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The debate over the Ukraine war long ago bogged down into a debate over whether Putin or Zelensky is ‘Hitler’. Rather than recycle the same tired rhetoric, I have argued that what’s happening has little to do with P or Z, but with the larger history of Russians and Ukrainians, and is primarily a European failure.
The weakness of the Obama and Biden administrations led Putin to dare more than he would have otherwise, but the ultimate weakness always lay with the Western Europeans who liked the idea of an integrated Europe that could concentrate on agricultural subsidies without having to worry about national defense.
Now, the Euros are belatedly waking up to a world in which America may no longer be their shield.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Europeans to dramatically increase their yearly defense spending to over 3 percent of GDP on Sunday, after attending an emergency summit on Ukraine in London.
While Baltic nations have long called for military spending to rise to at least 3 percent of GDP and U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded 5 percent, this is the first time the French leader has specified a new number.
“For the past three years, the Russians have been spending 10 percent of their GDP on defense. We need to prepare what comes next, with an objective of 3 to 3.5 percent of GDP,” Macron said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro.
France currently spends 2.1 percent of GDP on its military annually — barely above NATO’s 2 percent target, a level that Paris reached only last year.
Good, if it happens.
Yes, it would be good for us if Europe became more able to defend itself, and it would be good for Europe. That in some ways is more important.
Unlike 90% of the people who are very angry about Ukraine or Russia in one direction or another, and making assorted foolish arguments about it, my position has been that it’s not really our problem and that it’s up to the participants to resolve. And since Europe wants to take responsibility for Ukraine, let them.
A Europe with some backbone may even prove ready to deal with its Islamic invasion problem. We’ll see.
Europe’s dependency on America is unhealthy for both sides. A Europe able to defend itself will make a better partner for America.
If President Trump were to withdraw from NATO as he should, the Western Europeans would have to surrender……er, “stand up” to Putin all on their own.
They’ve had plenty of practice, what with their unconditional submission to islam.
I see we have some Hamas Homo Brigade members here. How are your butt herpes? Do they hurt?
Trump and his team know that the real threat to our liberty and sovereignty comes for the globalists and their institutions. It’s a very stable genius move to bypass the Europeans and hold direct talks with Russia.
I seem to remember that the EU had a weird structure where they all had to agree before anything could be done. So obviously if one country refused to go along they were paralyzed.
From what specifically do the 32 member countries of NATO pledge to defend each other in today’s world?
I’d like to know what each NATO member lists as the common dire political, disastrous economic, lethal social and mortal cultural threats from which each is bound to ‘defend’ itself and all fellow members ‘as one’.
‘One for all and all for one’ sounds good in theory – but impossible in practice.
Europe appears to be still living in the past.
The history of pre WWI Europe is full of treachery between England, France, Germany, Turkey and Russia – at least according to all the spy novels published before that war that my grandfather was reading when they were first published and which I inherited and subsequently read during the long, Covid lock down. As an aside, my grandfather came to the US from Russia as a boy of twelve and served in WWI as a sergeant in the Medical Corps in France. I also have the bookcases he made for all those spy novels and the complete collection of short stories by O’Henry as well.
Anyhow,
The thirty two member countries in NATO are a subset of the 193 (or is it now 195?) UN member countries;
and, given the conflict of interests between NATO and the majority of UN members’ opposing interests, and conflicts of interest between the US and NATO, the groups are basically at cross purposes, incompatible and actually, obsolete. How NATO is handling metasticized hatred around the world and at home is abominable.
Trump should state: The USA will fund NATO equal to the lowest funding country in NATO. Luxembourg was 0.4% in 2016.
And one of the very first things Europe needs to do is Close Their Borders No More So Called Migrants and return all Violent Migrants back to where they came from in the first place and think about their Own Citizens and not Kissing the Rings of Islam
” And since Europe wants to take responsibility for Ukraine, let them.” Absolutely! They should have done it 3 years ago, but better late than never. We have more pressing problems to solve at home than extricate Europe out of the latest mess she managed to create.