Comments by "Günter Zöchbauer" (@GunterZochbauer) on "Anders Puck Nielsen" channel.

The EU preferred to spend its money on social security. It was also a strategy to not appear as a potential threat to anyone after WWI and WWII. The US was willing to spend all the money on expensive advanced weaponry anyway and it was enough deterrence for the US and its allies combined. Of course, things are changing, especially with China emerging as a country with 3 times the manpower and obviously willing to challenge the US while also weakening the US economically.
44
@Princip666 As the current situation shows, its extremely important to be able to demonstrate that we can when necessary. That never changed.
31
Governments try to prevent unsettling the people but I got the impression they "know" at least that peace isn't certain anymore which is a huge progress compared to 2y ago
7
@Abacos27 Because the US has the bigger military budget, high tech weapons, and trained soldiers, experience in real conflicts, ..., while EU has not much of any of those. The number of people isn't a great measure.
5
@martstam2016 That there is no decline doesn't say much because we don't know how much it could have grown without China. That the US depends on China as a supplier for its weapons ptoduction is definitely weakening the US in multiple ways.
4
@thewingedringer Europe didn't participate in the cold war except as spectator. The US completely took over with its weapons and soldiers stationed in Europe. Not much has changed since, except that the threat from Russia shrunk.
2
@TJackson736 It might be a horrible idea, but a necessary one anyway. Who can do what with such a military is up to negotiations. If smaller countries don't agree with the terms they can't be forced to participate. For deterrence and defence it will be much more effective than multiple small forces.
2
If Trump is not completely going berserk, I'd say he just wants to allies to take over more responsibility and in the EU this is obviously absolutely necessary. The stance of the EU that we just delegate all real fighting stuff to the US is just a gigantic joke.
2
Putin might even start a counter-invasion🤔
1
@Princip666 You might have heard of the invasion in Ukraine? We know Russia wants to expand and it will go where it can get most out with the lowest hurdles. Without proper defence, Europe is up for grabs for anyone.
1
@richardparker1338 I understand that one can see it that way and there might be some truth to it but I don't think it's the full truth. After all the US was right about not buying huge amounts of natural gas from Russia, because all they do with the money is to build an army to attack Europe and to become an even bigger threat to the US. I think Europe not arming up was more about Europeans not trusting themselves to be able to keep peace. The history of Europe up to WWII was nothing but war.
1