EU to US: Help, we can’t cope without you on Ukraine

If that is what you think, then you clearly dont have the faintest clue how NATO is funded.

 

Leeches? Really? The EU paid 77 billions to the Ukraine, Germany another 20 billions and so on. Germanys economy took a hard hit following the sanctions and housing 1.5 million Ukrainians in Germany costs 15 billion every year. Not to forget the 100 billion extra fund for the Bundeswehr with which we're buying among other things the expensive F-35s from the US.

Germany is in a recession and our shrinking GDP will help meeting the 2% without improving our military.

Greece only spends more than 2% because they are prepared for a war against NATO member Turkey.

 

Europe has done quite a bit recently to help Ukraine. I'm proud of their change of heart.

 

Well...Russia had a chance to be more interactive with the West.....looks like Putler blew it.

I suspect Russias fragmentation is inevitable.

Learn Mandarin.

 

The Army taught me Mandarin almost 50 years ago at West Point. I used to be pretty good. Now about all I can remember is "Hau buhau"... "Ni gwo wo ba"... and "Wo mai bi"

 

12 years in the Bundeswehr.
When were you in Europe.

 

Nope just a reality check. The US needed help for Afghanistan, honestly, Gods own country, the Greatest Ever, the beacon of the West, with all its Aircraft Carriers and so on and so on, reaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy.

 

This narrative you've taken to heart is the kind of divisive nonsense that Iran, China and Russia want you to believe. They want NATO to fall apart and they've been working overtime to influence Americans, in particular right-wing Americans, to be anti-NATO and pro-isolationism.

 

Oh goodness. You and @Durandal obviously do not understand Article 5 of NATO.

Invoking Article 5 is done by NATO - not the U.S. So, 9/11 was the first time NATO was attacked inside Europe and North America by a foreign power. Each country can then respond in any way it chooses. This is why Ukraine has claimed defacto membership in NATO since they are being helped by nearly all of the NATO countries.

When NATO - not the U.S. - invoked Article 5, it was simply an agreement on the facts - the U.S. was attacked in North America by a foreign power. Please don't fall for the Russian agitprop. NATO is not the U.S. - the U.S. is simply one of the members of NATO.

 

The problem is that US politicians just don't care about US citizens.

 

Once again, Trump and Republicans were right, and still the left calls names and digs their heels in and distances themselves for problems their agenda caused.

 

They couldn't cope without us in Libya and the Balkans, either.

Same sh*t, different day....

 

I think I know the words "Kung Fu"?

That's about my knowledge of Chino.

 

Oh man...........................................

 

It is not simply an issue of financing. I agree with you about that part though. The EU doesn't have the ability to manufacture ordinance at nearly the capacity the US does and Ukraine has bled our stockpiles dry so to speak. That is why we gave them cluster munitions. We are running out of mortars that they are firing off faster than we can make them.

 

Mortars are pretty much useless against tanks. Range sucks too. And counterbattery efforts can easily spot the location they were fired from and clobber their source within moments. And there are systems like C-RAM which can render mortars useless.

 

That is true of almost every international organization that has the U.S. as a member. Meanwhile we work toward our own financial undoing.

 

And should Ukraine win the war, the begging bowl will be out asking for money to rebuild their country.

 

Available for nearly 30 years.

 

That doesn't increase their range, make them less susceptible to C-RAM or increase their survivability against counterbattery assets, All that does is allow in-flight corrections to better hit moving targets. And it requires an observer to maintain line-of-sight to the target, meaning the observer can be seen and hit too. (That's why we developed JAVELIN which is "fire and forget")

 

I heard that Western countries are working to make Ukrainian bonds available to investors outside of that country. If Ukraine wins, maybe invest a modest sum of money, help them pay for reconstruction, and let them pay you back over many years plus interest.

 

10 mile range and accurate withing 2 meters. Is that good enough?
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/ne...16/marines-introduce-deadly-new-mortar-round/

 

Not great. As an Undersecretary of the Army once told me in his office: GPS will get you in-country. Once there, it may become of little value.
Are you aware of what the acronym MIJI stands for?

 

Mariupol after its return to Russia. Pay attention to the faces of people. Apparently they don't know about Putin being a bloody dictator.

 

Most so called conservatives spend money like drunken sailors and are not really conservative. Just part of the fake two party dichotomy con job. Sad to say, the average American is a low information voter.