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If we're sticking to the topic of NATO, I'd love to leave it. I have no desire to keep the EU free. They've stepped up to say they are their own unified power e
by virmundi 8y ago
If we're sticking to the topic of NATO, I'd love to leave it. I have no desire to keep the EU free. They've stepped up to say they are their own unified power equal to the US. Let them defend themselves. The US has a natural moat and friendly neighbors. The Russians couldn't invade the US and keep its troops supplied for the long haul. Not even if they successfully conquered a portion of Canada. Neither can the Chinese. I'm not sure who we're afraid of.
The US military is largely worthless in a true asymmetric war without our territory. There are better options in both law enforcement and the true concept of the US citizenry being part of an independent State militia. If we let the EU fall or stand on its own, the US could get rid of the majority of its standing military. We wouldn't need friendly bases because we could scrap the idea of a volunteer army. Such armies make foreign adventures palatable since the soldiers asked to join. An army that is mostly conscripted does not go abroad unless it has too. A conscripted army is not large enough to threaten the homeland.
If we collapsed our military to just Navy and Air force, enough to keep trade routes open and secure our airspace, we could free up 300-400 billion dollars. The US could pay down some of its 20 trillion dollar debt year after year after year.
- XorNot 8y agoThe idea that the US would enjoy it's current trading relationships in a world where the EU's defense industry is selling to itself (remembering the idea of the EU falling is absurd - it's a nuclear ICBM equipped collection of nations, Russian expansionism ends at Germany's borders purely on some guesstimating about whether nuclear annihilation is worth saving Estonia) is laughable. And why would an expansionist China let any country in its sphere of influence give preferable trade deals to Americans at all? The point of an empire is to get it to pay tribute to you, which is what the US currently does via it's various economic relationships backed by its military. The reality is that if other country's build up their military's, then any money from trade the US is getting is diverted since what are they going to buy from you? The first thing you do for a self-reliant military is build your own industries, or make military alliances with your neighbors to share industrial capacity. All of which would have lost any reason to bother with US hardware.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- kazen44 8y agoAlso, the current US policies actually make it politically viable in (especially europe) to think about a tighter integrated defence mechanism. (See PESCO[1]). This will lead to less US defence and thus influence in other countries on the long term. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Structured_Cooperation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Structured_Cooperati...