Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Agreed. Trump might be a disaster in ten thousand different ways, but spurring Europe to rearm is one of the few positive things to come from the chaos he's sown.

As Manic Moran outlined, it's telling that Eastern and Northern Europe is incomparably better equipped for war then Western Europe.

Crazy that a few decades on from the Cold War, when West Germany was the dominant military force as a bulwark against the USSR/Warsaw Pact, and one of the finest militaries in the world, that the same country is now military crippled and Poland is the major military force.

That "massive re-armourment of Europe" is a con job which practically means massive contracts for military industrial complex since anything that comes off their factories will be more than 10x more expensive than what for example Russia is producing. It is a scam to shift money from taxpayer to the selected few.

As for Poland and praising their commitment for purchasing arms and munitions well, joke is on us since Poland is the largest net beneficiary of EU funding right from when they joined until this day. Its easy for them to spend money they get for free. We are the ones essentially funding this enterprise.

Ultimately, a rearmament would be going on anyway if Harris was President and it would be easier to do if the US were more reliable. I see nothing positive for us about Donald Trump as President or the changes in the US Republicans' that will likely long outlast him, I just see no way to spin it, sorry.

It could become an adapt & overcome or die crisis for Europe/the EU and we might end up better off if we get through it successfully, but suffering through that kind of thing is not pleasant at all!

I don't think you have any evidence it is a "con job", do you? It also seems like we need a robust "MIC", the way the world is going to hell, doesn't it? Of course the stuff will be more expensive than in Russia. We are richer, our living standards are better, and citizens of EU countries generally have more options. Companies (and their employees) will have to be compensated well to produce these weapons.

It is all a bit funny from the person who has praised Russia's economic resilience (against sanctions) + ability to wage war to expand its own territory on thread (like a corporate M&A at the nation level I think you said), and contrasted its reliance on primary sector and heavy industry (mostly the making of…weapons!) favourably with our own economies.🤡

edit: Also, EU structural funding and other supports to E. Europe (and indeed to other formerly poor countries like this one) have been a good thing and generally a huge success story. It is not a zero sum game or a "scam" of the contributing member states, we all benefit from it in the end if the resources are used well. You have a one eyed narrow minded view of it. If at the moment it is also helping Poland to have budget resources available to rearm rapidly, that is also good for all of us in the EU IMO.

You gotta love democracy! Unlucky Moscow Marge.

The US House of Representatives voted (353–76) to continue military aid to Ukraine. Amendment No. 116 by Marjorie Taylor Greene, which aimed to strip funding for Ukraine from the 2026 defense appropriations bill, was rejected.

MTG, if ever I wanted karma to catch up on a woman, she is number one candidate.

Don't worry I'm well aware if any NATO member Europeans were reading my posts as an Irish man they'd spit out their coffee. We're wasting billions on IPAS scammers but won't throw a couple of hundred million into air defence funds and the like for Ukraine.

We did good by taking in a lot of Ukrainians but did the EU cover a lot of that cost? And it's becoming clear now our government will want the hard working Ukrainians to stay which harms Ukraine post war and they've just used them as a gateway to creating a massive international protection racket of non Ukrainians.

I'm still of the belief NATO members should have urgently upped their spending to 3/4% the year Russia fully invaded Ukraine and they should have all been hitting their 2% target post 2014.

Aren't you one of the people who blames the West for Russia invading Ukraine? So you pretty much are already pretending that Russia is somehow harmless.

In the absence of Karma, I'd settle for Necrotising fasciitis, Cotard's Syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford Syndrome…all at the same time, preferably.

What would the world have thought if smartphones and social media were around when the Khmer Rouge were killing 25% of their own population in the late 70s, or in Rwanda in the the mid 90s.

As bad as Gaza and Ukraine are they are not in the same ballpark of many regimes we learnt about in history class.

none of this defence spending would be needed if only Russia would agree to stay in their own borders

You are right, I made a mistake on the pricing. But now I'm seeing supposed costs of $2.5 billion a pop when the Swiss contract was $6.5 billion for 5 systems, each with 3 launchers instead of 4, plus 2 spares. I make that $1.3 billion per system:

Defense Express reminds that, in 2021, Switzerland contracted five Patriot fire units (batteries/full systems) alongside 36 F-35A multirole fighters for a total $6.5 billion. First Patriots were to arrive in 2026.

https://en.defence-ua.com/news/17_patriots_for_ukraine_now_explained_by_redirected_switzerland_order-15174.html

I said 5 batteries without a sufficient supply of missiles would be pointless. I think that's a reasonable comment. The purpose of a battery is to intercept and down aerial threats, without missiles, it could not do that and would be pointless. The Swiss deal included 170 missiles, so I was expressing the hope that the missiles would be included.

While its great that the Germans will be making missiles, there's going to be a lot less of Kyiv by then if it can't get enough missiles in the interim.

Looks like the 2 month attempt to encircle the Tetkino metropolis in Sumy has been repelled from the region and Russians have took one settlement and have entered another one across the border.

Totally obsessed with trying to invade Russia while the whole front is collapsing in multiple areas.

Europe needs to re-arm using European developed and produced hardware, its a win win … getting stronger and boosting out own economies. phase out the dependence on the US… they are becoming more and more unreliable