this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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I have many friends here in eu talking about Europe getting militant as a bad thing. I'm not for escalating conflict in any way, but would like to hear some alternatives.
There really is no alternative. History (especially in Europe) has proven a near infinite amount of times that peace through strength is the only language imperialistic dictatorships understand.
Appease them and they will see that as an encouragement to come for you.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
Paradox of tolerance.
We either get militant, or we get steamrolled by those that already are.
I don't think bolstering up defence spending is bad.
It is much better to be prepared than sorry, also negotiating from a strong standpoint is helpful towards some other nations.
The EU defense spending is already massive, easily outclassing everyone but the US.
The problem is on what the money is spend on, as much is wasted to national white elephants or transferred to unreliable US defense companies.
And in general way too much is spend on global force projection tech. There is for example no need for the EU to have a navy fleet that can operate independently for many months in the Pacific.
China is up there too, with U.S. $236.1 billion in 2024.
So Tahiti or New Caledonia do not need a navy to be protected. I am sure the French will be exited by having part of their country not being protected by the EU.
Now add all the EU defense spending together. But yes, China is trying to catch up, which isn't great either.
Those French overseas colonies would probably benefit from more independence, yes, but if you have an actual military base there or an ally that wants you to be there, you don't need navy ships capable of operational multi-month independence either. That is really only needed if operating in hostile territory far away from home, and IMHO we don't need that.
Chinas defense spending is now higher then EU defense spending was before Russia invaded.
Yes, but EU defense spending now is a hundred billion higher and is projected to increase by another hundred billion by 2027. That double of what China is currently spending, and AFAIK they don't have plans to increase it by that much.
That is for this years budget....
https://apnews.com/article/china-defense-budget-taiwan-4ac7cbdc7d5b889732cd55916ff7eb36
Seems to confirm what I said. And Germany is literally discussing non-defense spending infrastructure projects that aid defense projects right now, so this isn't much different from what those experts are saying about China.
I'm curious. Please ask them for alternatives to fighting back when Russia invades and report back.
Economic sanctions is one alternative. See North Korea. It doesn't work very well against Russia because they do have a lot of resources and their population is used to scarcity. This tactic would be more efficient against, say USA, because quite frankly, the western lifestyle is not self-sufficient.
Another alternative is to use Putin's own "special military operations" where instead of fighting a war front to front, they attack specific targets or throw people out of windows.
This is difficult for Europe to do, because we like to align with each other before doing anything serious. That way, actual democracies are not fit to do this kind of stuff in comparison to a dictatorship, but it's possible if anyone feels it's necessary. However it rarely has a positive outcome. It's like flipping the table and hoping something better comes up.
Overall, all agressive behavior leads to a losing position. Nobody has ever won a war or even a street fight. Both sides lose. The victory goes to those who wins the peace. So that's what Europe is constantly trying to do by diplomacy.
Even if I dislike spending ressources on military, it might make sense to armour up, just to keep a seat at the table of peace negotiation.
Tnx man, hope people on top feel the same.
It's a difficult topic but I believe the voices against it are just as important as the voices for it to keep it in check.
Thing is: Militarism is also no solution to avoid WW3, however people wanting more troops and weapons are hardly question if that is really an effective solution.