Donald Trump’s declaration at the NATO summit that the U.S. had returned to war with Iran didn’t lead to the usual gasping allies or perplexed officials.
If anything, it cemented Europe’s increasing reliance on itself.
As motorcades sped out of Ankara’s presidential place and down the barricaded streets ringing the Turkish capital on Wednesday, a half-dozen European officials said the ceasefire’s end only stiffened their resolve to be less dependent on the American militarily and stand alone.
“After seeing what’s happening in Iran and Ukraine, we first of all, have to build our own military might, and then everybody will respect us: Americans, Russians, Iranians or Chinese,” said a European official. “The more muscles you have, the less political anger you show.”
After seeing what’s happening in Iran and Ukraine, we first of all, have to build our own military might, and then everybody will respect us
I can’t… this is more than braindead. I’m sure all your enemies have so much respect. No one is definitely afraid to attack you/hit you back. I’m from Baltics and I’ve already accepted the fact that I might have to fight Russians. I don’t understand the logic of respecting someone who is coming to attack you. I have vast respect towards Canada tho. They never threaten us, they (we) have always acted friendly. That’s respectable. I would not hesitate to help a Canadian. I would not hesitate to kill an invading Russian, no matter how much more powerful they are.
Respect might not be the most suitable word for this. But enemy being afraid to hit you if you have a big enough stick does work. Nuclear weapons have been the best peacekeepers since the invention of those. Being part of NATO is probably the one and only reason why russia attacked Ukraine instead of Baltics.
And when the attack happens, it’s good to have a functional military industrial complex at our back supporting us instead of becoming forest brothers again.
It’s the right word but in this context it means “take seriously,” not “have esteem or admiration for.”
I’ve always believed that fear does not equal respect. I know bullies think differently, but obedience is self-preservation, not respect for others, basically implying self-respect.
This is an incredibly dangerous way of thinking. This kind of mentality allowed two world wars to happen. Stop looking at geopolitics like if it was a football game. It’s not the politicians dragging us into war, it’s common people giving for assumed war is inevitable. You all will be the world’s distruction once again. It’s really insane how humans have the tendency to repeat history despite having knowledge of it.
Yes it is dangerous, but at the same time it’s kinda short-sighted or maybe even delusional not to prepare for an invasion from a country that has time and time again claimed to want to invade you, not even acknowledge that you should exist and even has multiple times gone through with the threats towards other countries.
Though there are good examples of how this process can be halted. Like EU, up until ww2, war was the norm between different nations in Europe. Only after ww2 most countries in Europe started to go through the trust building process to avoid war and European Union was created. Russia hasn’t gone through that process, the opposite even. Time and time again it has proven it can’t be trusted.
What you are saying is misleading from many pojnts of view:
- Russia never stated they want to invade europe, quite the opposite. You can think they are lieing, and that’s an opinion,but who is saying that Russia will invade europe any moment is mostly the EU. We have reports from the secret services of Poland, the US and other european countries that sat Russia is definitely not preparing an invasion. These reports are vert underreported in western media, but they are easy to find in specialized media.
- your second statement is false. The concept of “never again” related to wars came out after WWI, not the 2. Seems a small detail, but it’s not. Also, the european union is not a political entity, but purely commercial. The political part was never really developed (despite the promises). In fact the articles of reciprocal defense are very weak.
- while the trust in Russia is subjective and i can even agree with you, it’s a much weaker point when your main security partner is the US… Also, you don’t need to trust Russia to understand that they will not attack NATO, it’s enough to take a break from the very partisan info bombardement we receivr every day and look at the geopolitics and geoeconomics.
The alternative if somebody attacks you is to surrender and/or be defeated.
And usually the losers have to repay the legit war, so your life is going to chango to the worse by a a lot…
War is not a video game or a movie. You are banalizing an extremely complex subject.
I have the impression you don’t know in which world you live.
Nobody is banalizing anything, without an army you are simply a passive subject subjected to external forces.
Palestine, Venezuela, Ukraine, Libia, Syria…
You know why those countries are in chaos and however north korea isn’t?
You should think about the world again
Maybe i don’t, but what i learned in these years of studying history and military history tends to conflict to people’s opinion when it’s based on very strong feelings and not much more.
Please, develop that idea.
I fail to see the connection with our discussion
I don’t agree, regardless, doing the opposite is what got us in the Ukraine war. Well, that, and Russia being in control of the US government off course
That’s not the same type of respect
Um, I was assured this war was over. Or have we always been at war with
Eurasi… Iran?Well… I mean, yes. Yes we have.
I guess yelling “open the straight ya crazy bastards!” was not an effective negotiation tactic.
“The more muscles you have, the less political anger you show.”
lockheed martin happy
For now perhaps. If USA doesn’t change its policy after Trump it will start losing European customers.
Already happening. I might take a decade, but american military companies are fucked. Trust is broken permanently
Industrial military complex smiles
This is crap. Most countries in Europe are vassals of the US Empire. NATO was designed this way specifically.
When European kick US troops out and shut down their hundreds of bases I’ll believe it. Until then its just hot air.
they say it’s “to be less dependent on the American militarily” which is a good thing but he also did threaten to attack Denmark
I can’t believe he used the Trump livery for airforce one.
Actually no, I can believe it.
didnt someone big at NATO threaten Iran alongisde trump
