[HN Gopher] US expected to send thousands more soldiers to Middl...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       US expected to send thousands more soldiers to Middle East, sources
       say
        
       Author : cdrnsf
       Score  : 45 points
       Date   : 2026-03-24 20:39 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | exabrial wrote:
       | Wars are waged through inflation. Allowing the federal government
       | to "print money", essentially write checks on a negative account
       | balance, is funding these forever wars.
       | 
       | If you continue to support reckless taxation, this is what you
       | will get.
        
         | jleyank wrote:
         | the US has run deficits for years, so it's not reckless
         | taxation in the form I think you mean. "Pay for its bills"
         | would be a novel concept, involving undoing various "give money
         | to rich people" tax cuts.
         | 
         | In the current environment, very unlikely.
        
         | commandlinefan wrote:
         | IIRC, the US debt is at 39 trillion right now, with no plan to
         | pay it back. Which is logical, because it's unpayable. There's
         | no way in the world that will ever be paid back. I still
         | haven't seen anybody properly analyze how high the debt can go
         | before it actually can't go any higher, but we're going to find
         | out.
        
           | pfannkuchen wrote:
           | Monetize it or default are the only options I think.
           | Monetizing affects everyone while default only (directly)
           | affects bond holders. Monetizing is much easier to obfuscate
           | though so that is probably what will happen.
        
             | nradov wrote:
             | Perhaps, but the monetization would have to be pretty
             | extreme. And that would send interest rates to the moon,
             | making further borrowing difficult.
             | 
             | While these things are impossible to predict, my guess is
             | that in a couple decades the government will do some sort
             | of technical default. Force Treasury bond holders to
             | exchange their current holdings at par for new bonds with
             | longer maturities and artificially low interest rates.
             | Politicians will be able to claim that no one has lost
             | money since the nominal bond values will remain the same
             | even though the market values will be much lower.
             | 
             | The other thing I expect to happen is that the government
             | will force retirement accounts (both defined benefit
             | pension plans and defined contribution 401k plans) to
             | purchase Treasury bonds. Because of course they're so much
             | "safer" for retirees than risky stocks.
        
           | Ancalagon wrote:
           | Without any funny business (meaning no re-valuation of the
           | debt, which I guess there are strategies for) and assuming an
           | interest rate on the debt of between 3-5%, I figured between
           | 10-20 years before the interest payments eat up most
           | essential services.
        
       | lwansbrough wrote:
       | It's just embarrassing at this point. How long will the Americans
       | put up with this humiliation ritual?
        
         | cdrnsf wrote:
         | As long as a significant portion of the population continues
         | voting for it.
        
           | lwansbrough wrote:
           | Well let's hope, as Bush once said, "Fool me once, shame on
           | you. Fool me twice... can't get fooled again."
        
             | cdrnsf wrote:
             | Hopefully. They've bene fooled into voting for him 3 times
             | already.
        
               | throw310822 wrote:
               | The US have been fooled by Israel for the past... thirty,
               | forty years at least? Look who Trump is sending around
               | the world to negotiate on behalf of the US: two committed
               | Zionists, personal friends of Netanyahu and past
               | financers of the Israeli army. The other negotiators
               | regard them as Israeli assets, plain and simple. While
               | they pretend to "negotiate", Israel launches surprise
               | attacks that have not been agreed with the US and that
               | forces them to intervene.
        
         | justonceokay wrote:
         | So many people make so much money from it. I don't personally
         | this time but I did last time working for tech. Maybe I will
         | again next time. This is the third time America been
         | "humiliated" in my life and my life is awesome and getting
         | better.
         | 
         | /s
         | 
         | But that is the overall sentiment if I had to describe it
         | without pretense
        
         | cyanydeez wrote:
         | If you take Russia as a boilerplate; never. Trump will "trickle
         | down" the corruption to just enough people to keep everyone
         | complacent and do as he wills.
        
       | Sabinus wrote:
       | Is it just me, or are we taking the beginning of Iraq War v 2
       | very calmly?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2026-03-24 23:01 UTC)