Europe is capable of sustaining Ukraine’s resistance against Russia, even if the United States were to decide to completely halt its military support to Kyiv, the senior military official in charge of coordinating Germany’s arms supplies told Reuters.
Major General Christian Freuding said NATO’s European members plus Canada had already exceeded the estimated $20 billion worth of U.S. military aid provided last year to Kyiv.
They accounted for around 60% of the total costs borne by the Western allies, he said.
“The war against Ukraine is raging on our continent, it is also being waged against the European security order. If the political will is there, then the means will also be there to largely compensate for the American support,” Freuding said in an interview.
Europeans need to be reflecting on what kind of leadership they want to replace the US now that they’ve started stepping out.
For all the chaos they’re causing, especially in regards to this conflict, it’s not a bad thing that the US is losing geopolitical relevance. I just wish I had any confidence that something better would come from it.
Now is really the time for people to be organizing.
The European NATO members, combined, already have more soldiers, armored vehicles and aircraft than the USA. Three problems, lack of combat experience, modernization, and naval assets. If the AmeriKans want out, then close every single installation and leave peacefully. We can support Ukraine and should purchase weapons from within the EU or from friendly partners.
I am personally supporting Ukrainians every week. I am also pro-rearmament in the EU.
That said, said by Germany, this should be read as “we are strongly reliant on heavy industries, but our cars in record low demand, so we really, really, really want to build a lot of weapons for Ukraine (and we will keep some for us, while we decide whether to agree or not on standards and common resource pooling with the rest of the EU)”
EU needs to take several other steps before going head-first into (over-)production of weapons at the levels being discussed here.
Germany sounds every other day like they forget there other 26 countries with them in the Union. And I could say the same about France, but under the military POV France is much more defendable.
I hope the EU declares war on Russia, kills Putin, and ends Russia as we know it. Russia’s shadow fleets and sabotage of EU nations should be answered for. Russia may form an open pact with Fascist US within a couple of years, which effectively would kneecap NATO for a while and point a dagger at Europe’s back.
And how could we do that without Eastern Europe, London and Paris being turned into self illuminating parking lots?
Considering that Russia is running low on missiles and other war material, and the shield that is Ukraine, Europe shouldn’t be too bloodied if it fights now. A Russia with US-supplied weaponry, possibly launched from a carrier fleet? That can definitely dig into France and Britain’s flesh.
Besides, the saboteurs that Russia uses is already damaging western nations. They destroy internet cables under surf and over turf, power lines, damage factories, hack systems, ect. Sooner or later, they will make a critical hit.
You will get that war. The USA and China will clash and the EU is preparing to take care of Russia when that war starts.
Damn right, France can sail a fucking nuclear sub into Russia and blow up St Petersburg if they want.
American? With that kind of ideas, I pretty much want the US out of this war
What does your comment mean?
Can France keep a sub in reserve for Washington just in case
As I keep saying, America may be a shitshow, but Europe needs to look in the mirror before it happens to you guys too. Far right parties are gaining lots of traction while many assume the EU will be fine, and more war spending is going to exacerbate that.
The far right doesn’t even need to win directly. Even within conservative parties, such as Germany’s CDU, the populists make it to the top. They have good people with real solutions up to a state level, maybe more than any other party, but the new chancellor and most of the ministers from his own party are populists.
Conservatives with a real vision and plan might soon suffer the same fate as McCain and Romney.
This has a whole chain of consequences. Problems are not solved and increase, the far right gains.
Also, the current government coalition of the two formerly major parties didn’t even get half of the votes, resulting in less acceptance of the democratic process and legitimacy of the government. Not a big difference to the electoral college problem in the USA.
I don’t think you can equate European far right parties with American shit show. The main issues with American system are completely politicized judicial branch, totally corrupt legislative branch and irrational fear of “socialism” entrenched in society. In Europe, even in countries with growing right wing movements there are still strong anti-corruption measure, the top-level courts are still very much independent (on EU level, on country level it will vary) and most people understand and support social policies. So yes, in EU many individual countries can face issues with their systems and the EU as a whole will struggle to keep its current form but it’s still pretty far away from total collapse like in USA. Couple of right wing governments will not take it down.
Yeah I’m very worried about the future of Europe. With trump & MAGA the US may be going crazy but they’re still a military super power and they’re at the forefront of tech, especially AI & crypto, so they’re gonna be fine.
We on the other hand boast about our culture and history and Blabla but what does that help us if we become economically irrelevant because there’s kinda 0 innovation coming from us. We don’t really have any answers and we’re drifting deeper into fascism ourselves in light speed.
I can’t speak for all countries but of the people assuming Europe will be fine, most seem to be rifht wing voters. It’s a good thing not everyone is in panic mode, but I agree people should be more aware of the current direction the world is heading in but there are also a lot of people who actually like this direction.
Who are they gonna buy the stuff from though 🤨
Eu can and does manufacture it own weapons
Belgium is actually pretty handy at spinning up a weapons factory on short notice.
Man I’m glad to hear that, cause the US isn’t exactly a dependable ally right now 😅 (sorry, I wish we were 🥲)
I don’t think America can ever be considered reliable or an ally during my remaining life ever again.
Just curiosity, which generation are you? Personally, I had this feeling during the second Iraq war.
Clearly. That’s when they showed that they’d attack anyone out of greed. By showing that they’d attack anyone who dared to go against them.
Sadam was a brutal dictator, but fabricating proof as casus belli… And mocking the French for not falling for it.
They even “tried” to get back at them by renaming French fries to Liberty fries. How petty can the US politicians be?
I kinda feel the issues happening in the US will be resolved soonish. And by resolved I mean, either the US will fall apart, and add you said will continue to be unreliable, or trumpisn will be defeated
Even after trumpism is defeated, there’s a lot of trust for the US people to rebuild with their allies.
If the people are so willing to vote in dictator idiot maniacs, then how can other countries trust those same people to not do it again?
It’s the same for European countries at the moment as well. The UK is fairly less trusted right now because they vote idiots like Farage, Hungary is snubbed because Orban is a Russian колбаса sucker - so on and so on.
Those generations that vote these people in will still live a few more decades and as such any goodwill towards them is diminished.
The root goes further than Trump. But Trump sure showed the ugly face of US then hidden shadow.
This is true. It’s also true that Europe needs to have the capacity to handle something like this on their own. The complaint that the US won’t save Europe THIS TIME, AGAIN, says as much about Europe as the US.
Usa never single-handedly saved europe, so I dont know what youre on about usa ‘saving us again’
We could also have given Ukraine so much they won the war 2 years ago, problem is we also want healthcare, education and decent pensions. I mean it’s good the German army feels we should help Ukraine win the war but let’s not act as if this is a simple feat that doesn’t require a lot of money. Without free American weapons it will be a lot harder to defend ourselves against Putins warmongering.
In the Netherlands we literally cannot spend the money we have allocated for our military since there aren’t enough Dutch weapons to buy. 😬
They are definitely paying us for our depreciated military hardware are they not?
“Free”?
You didn’t really think we were giving them our latest and greatest military technology did you, we were given the stuff that we were we were going write off or destroy anyways and then charging them for it, America always makes money
I know, that’s why the word “free” was wrong
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