General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Finally, he has laid all his cards on the table. [View all]dutch777
(4,938 posts)The writing is on the wall whether over a political issue like Greenland or just that Trump walks us away unilaterally, the fact that they cannot count on us being there when they need us vs. Russia is clear. Not a question of if, just when. Their hard internal issues are that many of their economies are not in great shape, hard tradeoffs between social programs and military spending will have to be made (or taxes increased) and their populations are really not interested in being part of bigger and truly capable militaries which means very unpopular mandatory drafts. Having served in Germany in my army days in the late 70s, while they had a much bigger military force (2500 tanks vs. now 350; 450,000 troops vs. now maybe 200,000), the majority were very poorly motivated draftees just doing their two years and then gone. Certainly actually defending their homeland against immediate aggression would stiffen their resolve but if your training has been nonchalant and you have no serious warfighting experience in the ranks and officer corps, its a big lift to be a capable force overnight. Their other major problem is that the US has the only comprehensive intelligence network-- the satellites, eavesdropping and large scale analysis capability that has the experience in depth as well. Must be a lot of hard conversations and hand wringing going on behind closed doors in the EU.