Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Outspoken Irish MP Richard Boyd Barrett says the world must reject Western and NATO expansionism" video.

This is why Ukraine is more interested in joining the EU over NATO, the thing is with NATO is that it's around mostly to protect and project US interest around Europe but it's kinda limited in what it can do for European members that are in it. The EU is quite different in the sense of integration and geopolitics, basically, EU members are a lot more integrated into each other that makes it much more difficult and costly on each other when it comes to war among them, that is also the case for an outside invader on an EU member, it was in fact the idea of the EU when they created the Coal and Steel Community shortly after the second world war to make it much harder for its members to go to war with each other, the impact is the same for any country attacking an EU member, it truly is, an attack on one is an attack on all, that is something that's not been tested with NATO and in truth, very little holds NATO together unlike the EU. As for the geopolitical situation, well the US rarely cares about things outside it's boarder and is likely using the situation with Putin and Ukraine to do a lot of damage to Russia, the EU on the other hand wants to expand and doesn't want a war on it's border, that likely makes them more caring for what's going on in Ukraine and Europeans overall tend to care more about the outside world than Americans do at the best of times. The only problem for the EU is that they don's speak with one voice in key areas like military, security and energy, I have a feeling that the war in Ukraine could have been prevented if the EU members pooled resources together into a single military, the EU could have put around 60,000 troops in Ukraine as peacekeepers which likely would have been enough for Putin to not invade, because it's one thing to attack Ukraine, which is a poor country even by Poland standards, it's another to attack if there is a powerful military in the region. Now the US could have done the same thing but the US rarely cares about things outside it's boarder unless it's in self-interest, the EU on the other hand highly likely wouldn't want a war zone on its boarder. So yeah, as good as NATO is, the Europeans in the EU need to get its act together and start pooling resources together into a single military if they really want to protect their interest, after all, Putin invaded Ukraine in part because he sees the west as weak and divided, so this isn't about Europeans being more caring but more about them not wanting a war zone on its door step which if they spoke as one with its own military, this war could have been prevented before it started and what Putin is doing in Ukraine is a major wake-up call for Europeans that they need to band together, the EU is the perfect tool to do that through. Also, let's be blunt about this, being neutral is an easy way out of letting wars happen, if too many countries did that, there would be little to stop the likes of Russia, China and many others going on a rampage around the world, it's the chicken way out. With that said, the military should be used mostly for defensive purposes in most cases, something the US rarely does, this is where the EU if the members get their act together could be a game changer, but in any case, being neutral isn't the solution when we've got hostile powers like China and power, in fact that would weaken us all a lot.
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