this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
174 points (97.8% liked)
Europe
5273 readers
1479 users here now
News and information from Europe πͺπΊ
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.
founded 9 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
But isn't the EU's military self-sufficient the thing that the US has been talking about for so long?
Yeah it's just so nakedly transparent how dishonest their posturing is about Europe not doing enough on defense.
Turns out what they actually meant was "our entire economic system is predicated on infinite unending YoY growth targets, and we've run of ways to grow, so now you all have to start spending more money on feeding this fucking beast we created".
Also this theme of "how dare you take advantage of us all these years" is exactly the kind of talk domestic abusers use.
The US was far from reaching the end of ways to grow, they just have to keep financing universities and public research then load it up to applied science and VC money...
They got rid of research. They are getting rid of universities financing. They are emptying the pockets of VCs.
Oopsy.
They want the EU members to have large armies equipped with american weapons.
So they can turn off those weapons whenever they want?
That the US government can turn off at any time they want.
And then they build in a switch-off trigger so that when their allies, the Russians, and they will attack us - according to the so called Trump-Putin agreement - they can switch off all the weapons.
it's called "racketeering"
Even if a country has a very efficient military, or an ineffective one, "spend 5%!!!".
On USA weapons ofc.
Because spending more needs time to ramp up, relevant, arms production. Or buy from the USA of course.
Yes but they want to make money as well. It's a conundrum they are too stupid to solve.
Maybe some tariffs then? You know, to balance the US-EU weapons trade? How much EU weaponry does the US buy? :)
Since war weapons are bought by the government with public money, putting tariffs on them doesn't do anything. You can only make an effect with tariffs on purchases by private entities. In that sense the EU could put tariffs on weapon parts that European manufacturers buy from the US. I am not sure how big that market is though. AFAIK a lot of EU components end up in US weapons, for instance optics for military vehicles.
It does! I'm not a lawyer and know nothing about EU law in this regard but in my country, tariffs would effectively raise the US weaponry prices making them impossible to win a tender (not sure if that is correct English terminology) unless they offer something that EU just don't produce at all or the price is ridiculously high.
You could more easily exclude US products from tenders for security/strategic reasons. That is easier to achieve and more honest.
Hey, the US can still bid on EU arms programs, but we'll have to put a 200% tarriff in to balance the trade, because that's totally how it works.
Wait, let me check with chatGPT to confirm.
Yep, that's how it works!
Yes but not like that.jpg
No, they want Europe to pay for its own defense. That still would include buying US weapons.
Basically the US was the worlds police until recently. That gave them a lot of global influence mainyl the USD being the global currency. However it also required them to have a massive military and do things like supporting Ukraine, which obviously cost a lot. So they want other reasonable countries to pay for their own defense to keep their costs down. That however always meant still buying US weapons. The problem being that for some like the EU a working defense means less reliance on the US, hence less benefits.
If you need their permission to use the weapons you bought, it sounds a lot like they still are the police and you are only a samaritan that calls them and follow whatever they tell you to do.
For the most part, only they saw it that way. The very fact that America refuses to recognize the ICC tells you everything you need to know about how good faith their "world policing" actually is.
What they've actually got a history of doing is describing foreign incursions to protect their own economic interests as "police actions" rather than formal declarations of war, in order to ignore various laws and international conventions. America has not been the good guy since 1945.