A credible European deterrent – one that could prevent, for instance, a rapid Russian incursion in the Baltics – would need a minimum of 1,400 tanks, 2,000 infantry fighting vehicles, and 700 artillery pieces. This is more combat power than currently exists in the combined French, German, Italian, and British land forces.
I mean…Russia has the second strongest military inside of Russia. I think they’ll be fine if they want to go ahead and kick in the door.
TBH, this was one of the things the GOP has kind of right, but as is their way they go about it in all the wrong ways. Europe has relied on US troop presence since WWII, and it’s allowed them to find a balance between high-ish taxes and strong social safety nets. In the past couple decades, as things have gotten more expensive, cracks have formed in this arrangement. Now they need to actually meet their NATO commitments, and keep the people happy by maintaining the safety nets without raising taxes. Good luck with that! Oh, and they also have to do all of this with the growing popularity of far right nationalist movements across the continent! Good times are ahead for all!
Yes and no. The US chose to project its power around the world after WW2. It used that military power and umbrella protection to shape free trade deals, and preferential deals for US interests.
From a US perspective whats happening is the destruction of something extremely powerful to the US interests. US power and influence will be massively diminished in an era when China is on the rise.
Europe will be able to afford to go to 3% of GDP on military spending. It’ll be painful in the short term but worth it for Europe as it will give them independence. Its not a threat to European tax and spending - that remains its aging population. Increased military spending will be a marginal problem.
Trumps destruction of US dominion is going to reduce their influence and power on the global stage. Even if the Americans elect an outward looking president next, Europe and other NATO allies can no longer rely on American promises as Trump has shown how quickly american orthodoxy can be undone.
The US spends 3.4% of its GDP on its military and for that it got an extraordinary amount of influence and power. The US will continue spending that much but will now bengrtting much less value for its money.
And don’t forget, after Trump alienating every ally, Europe will probably spend that money in Europe and not in the US. So yes, we will spend more money, but we will gain in taxes and growth.
I really don’t see the US as the winner in anything here.
What I find ironic, if the EU countries have as many soldier’s under arms as Wikipedia states, then they don’t need much more manpower. Look at the thread on worldnews where this is discussed. My comments were removed because I stated as much as this article premise. LOL!
What Russia has proven with Ukraine is that they are a paper tiger. They’ve spent so long trying to build this image that they are second only to the US in military might, but then they began scraping their barrels to deploy troops to Ukraine. I think the EU could eradicate the Russian government with just the troops we have today, and then some.
However, where Russia’s strength lies is their control and manipulation of information. Russian agents all over are funding and supporting political parties that destabilize the country they’re in, removing them from the fight before they begin. Their greatest victory in that is the US. We see there exactly what Russia wants for the EU. That’s where we need to up our defenses.
We don’t attack Russia because Putler is a tiny bitch that would choose to destroy the world over losing.
It really doesn’t appear that Russia is able to mount a tank offensive anywhere after all their losses in Ukraine
Good! I’m a US citizen who was raised in US military bases in foreign countries. Allies of the USA need to spend a lot more on their military.
USA people don’t realize that military spending doubly impacts society. Not only did your tax money go to getting a new bomber airplane that a civilian has no use for but the energy and effort that might have been used to create improved railway infrastructure (for example) never happened. After enough generations in relative isolation from other global societies, the populace doesn’t even realize what they are missing out on.
