Posted on 06/15/2011 10:42:46 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Bump
Good. The EU has some very expansionist ambitions, and the more they’re checked, the better for the world.
Guess they forgot that ‘soft power’ only works when you actually have ‘hard power’ on call. Now they have neither.
Guess they’re going to have to start paying for their own defense now. Good - guess they’re going to have to start stripping their gold-plated social welfare programs.
Also discussed in about how without the US, NATO is toothless.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2735399/posts
Socialism is a little more difficult when you have to pay for your own defense.
Yup. They’ve been complaining about the US being the World Police and saying they want us to stop. Well, now we have to stop and they’re not ready for it at all. Whoops.
Plus we need to sacrifice the Euro-weenies to the Moozies while we re-load stateside..
That, unfortunately, may be the case.
Well, they had their chance to pull their own weight and help. And, like France in WW2, they basically folded and told us to take care of the problem instead.
Besides, I think they need a dose of theocratic oppression again to make them appreciate the consequences of their conduct.
The EU spends a big money on defense (about $400bn). The problem is they don’t get value for it. God knows how many different types of equipment they’ve got and some of the big hitters still have large conscript armies that a next to useless for power projection.
Well, that is because they were (and probably still are) happy to settle for the most expensive thing in the world - a second-rate military. After all, despite their complaints, they ‘knew’ the US would defend them.
A counterexample to that is Japan, who is constitutionally required to have a limited military and to rely on the US (they’re required to do so by the constitution we made them take at gunpoint after WW2). They could have gone Euro and had a really weak and ineffectual military. Instead they have been determined to pull their own weight in the deal and insist on having the most capable force they can legally have.
Then again it is possible that, if Germany/EU can rid itself of its saracen cancer then we might have to rely one day on that entity for our own defense. Then we become part of the EU system as a subordinate player.
Our performance in the South China Sea will likely have a huge impact on Japan’s decision whether to continue to maintain its military subordination to the Americans and thus on a decision to go for full bore Defense. If we cede the South China Sea to China then our guarantee of freedom of the Seas will be and be seen to be hollow and in rapid decline and Japan will have to give up any limitations on its military, especially on its navy and on nuclear capability..
Herein is the dilemma of the Oama administration.
They are fundamentally antiwar and to go to war is against their strident base. America has asked the Brits and Nato to go to Afghanistan to full fill treaty commitments because one , us, was attacked. They went, begrudgingly, but they went.
Now, they have asked us to scratch their back and go to Libya. I would guess that the whole government except the State Department is against going. State says we are honor bound to go to uphold old markers and assure the Nato types are available when really needed next time.
By the way, Peace is merely the interval between wars. War is the natural condition, peace is the anomaly.
That, unfortunately , may be the case
After having trashed our own economy that may not be possible. The government is so large and powerful that we probably cannot any longer pare it back and its very size guarantees a permanent anemic economy. Such an economy does not have the "reload" capacity without impoverishing totally and quickly the middle class. And if that happens then it will be a short term reload that can't be maintained or repeated. AND politicians and the political class are so corrupt now that their immediate enrichment and empowerment will continue to come ahead of defense and survival.
You know as well as I do that incessant warfare is the *normal* state of affairs for Europe. They’ll be busy with each other for decades.
I think that heretofore normal state of European war was suppressed and its effects were attained by non violent means under the American hegemony and encouragement of unity and discouragement of the penchant for military conquest and of its means. Europe is rapidly becoming Germany and it is happening without warfare or even opposition. Germany is doing it by bailing out everyone else, making the profligate rest of the Continent voluntarily dependent on Germany. It works better than jackboots and armor.
Japan doesn’t have the population to stand up. Japan will not be Japanese in 20 years.
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