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There’s a difference between a foreign adversary and a foreign ally who’s subsidizing most of your defense.
by chaostheory 3y ago
There’s a difference between a foreign adversary and a foreign ally who’s subsidizing most of your defense.
- diggan 3y agoFor a German, both of those are both foreign adversaries and foreign allies, at the same time. One is not "better" than the other.
- chaostheory 3y agoYes, one is not better than the other until there’s a security issue in Europe that actively threatens the EU. Then miraculously Western Europeans will suddenly remember that the US is an ally. This is exactly why many US voters are growing tired of subsidizing the EU’s defense.
- beebeepka 3y agoI guess your media conveniently skips the part where joining NATO means destroying your own long range weapons. This is what they forced Bulgaria to do and they made a very big deal out of it.
- avar 3y agoI'm not American, but here you can read some extensive American reporting on it: https://nonproliferation.org/bulgaria-reaffirms-plan-to-destroy-ss-23-missiles/ https://nonproliferation.org/bulgaria-reaffirms-plan-to-dest... What you're skipping over is that the reason the US asked for their destruction is that having a NATO ally with weapons that violated the INF treaty with Russia wouldn't have been good idea.
- beebeepka 3y agoThanks for the link but surely you are not implying this is what the general public over there is being fed
- mensetmanusman 3y agoYes, Russia and the US are equivalent.
- bestouff 3y ago"Ally". The US has not exactly always been friendly to Europeans.
- mardifoufs 3y agoTo be fair, there weren't tons of reasons for the US to be friendly with Germany, historically speaking.
- chaostheory 3y agoWe have subsidized your defense for decades now which is a big reason how entitlements like socialized healthcare was able to work in the EU despite not having the long term birthrates to cover it. It’s a much bigger gift than cheaply produced goods. Also every time there’s a mess in Europe, we have to clean it up without getting paid unlike the CCP with their low cost goods. The cost in blood and taxes would be much easier to swallow for Americans if there was at least some gratitude from the Western Europeans.
- diggan 3y ago> Also every time there’s a mess in Europe, we have to clean it up without getting paid You're too high on your own supply if you really believe this to be the case... The reason Europe has proper healthcare is because the US has a huge army? Give me a break... Please, start provide some actual backing by numbers of what you're saying if you're gonna try to spread propaganda around here.
- chaostheory 3y agohttps://www.euronews.com/2023/11/30/record-increase-in-eu-military-spending-amid-demanding-times https://www.euronews.com/2023/11/30/record-increase-in-eu-mi... It’s simple. You have finite resources and you have to choose where to spend those resources. The EU has chosen healthcare and pensions which leaves almost nothing for defense. Guess who has to make up for the shortfall?
- dragonwriter 3y ago
- kkzz99 3y agoIn my opinion, the US is as much a foreign adversary as China. The US isn't subsidizing defense, its occupation and hegemony.
- chaostheory 3y agoOne reason Germany has been able to afford more entitlements for its citizens like socialized healthcare is due to the fact that it virtually had no defense expenditures for decades. We can say the same for most of Western Europe. The US has subsidized the defense of the EU for decades. As for occupation, I wonder what Germany did in the 20th century to merit it?
- polotics 3y agoYou really have to understand and look at the numbers, and also model the economics of what you're writing about, to get a sense of how wrong you are. May i suggest you start on this big quest by looking up how inflation gets imported and exported?
- chaostheory 3y agoYes, tell me why I am wrong instead of just alluding to it
- polotics 3y agoNot in a post, but here's a few books for you: Seignorage on a global reserve currency: read "the global minotaur", the story of oil: read "Oil, Power, and War" by Matthieu Auzanneau, and for completeness: "The brothers" by Stephen Kinzer.
- chaostheory 3y agoThat’s not telling me why. You’re simply using a distraction because you’re unable to summarize the main ideas of those books
- mardifoufs 3y agoSo I guess for most of Europe and the US you would be right. Thankfully that's just a relatively small part of the world though. If anything, all things considered having the US as your adversary is much much more risky. so outside of US vassals/allies, I think picking China as your poison in terms of spyware is the least risky option. China might like to pretend they are on the same level as the US but they absolutely cannot project their strength (or meddle in domestic affairs of other countries ) in any similar way.
- gaoryrt 3y agoexactly
- chaostheory 3y agoChina is actively helping Russia. They’re not neutral, and they’re not simply opportunistic like India. I don’t how much clearer it needs to be aside from China invading Taiwan.
- blackoil 3y agoAs an individual, most threat I have will be from my own govt. and politicians/police by simple virtue of overlap and the authority they have to mess my life. So given choice, I'll prefer minimum additional info to my govt.