Germany calls on the EU to increase defense spendings as the US became an unreliable ally 

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone) 05/10/2018 at 10:26 • Filed to: None

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I wonder if the Germans remember how to war...

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farscythe - makin da cawfee! > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 10:35

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bout damn time..... the military has been underfunded to the point of being dangerous for the soldiers for years over here

fintail > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 10:45

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Maybe if the EU disguised itself as a shell company or some kind of real estate money laundering front, the current regime would be more friendly.

50ford500 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 10:53

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So after years of relying on us to fund their overall defense they’re going to pony up for their own defense? Good

For Sweden > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 10:53

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The Germans never forgot how to shoot people

AuthiCooper1300 > 50ford500 05/10/2018 at 11:07

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That reasoning is mostly correct, until you realise that if the WarPac had invaded West Germany, the whole country (and indeed, all of Western Europe) would have become a huge buffer zone to protect the United States.

Meaning: it was/is in the best interest of the US to protect West Germany/FRG, and, by extension, Western Europe.

Another reason to fund West Germany’s defence was to prevent Germany to arm themselves again, for obvious reasons. Ditto with Japan.

Ash78, voting early and often > 50ford500 05/10/2018 at 11:09

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This is a completely rational decision, since 70-year-old American “imperialism” is a bit outdated now. I still like the idea of joint bases, but for too long we’ve borne a lot of expenses for mutual defense while Europe has been able to dedicate more attention to environment, healthcare, etc.

Oversimplified, sure, but a step in the right direction.

I hate Trump, but not all of his ideas or plans are bad.

Svend > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 11:10

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Current E.U. guidelines are that each country spends 2% of their GDP on it’s military (though Poland has been wanting it increased to over 3.5%), some countries don’t do it for whatever reason. Germany and France have been increasing their spending by 20 and 12% respectively.

France and the U.K. have been working together for a few years to ‘boost bilateral defence coordination’ between our forces.

bob and john > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 11:16

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I mean, VW was secretly gassing ppl for like 8 years. So yea, I dont think they forgot how to war.

AuthiCooper1300 > 50ford500 05/10/2018 at 11:21

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Somewhat related: why the Marshall Plan? (even for Germany, for which a very nice Morgenthau plan had been in the works - look it up)

So as not to stall the huge industrial overcapacity extant in the US after WW2. By helping all those war-torn European countries (and Japan) get on their feet, the US ensured they were going to be able to regain political stability... and buy American wares. No Marshall plan would have meant a big shock to the US industry due to lack of access to other consumers.

That’s foreign policy for you. 

CaptDale - is secretly British > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 11:54

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Isn’t that what the US has wanted for years?

duurtlang > Svend 05/10/2018 at 13:17

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Working together is the key here, IMHO. And intelligent investments relevant to 21st century reality. We don’t need tanks or many large ships or many footsoldiers. We do need drones and the likes. We also don’t need an offensive army, other than an airborne one.

Strong cooperation makes things more efficient. No single EU country will have to defend itself individually, so why have the woefully inefficient national armies?

Svend > duurtlang 05/10/2018 at 16:06

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In the most part yes, but we need to be prepared to fight on any theatre.

Large ships have a benefit of getting large amounts of people and equipment to an area and give a base to jump off from should they be advantageous or we don’t have ‘over fly’ permission from neighbouring countries.

We don’t need an offensive army as such but a fast reacting and deep penetrating army. Drones are great, but you still need boots on the ground to a degree. Also there needs to be a strong cyber defence but also a large offense to respond in kind and take out infrastructure before an attack.

The difficulty is the U.N. or E.U. has too many heads, too many voices that slow any valid response down.

coqui70 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 05/10/2018 at 21:23

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It’s just like riding a bike ...