To add to this: taking territory is the easy part.

The hard part is holding it, because you don’t just have to worry about staffing the front line, but maintaining security in the occupied regions long enough for non-state actors to cease hostilities and accept the invading force as the new legitimate authority- which may never fully occur- all the while dealing with resistance fighters.

This means orders of magnitude more personnel, funding, and equipment for an unknowable length of time across a much larger area than just the line of incursion.

It’s taken them two years to fail to take the land, and now have an incursion into their own soil to contend with. so I’m skeptical they’d manage to keep it permanently.

Trump’s pick for Vice President. I didn’t know who he was until he was announced, either.

Not to add to the whataboutism, but don’t forget how the US firebombed Tokyo.

Tax evasion on top of the other illegal activity can increase the consequences if you’re caught. They tend to require warrants before divulging information to other authorities, however any information gathered through legal means can be used against you.

The main benefit of reporting the income is to reduce the likelihood that somebody gets suspicious of the change in buying habits and starts in investigation in the first place.