• Germany’s army is so under-equipped that it used broomsticks instead of machine guns
    64 replies, posted
[QUOTE=DaMastez;47199387]This is the problem; if every war could be expected far in advance, then no one would have any reason to have a military. But they can't. How many people expected Russia to attack Ukraine after the pro-Russian government was ousted? Why take the risk when there are still large, powerful, and unstable powers nearby that could start a war? Is it because "oh well, the US has a big military, they can come save us before the fighting actually gets to our borders; nevermind those countries on or near the border with Russia", or are the powers of europe just that complacent?[/QUOTE] It seems pretty unlikely that Russia will attack Europe. Ukraine was attacked in a period where there was very little in the way of centralized power, hence the totally flaccid response to the annexation of Crimea. It seems unlikely that Europe will destabilize itself to the point where Russia thinks "yeah I could totally grab Poland right about now". If the Baltic states are attacked I hope NATO will do what it's supposed to - protect its member states. European armies are mostly lacking in the global reach part of time, as far as I'm concerned, so despite our relatively small (compared to our GDPs) defence spending, we could probably handle Russia if we needed to.
[QUOTE=Complifused;47186270]Well it's a good thing Germany isn't invading Russia then?[/QUOTE] It's a sad truth that Germans have to accept. No-one likes to play war with us if we're not the ones starting it.
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;47191434]I don't think Europe will need "saving" any time soon. Having a huge military budget in peacetime is silly. Sure, you can use it for intervention, but if you aren't interested in that, what's the point?[/QUOTE] Ya but having modern military and not needing it isn't nearly as bad as not having modern military and needing it
[QUOTE=Sableye;47203277]Ya but having modern military and not needing it isn't nearly as bad as not having modern military and needing it[/QUOTE] Saving money on not needed modern military equipment is better than not saving money on not needed modern military equipment. We don't really need the equipment, so why not use that money on the elderly, schools, hospitals or whatever? We're maintaining a small, largely modern army, and that seems like it's good enough for the time being.
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;47203478]Saving money on not needed modern military equipment is better than not saving money on not needed modern military equipment. We don't really need the equipment, so why not use that money on the elderly, schools, hospitals or whatever? We're maintaining a small, largely modern army, and that seems like it's good enough for the time being.[/QUOTE] Ya but the problem is, its not good enough to keep the neighbors thoroughly deterred, so you join NATO, which let's you threaten to bring a few friends to every fight, however you still haven't beefed up your arms, and it turns it your friends are also wimps, if the neighbor is a big scary dude he's not going to care about the difference between 1 wimp and 5 The point is, NATO works when everyone has enough combined arms to scare the neighbors but unfortunately few NATO members are doing their part at the moment I'm not one in support of bloated budgets but some of the navies of NATO countries are so small, their ships can be counted on one hand
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