Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tells Blinken

Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by dotancohen on Monday March 07, 2022 @11:10AM (#30589492)

  > demilitarize EU member states so that they can't start a war with one
  > another as they no longer have a military to directly control.

And how would those demilitarized states defend against coups d'état? If your answer is the police then I ask how does the police decide which side to take? And do you really want police armed sufficiently for that purpose? And trained? At that point, you've got an Army with full police-level access to citizen records, investigation capability, and internment options.

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Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by djrogers on Monday March 07, 2022 @11:34AM (#30589849)

Presumably it would be in the interest of the EU to prevent coups within their member states, so the EU Army would defend against them.

That would have the advantage of removing the most common source of coups - a corrupt military leadership.

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Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by dwighteb on Monday March 07, 2022 @12:06PM (#30590322)

I’m not against an EU military in principle, so my question isn’t loaded, but genuine curiosity. What would prevent an EU Army from possibly forming a corrupt military leadership?

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Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by dotancohen on Tuesday March 08, 2022 @02:10AM (#30597233)

It's a good question, and probably has no good answer.

As it is, a current corrupt European military is constrained to a single nation, and would have to coup that nation before conquering the continent. There would be no such natural constraint for a unified EU military.

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Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by dotancohen on Monday March 07, 2022 @11:58AM (#30590213)

And when Germany is no longer satisfied with Greek loan defaults due to the Greeks simply not taxing their population? Do you think that Germany will let Greece tank the Euro without exhausting every option on the table, including replacing Greek politicians if necessary?

If this sound far-fetched to you I implore you to look at the last decades' relations between the countries.

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Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by michaelt on Monday March 07, 2022 @12:14PM (#30590436)

> And how would those demilitarized states defend against coups d'état?

The same way individual US states defend against coups, presumably.

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Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by sofixa on Monday March 07, 2022 @02:41PM (#30592405)

That's a weird question. In some countries armies aren't even allowed to participate in domestic events ( e.g. Germany). And how would the army know better than the police which side to take?

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Re:Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tell... by dotancohen on Tuesday March 08, 2022 @02:07AM (#30597222)

Yes, that is exactly my point.

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