“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. […] The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.” - Eisenhower
Kewl. If only there wasn’t a country that invaded another country on our borders, that openly talks about invading even more, fucking about with our utilities and using spies, the internet and sabotage to fuck around even more.
A comfy life needs to be secured with military might, like it or not. Otherwise you get assholes in shitholes trying to forcefully take it from you. Rome knew that, the US knows that, the EU knows this (otherwise it wouldn’t exist - since it is made to increase bargaining power and contains mutual defense clauses).
So until Russia stops being a militaristic shithole that invades its neighbors and starts building those schools, power plants, hospitals and highways, we need to spend taxes on military. And yes, Russia is a threat - Georgia shown us, 2014 has shown us, 2022 has shown us.
The fuck we are. This sounds like psyop
I distrust this type of article as China and Russia have lots to gain from trying to stirr up opposition or protests in Europe, especially on this topic of defense.
Jesus fucking Christ. The fact that he is getting away with so much bullshit based solely on the fear that he might do something is absolutely infuriating. Like, I get it. I understand that it’s a complicated issue and these people caving to him are trying desperately to appease him to save their own countries or themselves. But this man, and whoever is backing him and possibly pulling the strings, is purposefully destroying society for more money and power. So much shit going backwards because less than 1% of the 8 billion of people on the entire fucking planet felt like they didn’t have enough.
And at the end of the day, when everyone is done appeasing a madman, what will be left? What kind of world will we create as we bend the knee to the man that wants us all to suffer? If you appease the madman to save yourself, the only thing you will get in return is a life of fear in a madman’s world.
Worse. More like less than 0.0001% of the humans on the planet.
He can get fucked by a huge pine cone. He and those that back him are enemies of humanity at this point, willfully choosing to be cruel and sacrificing lives for money and power.
At this point, I’m pretty sure they’re just using it as an excuse to wreck social services.
Don’t appease. Destroy. Did it work with you tied to appease any other dictators?
I mean, all that NATO funding might prove to be really handy if a big chunk of the world needs to stop a literal holocaust
Edit: I should add my line of reasoning. Look at how fast Alligator Aushwitz popped up, now look how big the ICE budget was expanded. We have a bit of a situation here
That would require them to use nato funding to invade the US. Not even if they just called it slavery straight up would that happen.
These are the same people that can’t even hold Isreal accountable and you expect them to stop the US from hurting itself ? Considering this is not the first time the US has done this to it’s citizens/legal immigrants Europe would be better off holding the US at arms lenth and hoping it implodes
The question is only posed if the US had a civil war: would NATO take a side?
I sure hope so. It would be dumb to let the Neo Confederates control the whole of North America, because their tendrils would violate all the other nations that can be reached. The ocean is a barrier that will eventually fail.
The only true way to prevent Europe’s soil from being soaked with blood, is to commit to bleeding on American dirt.
No. It’d require them to use NATO funding to defend the rest of the world from us.
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What a flagrantly dishonest way of framing what they said
No but other countries might want to take stock of what’s happening and weigh the pros and cons of increasing their defense spending.
If you read what I wrote and feel that people shouldn’t inconvenience themselves in any way in order to defend, protect, or acknowledge the inviolable rights of other living human beings, in light of what is currently happening in the world this very fucking minute, it explains more about yourself than anything you’re trying to convey
Does it say anywhere in the article what social programs are on the chopping block? I’ve heard this claim hundreds of times, but so far it’s on the basis of “it’s got to come from somewhere”. What if you build military hospitals, military infrastrtucture and military schools? Wink wink, nudge nudge.
it’s not listed because this is not what is happening
italy for example put bridge construction in that military budget (as critical infrastructure)
also the subtext was “spend that defense budget in america” and this is not happening either for variety of reasons, so it’s partial failure already for them
“spend that defense budget in america”
hah, yeah, that part is hilarious. tramp already ruined the f35 program by suggesting that the ones sold to allies would come with degraded specs…why sink funding in something that you can only use with american permission exclusively for their stupid wars?
there’s a couple of big failures in american defense industry (like shipbuilding) but F35 is not one of them. the alleged killswitch is not likely a thing because first, it could be used by the most probable adversary, and they already shown capability in EW; and second, it’s not necessary because it requires constant stream of spare parts and maintenance. as if it’s worth it, ask any remaining iranian radar operator for firsthand opinion
some countries switched to euro made jets anyway, but these aren’t likely to be doing the job that F35 is cut to do anyway (SEAD)
there’s already euro alternative in development, for which americans were explicitly not invited (GCAP, FCAS). there’s also the everything else part of military, half of euro countries make now artillery (both tube and rocket) so these can be bought locally too
Yes, but israel gets the F35I variant. They are probably independent in software, targetting (and parts?), because israel as the US golden child always gets the juiciest deals. The EU, meanwhile, gets the “leeches, warmongers, pathetic freeloaders” treatment.
at minimum brits have source code. couple of eu countries make parts for it as well
Opinion article. Also they missed many NATO Top nuances, like the whole political game. But yes, NATO members in Europe have been spending more, and more defense is and was needed.
Don’t bow down to the psychopath! You know he’s going to just pull out of NATO anyway.
If the US dumps NATO, that’s all the more reason to increase defence funding. Either that or start learning Russian.
I’d rather he did that than abandon NATO by surprise the moment russia attacks Narva or the Suwalki gap and give “putin, the gambler” the illusion that he can win against the EU…
where’s all those Europeans that were mocking the Americans on here for the past seven months?
cmon guys! show us how to protest!
pokes with stick
do the thing!
Not European, but I hope too Europeans grow a spine, and hold their NATO diplomats accountable today.
Skip the protest, go straight demotion and enlisting antifascists.
A good chunk of the population of major European countries are just the slightly less violent, racist and stupid versions of their American counterparts… Idk man, I’m not feeling any sort of serious anti-imperialist revolution happening any time soon.
That’s why we need more folks like you that are aware of the issues and tackle them physically unless more dead bodies are sent to alligators.
Let’s end fascism once and for all.
I guess the camps for disabled are next on the list. The world is making its choice.
No please fuck no
Just read the article, and did it feel as though it was written by 3 different people to anyone else?
But anyway, the EU undeniably needed to spend more on their collective militaries with a hostile, expansionist neighbor on their doorstep. This is literally one of two things that Trump has been right about in his lifetime.
These days you’re lucky if there’s even one person writing it.
That’s not Trump being right, that’s Trump hanging all of America’s allies out to dry. A more serious effort to support Ukraine would make it functionally impossible for Russia to threaten Europe. More staunch support for NATO from the US would forestall any attempt at Russian aggression. The EU are setting military funding targets far beyond what Trump demanded, because this has nothing to do with Trump’s demands and everything to do with his litany of failures.
Two things can be true at the same time. But I’ll dispute that this is citizen citrus’s fault. European appeasement created the enemy they’re currently facing. Particularly merkel’s germany.
Trump is a swindler who is currently swindling. Europe is a militarily complacent economic bloc wholly dependent on the US. Frankly, this is a terrible, short sighted move, as this removes US military leverage, but it’s a very Trump move.
