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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
They are definitely paying us for our depreciated military hardware are they not?
