lot of kills. In the ground the equipment was comparable. Despite a US advantage on firepower and technology, the vietnamese could close the gap with their own high tech systems (althrough available in limited numbes), sheer resilience and appropiate doctrines. Today I think the technology gap gives one side a tremendous firepower advantage over the other, so much so that “normal countries” have no way of closing it right now.

Take the 1982 South Atlantic War for example. Argentina ran a bunch of older-ish tech against the British yet a number of ships were hit and sunk. Today such feat will not be possible I think. We’re talking about planes that cannot be detected on the radar which can destroy your own radars and fire beyond visual range… that wasn’t a thing in the 70s and 80s…

Well, I guess Venezuela should have bought ballistic missiles… I think it’s very heroic to “mobilize the militias” and give peasants some old AKs, but you can’t fire at incoming Tomahawks with militiamen…

If we ever needed a clearer picture of how the US supports terrorism around the world… well there it is

Any chance of shooting them down with conventional AD systems? They haven’t been used against Iran or Yemen now have they?

I’m sorry, but Belgium still has a king?

Lmfao

Also I regret to inform you that without a VPN Hexbear seems blocked, so I guess we’ve been deemed liberals.

They’ve read our electoral effortposts and struggle sessions.

The elections were fair play, at least as the system goes.

The biggest opposition to milei fucking sucks. An incoherent, internally divided group of morons that are good for nothing. Not a single proposal was offered: only “let’s say no to milei”. That’s hardly a way to campaign. In the end people prefer to “endure milei and see what happens” than “going back to the peronist days of high inflation and corruption”.

And the direct US intervention in the elections was key. Trump was clear: If milei doesn’t win, bad things will happen to Argentina. And thus, people saw the precipice, got scared, and voted for the guy who can get “the US to support us”. Of course we know better, but this is what many people truly believe. It is the president of the United States who’s speaking, after all.

Also around 12 million people didn’t vote. Turnout was a little over 60%, the lowest since 1983. That’s a huge problem because there’s a total lack of faith in the current political leadership, ready to be filled in by whoever crafts a somewhat coherent message and because the political democratic regime is not an important issue for many. Also not voting is a way to show discontent too, so there’s a massive portion of the electorate that could be worked on by the left.