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>but there really is a skepticism about some Europe nations, can they - and the bloc - sustain its 21st century advances and social safety nets while adequately

>but there really is a skepticism about some Europe nations, can they - and the bloc - sustain its 21st century advances and social safety nets while adequately paying for its own defense? Yes. The EU's defence is a political unity issue. Not a spending one. It needs a unified foreign policy where that makes sense and the like. Not countries receiving preferential gas pricing and pusyfooting when it comes to giving arms to Ukraine or the like. It's greatest single threat is russia. One may think they spend a far greater share on it's military and so Europe should too. But it's economy is smaller than Italy's and it has no capacity to fight the block.

alabastervlog 2y ago
Yeah I'm fairly confused about what hugely-increased costs folks think Europe will need to "adequately" defend herself when it's now been definitively demonstrated that the on-paper weakness of Russia (due to its lagging economy) is also in-fact weakness. Europe might need more spending to launch major military adventures on the other side of the globe, which is what the US does quite a bit and why we "need" so much military spending, but for defense? LOL, no. Adjustments in procurement strategies, maybe a little more spending, given the US can no longer be regarded as a solidly reliable supplier and so Europe's going to have to de-globalize some of its military supply chain, but... lots more spending? Why???
- 0xDEAFBEAD 2y ago
  >Zelensky highlighted the disparity in forces between Russia and Europe, saying that Ukraine's army consists of 110 brigades, while Russia fields 220 and plans to expand to 250 this year. In contrast, Europe, including U.S. troops stationed there, has only about 82 combat brigades, he said. https://kyivindependent.com/europe-could-face-russian-occupation-without-ukraines-army-zelensky-warns/ https://kyivindependent.com/europe-could-face-russian-occupa...

alabastervlog 2y ago

Yeah I'm fairly confused about what hugely-increased costs folks think Europe will need to "adequately" defend herself when it's now been definitively demonstrated that the on-paper weakness of Russia (due to its lagging economy) is also in-fact weakness. Europe might need more spending to launch major military adventures on the other side of the globe, which is what the US does quite a bit and why we "need" so much military spending, but for defense? LOL, no. Adjustments in procurement strategies, maybe a little more spending, given the US can no longer be regarded as a solidly reliable supplier and so Europe's going to have to de-globalize some of its military supply chain, but... lots more spending? Why???

0xDEAFBEAD 2y ago
>Zelensky highlighted the disparity in forces between Russia and Europe, saying that Ukraine's army consists of 110 brigades, while Russia fields 220 and plans to expand to 250 this year. In contrast, Europe, including U.S. troops stationed there, has only about 82 combat brigades, he said. https://kyivindependent.com/europe-could-face-russian-occupation-without-ukraines-army-zelensky-warns/ https://kyivindependent.com/europe-could-face-russian-occupa...