Nato leaders have informally agreed not to mention the football World Cup to Donald Trump for fear of irritating the US president at a crucial time for the military alliance.
Further below…
In the first open acknowledgment of the strategy, the Belgian prime minister, Bart De Wever, told reporters in Ankara he would not be discussing his country’s 4-1 win over the US earlier this week.
Look, can everyone please do their best not to annoy the bumbling pedophile? Thank you - your cooperation is appreciated.
Isn’t it lovely how headlines are about sports while Europeans are seemingly still committing to the goal of spending five fucking percent of their gdp for their military? Schools, hospitals, universities, railways… all that will suffer for tanks and the headlines are still just about how somebody doesn’t mention that ludicrous display last night to some jerk.
While it sucks, Europe has to do it. It’s not threatened just by Russia anymore, but by US itself these days
Drumpf is literally every other day threatening to invade Denmark, an EU member for no reason whatsoever. It’s quite insane
Also, you never know who Americans could elect next time, or time after that. Maybe someone even more unhinged.
Europe must be able to defend itself
Working towards 5% isn’t really that stupid for most European countries as long as Russia is spending as much money as it can on weapons. It will only become a waste of money after the implosion of the Russian oligarchy. I am not in favor of spending that much money of things that kill stuff, but it makes total sense to continue doing that for now.
No, you need to be able to defend against the United States. They are the biggest world threat right now. The leadership is incompetent, but they have an overwhelming advantage in firepower and are very dangerous.
The US in it’s current form is definitely a threat to Europe in many ways, but not a military one. Not even in the case of an armed conflict about Greenland. I could see the leadership ordering to, but I can’t see the soldiers on the ground shoot at people they’ve been training and fighting with their entire career. There will be mass defection on the side of the US if they are ordered to shoot (by then former) nato-allies. Unlike Russian ‘soldiers’, the fear of torture/execution will not motivate them.
Read up on your military history. That comradery is common at the start of so many past conflicts and they have a playbook.
They will handpick the first few groups of soldiers to go in specifically selected to be comfortable killing unarmed European civilians and soldiers alike. Oops, they commited an atrocity, my bad, I’ll throw them in jail. But before that, the other side seeks their revenge and now the regular American soldiers who would have refused to fight a few days ago are getting slammed every nasty which-way and fight back. Both sides learn the other side is pure evil, and never notice the brass pulling the strings.
They will definitely shoot European troops. Maybe there are some that wouldn’t, but they would be branded pussies and punished. The vast majority will. They will fire on American citizens.
Russia’s threat is real. Whether they need 5% or less could be discussed, but military spending is necessary. Plus if they’re smart, that money stays in European’s companies, jobs, etc.
Most european countries have embraced neo-liberalism at various paces. If they’re short on money, they could tax their billionaires based on their wealth. They don’t. No one does, therefore: it’s a political ideology to have financial issues and cut through public services, healthcare, social support, etc.
They’re scared of losing the American security guarantee and this is what it costs them to create a comparable EU guarantee.
Just remember that American security guarantee came with all sorts of expensive economic strings they will no longer have to deal with.
Sure, but there was another comment here complaining about having to spend about 5% of the GDP to make up the difference.