Re:Fall of the Berlin Wall on Usenet (1989.)
by lizardking on Sunday May 14, 2023 @09:09PM
(#35942871)
The west was drunk on the on The End of History kool-Aid before the phrase was even coined.
Well it worked for twenty years or so.
Re:Fall of the Berlin Wall on Usenet (1989.)
by Georgelemental on Monday May 15, 2023 @02:29AM
(#35944503)
NATO disarmament/disbanding never "worked" at all
Re:Fall of the Berlin Wall on Usenet (1989.)
by chickenimprint on Monday May 15, 2023 @03:00AM
(#35944658)
The western european armies all massively downsized. The West-German Bundeswehr had around 500K soldiers and almost 3000 tanks until the end of the cold war. Currently, the - notably united - German Bundeswehr employs around 180k soldiers and owns a measly 225 tanks.
Yeah, during the 1990s, it finally became acceptable for NATO countries to cut military spending, and they did. NATO expanded by accepting a lot of former Warsaw Pact countries that wanted to join, and there was even talk of Russia joining at some point (then Putin came to power and he only wanted to join if he got special treatment). Despite its growth, NATO had become increasingly irrelevant until the invasion of Ukraine.
The only reason NATO has remained and still is relevant, is because Russia remained aggressive, so there remained a demand for security from Russian neighbours. But if you look at military spending, former Warsaw Pact members spend a much larger percentage of their GDP than western European countries, which, up to Russia's invasion, still believed in peace with Russia.
Re:Fall of the Berlin Wall on Usenet (1989.)
by realusername on Monday May 15, 2023 @07:45AM
(#35946653)
It did work, the military shrinked massively in every country and kept just enough defense to deter Russia from attacking.
> Sure, all the politicians in east and west keep telling the opposite, but that's just because they would rather keep things the way they were. For those in power, the status quo was much more comfortable as it is now, where no one really knows what's going to happen. How do they want to motivate further spending on arms when all those bad guys aren't bad any more? Sooner or later (and I believe sooner) the peoples of Europe will be fed up with this (if they aren't already), and what good are those military blocks then?????
> The East bloc obviously start disintegrating, politically and militarily. The West bloc won't survive that; if there is no East bloc, NATO will fall apart quickly. So, what's the problem? I certainly will feel more at ease with _less_ weapons. So will most people, I think. And besides, I think it's time Europe is being run by Europeans, not by Americans and Russians.
Oh, you sweet summer child…