Can Europe Defend Itself Without US Military Support? via National Interest

 The answer is no!  An unequivocal NO!  But the reasons aren't what you think.  It's not that the US is keeping Europe down.  Its not that the US industrial base "demands" it.  Its that the Europeans don't actually want to spend the money necessary to be "free" of the US.

Don't believe me?  Then check out the points I've highlighted from the article (make sure to read the whole thing for yourself though...here).

Via National Interest.

European militarism keeps the United States happy, especially if it means enriching American defense companies. “Buying American kit will be the quickest and easiest way to dispense all the extra billions pouring into defense budgets,” says Nick Witney of the European Council on Foreign Relations.  

Utter bullshit.  The war in Ukraine has opened the door to S. Korean imports most notably in Poland.  Why not more homegrown investment?  The pussification of Europe by Europeans, not America.

 There are other reasons to believe that this militarization plan will neither make Europe safer nor boost economic growth. It fails to address crucial national security threats, such as climate change, and risks the retrenchment of social programs, which is likely to be unpopular with Europeans. The same IGA survey found that some Western Europeans are open to more military spending, but only a quarter or fewer think their country should spend “much more” on its military.  

This is the real issue.

Even if you're a climate change supporter then how is that a military problem?  Its not.  But it is an additional pot of money to dip into to push for changes that won't work and will allow feel good emotions.  I mean how can't "saving the planet" make the baby boomers that are back to smoking weed everyday and gen z not feel like they're doing there part.

But that's not even the biggest issue.  Its the social programs that has the Europeans skeptical.  They want and need them.  They would rather be under the US umbrella and keep all the goodies than do the adult thing and fund their own self protection.

Even now Europe claims that Russia will attack them once they're done with Ukraine.  Yet they still hesitate to fund their own defense?  The biggest refrain is that it will trigger article 5 and the US will come to their rescue so we should do as they want on their continent instead of standing up themselves.

 “Europe could perfectly well defend itself against Russia even if the US packed up and went home tomorrow,” says Witney. But a simple reality of NATO is that European dependence on the United States is a feature, not a bug. Trump may take credit for forcing Europe to spend more on defense, but he follows in a long lineage of presidents wary of Europe gaining too much independence.  

If this isn't a weak, pathetic, lame ass excuse I don't know what is.  We've degraded our own war stock to plus up what the Europeans aren't doing.  They've used all kinds of fancy accounting tricks to make the numbers bigger but at the end of the day we're hurting ourselves to prop up a people that are too lazy to do it themselves.

I'm done with this debate.

Europe makes excuses while work needs to be done.  Either they step up or sit down and shut the fuck up.