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Yet our troops are still welcomed and NATO is more popular than ever. I’m not saying it doesn’t put us in an advantageous position if it came down to war with

by SllX 3y ago

Yet our troops are still welcomed and NATO is more popular than ever. I’m not saying it doesn’t put us in an advantageous position if it came down to war with Germany or France, but it does matter that we handle trade disputes and NATO as separate matters, and it isn’t as if EU has exactly been kind to American tech companies lately given with each passing year they pass new onerous legislation that mostly affects foreign tech companies more than it affects their own domestic industry because their own home grown tech industry wasn’t worth much before we took any protectionist measures. Right now we are guests in the country with our shields and spears pointed in the direction of the East because we have overlapping interests in defending their nations with their present governments as they are against the threat of Russia. The reality on the ground now outweighs an incidental hypothetical that would be a repeat of a hundred years ago. If our presence dissuades a second rise of Nazism, that’s probably as much to Germany’s benefit as it is ours, but the market disputes are between the EU and USA, not European NATO and North American NATO and while we’re there as guests and not belligerents, we’re there to defend Germany, not impugn its sovereignty.

c00lio 3y ago
Where Europe is protectionist about tech, the US did the same about steel, aluminium, aircraft and certain foods. I guess the tech sector is just more present in the minds of HN readers.
- SllX 3y ago
  I didn't forget about that, but I felt no need to double-down on the both-sides bit when the one I replied to already mentioned the IRA, and it's irrelevant to the point that trade including disputes and NATO are separate threads to the Trans-Atlantic relationships between America and our European allies. We can go tick for tack for all I care on trade—I mean I do care to the extent that I think it's dumb and we shouldn't but it also isn't a political priority for me—whereas NATO is severely more important independent of where we stand on the balance of our trade relationships at the end of the day because keeping Europe free and independent of Russia matters a great deal more. That even includes ensuring they have the freedom to pass screwball legislation that screws with our tech companies and moves the needle closer to re-evaluating their European operations as a priority. I'm not hearing any Europeans outside of Russia chime in to say they would in fact prefer the opposite outcome or an inverse set of priorities where we give them better access to American steel, aluminum, aircraft and food markets but dissolve NATO and pull out of their respective countries. It's a complicated series of military, trade, diplomatic and personal relationships with both profits and losses on both sides of the Atlantic, but on balance is still beneficial for Americans and Europeans.

by SllX 3y ago

c00lio 3y ago

Where Europe is protectionist about tech, the US did the same about steel, aluminium, aircraft and certain foods. I guess the tech sector is just more present in the minds of HN readers.

SllX 3y ago
I didn't forget about that, but I felt no need to double-down on the both-sides bit when the one I replied to already mentioned the IRA, and it's irrelevant to the point that trade including disputes and NATO are separate threads to the Trans-Atlantic relationships between America and our European allies. We can go tick for tack for all I care on trade—I mean I do care to the extent that I think it's dumb and we shouldn't but it also isn't a political priority for me—whereas NATO is severely more important independent of where we stand on the balance of our trade relationships at the end of the day because keeping Europe free and independent of Russia matters a great deal more. That even includes ensuring they have the freedom to pass screwball legislation that screws with our tech companies and moves the needle closer to re-evaluating their European operations as a priority. I'm not hearing any Europeans outside of Russia chime in to say they would in fact prefer the opposite outcome or an inverse set of priorities where we give them better access to American steel, aluminum, aircraft and food markets but dissolve NATO and pull out of their respective countries. It's a complicated series of military, trade, diplomatic and personal relationships with both profits and losses on both sides of the Atlantic, but on balance is still beneficial for Americans and Europeans.