Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing

Re:Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing by HDMI_Cable on Monday June 19, 2023 @02:39PM (#36394940)

> many Europeans deride the “need” for higher defence spending. This is due to Europeans’ perception that American military adventurism is what creates the instability from which Europe requires American protection in the first place.

Right, European countries thought that, then the War in Ukraine happened. Germany, France, and other European nations have all increased their military budgets [1], indicating that they were, unfortunately, wrong. It's clear now that we still live in a world where conquest is still on the forefront of many dictator's minds.

And that's disregarding Europe's own adventures in other countries; just look at France's parlays into Mali or Mauritania, Greece and Turkey, or Italy and their actions in the Mediterranean.

--- [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/defence-spendi...

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Re:Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing by Convolutional on Monday June 19, 2023 @03:06PM (#36395269)

> conquest is still on the forefront of many dictator's minds

I should note that the US government and media cheered when Yeltsin had the army shell the elected Duma in the Russian White House, so that Yeltsin could carry out his western backed economic shock therapy more quickly and without hindrance. And that Yeltsin chose Putin as his successor.

Something to keep in mind when westerners drone on about dictatorships.

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Re:Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing by dang on Monday June 19, 2023 @03:59PM (#36395825)

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for political battle. Accounts like that aren't allowed here, regardless of what they're battling for or against—i.e. it doesn't have to do with your specific views. It's just not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email [email protected] and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

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Re:Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing by 3dbrows on Monday June 19, 2023 @03:29PM (#36395524)

I would agree that the worldview of Europe is changing, given the sharp reality of its defences being tested.

Europe is of course (to state the extremely obvious) no stranger to its own imperial adventures. We might do well to stop that if we don’t want to trigger refugee flows and other outcomes we don’t want.

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