Re:US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
by ascorbic on Sunday March 09, 2025 @11:06AM
(#43309639)
A week ago Trump killed the western alliance when he made it clear that allies could not rely on the US. This week he has killed the US weapons export business. Not a single country will trust them now. It would be quite an interesting thing to watch if we didn't have to live here.
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He also may have killed US agriculture, we'll find out in the next few months.
*They can’t rely on USA and the American tax payer for the defense of their country. Finally some defense spending will have to take place
Spending among NATO member nations had already started growing considerably since Trump's first term. And a lot of that spending went towards buying US made weapons, though not exclusively.
With this move, any nation will think twice about buying US made weapons. Trump effectively kneecapped the US arms industry by this move.
The spending that happens, though, will not be flowing to the US like a very large share has in the past.
Europe has spent trillions on defence since the fall of the Berlin Wall, most of which went to US weapons manufacturers.
What the last decade has shows is relying on external oligarchs for energy and defence is not sensible. The us has encouraged this for a long time. I just hope that Europe actually steps up quickly enough.
It will hurt the us a lot more than Europe, and China will be massively emboldened in the Pacific. It’s a new world order.
Re:US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
by Argonaut998 on Sunday March 09, 2025 @12:38PM
(#43310817)
Even accepting that as true (it’s not — it’s the cost of having soft-power in Europe.) it means that no European, and probably Turkish, Korean, Japanese and Canadian cash will be flowing to the USA defence industry.