• rottingleaf
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    10 months ago

    I think Europeans in general psychologically still feel themselves weak without NATO, unable to fill the needs of their own defense.

    I’ve been reading about 1st Indochina war yesterday, so - emotionally biased.

    • SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      EU’s population: 448 million

      EU GDP: 19 trillion dollars

      Russia’s population: 143 million

      Russia’s GDP: 1,78 trillion dollars

      Simplifying a bit here (I’m obviously taking Morocco and Belarus for granted, assuming that Turkey wouldn’t attack Greece, and so on), but it’s pretty much a “gotta get our shit together” situation, because there’s no reason why we should depend on the US for defense, or anything else.

      • paholg@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        10 months ago

        I assume you meant trillion and not million for those gdp figures? Even then, they’re low.

      • rottingleaf
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        10 months ago

        That’s about architecture more than resources. “Gotta get our shit together” doesn’t negate the fact that shit isn’t together yet.

        It’s good to have resources, but such a situation is still weakness. Only I think NATO in some sense is a contributing factor, and EU frankly too, both not in the least because of all those veto and consensus rules.