Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#2I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#3I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
It's been the goal of several administrations for the EU to increase spending, and the lip service goal of this one. But I don't think anyone really wanted the EU to stop purchasing US weapons or abandon the very useful economic/military dependencies that benefited the US. This administration appears to have pushed hard enough to actually break those ties, and I don't think they (and their supporters) fully appreciate how bad that could be.
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#4I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
Not sure about that; why does the US have a huge number of troops in Germany in the first place? Defence, or occupation?
It seems to me that the objectives until ~2014 were to (a) provide moral and a small amount of physical support for the War on Terror; (b) sell US weapons, such as the F-35; and (c) ensure that European defence centered around NATO, under US control, and not the EU. The US wanted Europe to have enough capability to assist the US, but not to go off on adventures of its own and certainly not (going all the way back to the Washington Naval Treaty here) enough military might to resist the US or start another European empire.
That is, the strategy from WW2 until fairly recently was to prevent Germany re-arming. Just as the large deployment in Japan is to prevent Japan from re-arming just as much as it is there to defend the Pacific from China.
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#5I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
Not sure about that; why does the US have a huge number of troops in Germany in the first place? Defence, or occupation? It seems to me that the objectives until ~2014 were to (a) provide moral and a small amount of physical support for the War on Terror; (b) sell US weapons, such as the F-35; and (c) ensure that European defence centered around NATO, under US control, and not the EU. The US wanted Europe to have eno…
An intricate plan designed to further US interests, wrecked by an ignoramus who didn't understand it.
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#6I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
Not sure about that; why does the US have a huge number of troops in Germany in the first place? Defence, or occupation? It seems to me that the objectives until ~2014 were to (a) provide moral and a small amount of physical support for the War on Terror; (b) sell US weapons, such as the F-35; and (c) ensure that European defence centered around NATO, under US control, and not the EU. The US wanted Europe to have eno…
I would also say (d) make it clear to the Soviet Union that, if they invaded West Germany, it would not just be an intra-European war; it would be a world war.
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#7I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
They are not in a position to do that successfully
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#8I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
Not sure about that; why does the US have a huge number of troops in Germany in the first place? Defence, or occupation? It seems to me that the objectives until ~2014 were to (a) provide moral and a small amount of physical support for the War on Terror; (b) sell US weapons, such as the F-35; and (c) ensure that European defence centered around NATO, under US control, and not the EU. The US wanted Europe to have eno…
A.k.a. "Keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down"
https://unherd.com/2017/10/keeping-russians-americans-german...
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure about that; why does the US have a huge number of troops in Germany in the first place? Defence, or occupation? It seems to me that the objectives until ~2014 were to (a) provide moral and a small amount of physical support for the War on Terror; (b) sell US weapons, such as the F-35; and (c) ensure that European defence centered around NATO, under US control, and not the EU. The US wanted Europe to have eno…
I would also say (d) make it clear to the Soviet Union that, if they invaded West Germany, it would not just be an intra-European war; it would be a world war.
Sure, but that rationale went away in the early 1990s and they stayed for thirty years longer than that.
Re: Without America to rely on, EU gearing up to be a global power in its own right
#10I don’t think Trump is particularly crazy like a fox, but Europe taking its defense into its own hands in a coherent, credible manner has been the goal of US European policy across at least the last six or seven administrations of both parties.
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