> EU politicians should wake up and smell the coffee, and invest in an EU army before it’s too late They could, but at least in the short term it appears to be

> EU politicians should wake up and smell the coffee, and invest in an EU army before it’s too late They could, but at least in the short term it appears to be cheaper to let the US spend the money on their military and still get the benefits, even factoring some lost trade to China. It would take many $123mm lithography machines to make up for the billions they would need to create a standing army. That trade off will change, but everything hinges on the “before it’s too late” part of your argument, which you can be assured that virtually no democratically elected politician will get right, since they are looking at <10 years by nature of political campaigns.