Ah, if only those silly Europeans had kept the 2% of GDP spending agreement. Maybe they would not be in this mess.
You can keep your 2% and still be under prepared. While Romania technically not meet the 2% (1.99 no I am not joking) most of the money is going to line the pockets of the military. Retired too Somehow our GDP raises every year and 50% is still going towards the personnel Also this Modernized Russian T-55 tank illustration on Uralvagonzavod banner. pic.twitter.com/nLTW6QiLqL— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 29, 2023 Jesus f Russia
Well, in Germany's case, their military procurement is completely bogged down in bureaucracy and they waste an absolute ton of money just trying to navigate the bureaucracy. Couple of examples that keep being tossed about is that it took Germany 10 years to get a new helmet for their helicopter crews and, remember how Germany modified their constitution to spend 100b Euros modernizing their military? Guess how much they have spent of that so far? yup, you guessed it, zero. It's so bad that the head of their military is taking to the press begging for the bureaucracy to release the funds and he's saying at current rate it will take 50 years for the Bundeswehr just to catch up on deferred maintenance and that they need something like 500b to actually modernize.
Looks like Zelenskyy is looking towards China for peace Zelenskyy to Xi Jinping: Come to Ukraine https://www.politico.eu/article/volodymyr-zelenskyy-xi-jinping-ukraine-russia-war/ Yet, Zelenskyy has recently signaled his openness to Chinese-led peace talks, using Beijing’s 12-point peace plan as a basis. “I think some of the Chinese proposals respect international law, and I think we can work on it with China,” the Ukrainian president said earlier this month.
He's singing the Bee Gees, as well? How does he hit the falsetto notes? Is there anything Zelenskyy can't do?
Yes - i posted about this a while back - its not a question of money - the problem is they really need to overhaul procurement. To be fair it will likely go the usual way. They'll be very slow to start, and then in 5 years they'll be throwing away panzers because they made way too many
That's a really nasty trick from Zelensky. Manipulative, expoitative and devious. Didn't think he had it in him.
That is our problem, Europeans can't control that, what they could control, is spend enough money on their defense that they don't need to be dependent on a country that could elect a fvcking clown as President.
SOP in warfare, especially if you're about to go on the offensive. You want your opponent kept guessing until the last possible moment.
I wouldn't say Ukraine is looking towards China for peace, but rather getting into negotiations with China so that Ukraine can convince China to not get involved on Russia's side. Ukraine's position hasn't really changed. Russia has to withdraw before any negotiations can really begin. Whether that is all the way out of Ukraine, or at least back to the pre 2022 lines.
I think you're absolutely right. We must outspend the USA so to be able to invade it and liberate half the population from the fascist regime the other half has installed.
You're assuming that the US would be favorable to an independent Europe. Signs points to the opposite
What signs are those? The fact that one of our parties wants to pull out of NATO, while the other party is telling Europe that they need to step up and start focusing on their own defense rather than relying on the US?
Bad news for the Tankies The WSJ wrote an article pointing out that the Russian economy is broke, so Putin had to arrest the journo! Gershkovich's last byline was this much-read piece on how Russia's economy was imploding: https://t.co/Ap7aziLEyy— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) March 30, 2023
What are you talking about? Every US administration in my lifetime would have done cartwheels with joy if Europe took actions to be able to defend itself with minimal or no US involvement. Every time the US needs to get involved in Europe, it distracts from efforts to pivot more fully to the Pacific.
You're talking military only - the US also profits from Europe following its wishes on other matters such as foreign policy, trade and energy just to name those.
The Nordic countries have now establish a unified air defence, in spite of Sweden and Finland not yet officially having joined NATO. In the past Finland have never participated in NATO military operations, likewise Sweden, who are a huge producer of weaponry and fighter jets, also never really contributed to much before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Norway only a little, while Denmark is always doing more than you would think like in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and in the 2011 military intervention in Libya where French flights bombed around 33% of all of the targets, the UK 21%, Denmark approximately 17% while the USA were responsible for 16%, Italy around 10%, and then a few other countries like Norway, Canada, Belgium, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates a slight bit of lethal force here and there. But now the "tiny" Nordic countries, who have a larger GDP than Russia, and rule most of the top rankings of the World in progress, development, lack of corruption, and also in happiness, while Russia for the most part is at the bottom of the pile, have decided to combine and unite their air force :