not to be out done by

I tend to agree in large parts, my main worry is Europe seems to be not just buying deterrence weapons such as interceptors and missiles. they seem to be interested in stockpiling more ammunition, shells, etc. And the US has slipped majorly in our production of those to the point we can't adequately stockpile for ourselves, let alone a newly militarizing Europe. I'm sure France or other nations will be happy to fill that gap if we sour relations, shells specifically aren't exactly class A technology. then money from selling shells allows someone else to pump money into R&D and further strip our competitive edge in other areas.

now, i should mention that i'm not an american-centric ideologue bent on America having a near monopoly in arms manufacturing. i'm far from a neocon. but, i do worry about the effects on the fringe. shells that were meant for europe instead finding customers in 2nd and 3rd world wartorn areas for example. and im just pointing out a more simple fact, that europe's drive to have stronger military capabilities started predominately from trump call for NATO costs to be more equalized. and this could result in ironically losing some business in arms manufacturing. its just a self own i put in a meme.

After seeing their summit to provide billions in funding to rebuild Mariupol I take with a grain of salt any EU announcements of massive piles of money going to some dubious project
Ursula's proposal is to "lift austerity penalties for deficit spending if states choose to increase defense expenditures" which is so far removed from an actual rearmament plan its pretty laughable
basically, the EU proposes allowing the EU to go into debt with the EU, if the EU wants to buy weapons

No big plans to mobilize actual production like Russia has done. No plans to actually force members to increase spending, or even agree on increasing spending voluntarily. During WW2, the US made an emergency shipbuilding program that directly financed the construction of a dozen shipyards, allocating materials, machinery and manpower and producing 6000 ships in 5 years and at the end of the program could finish a ship in a single day. The russians right now are producing 3 million artillery shells per year, about 3x the total production of the US and EU combined. The EU is taking the baby steps of proposing a program to finance the debt of members states being able to voluntarily increase military spending by a %

So yeah these are the same EU leaders who held a summit about the billions in funding they didn't offer, to finance the reconstruction of a city they don't hold, to people who hold no power. Wake me up when something happens

I always look forward to your analysis on events i must admit. the impression I have right now is that there is a lot of hot air and we do not yet know what it will land as, or if it will land.

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 4 2025 08:44am

This will make EU split up.

Good luck EU you gonna need it

Bear in mind the hot air is coming mostly from Trump, he'll make a dozen wild vows before rescinding most and settling on actual policy

True. Thing is, he's always been that way. He throws out every option that's the worst for who he's negotiating with, and ends up settling for a deal that is often times far better than anything that had previously been on the table, all spurred on by his bloviating and outrageous claims.

Tried and true pattern, that Trump has stuck with. Worked for him in real estate, worked for him in television, and has worked just fine in politics.

The bullshit from the EU is just that, bullshit. It's almost too bad they aren't sincere. I'd love to see the EU put in 800b and boots on the ground to assist Ukraine. Watch what happens when they attack Russians directly, and turns it into WWIII, WITHOUT American help.

Europeans think you fear Russia now? Just wait until their bomber drones are hitting your cities in retaliation for EU interference in their regional dispute. It'd be glorious.

This post was edited by InsaneBobb on Mar 4 2025 09:00am

What US-israeli system are you referring to?