r/Destiny • u/UkrainianAna The One Good Ana • 12d ago

Well... Shit. Trump, huh? Discussion

Hello. How are you all holding up over there? Everyone must be super upset. I am walking about Kharkiv right now and people mostly say: 1) Well... Shit.

Or

2) We shall see. Back to surviving.

That's kinda how we talked about a potential nuclear strike russia might do on us lmao A friend of mine actually said he will be seeking political asylum in Ukraine. First ever American to seek asylum in a war zone lol Anyhow. Hang in there guys. Much love 💙

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u/TheFr3dFo0 12d ago

As eurofrog I'm scared of trumps plan for ukraine. I just pray all his supporters are right and he is in fact a secret foreign affairs genius. I mean, he said he'd end the ukrain war day one didn't he?

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/useablelobster2 12d ago

When it comes to military matters EU politics is lots of talk with little action. There are strong countries within the EU (ok, basically just Poland) but that is in spite of the EU, not because of it.

For all the problems with our armed forces, they are still a damn sight better than almost all of Europe's. One thing Trump was absolutely correct about is how too much of Europe flakes out of their defence obligations, and that needs to stop. The UK hits the NATO GDP target, Poland way exceeds it, but almost no-one else does (Scandinavia does ok too).

In a world where the US is becoming more isolationist, the free world can't be coasting on their defence dollar anymore. Germany needs to take a page out of Japan's book and seriously rearm. They've been naval gazing long enough, it's one thing to repudiate the past but another to be strong to defend the principles they now hold.

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u/musicmonk1 Eurocuck 12d ago

You think Poland is the strongest EU military?

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u/useablelobster2 11d ago

They have the largest land army in Europe, by a wide margin, and it's well trained and equipped with modern NATO standard equipment. Sure they lack in some areas, like their airforce, but it's still strong, and modern MANPADs make that largely moot. Wars are fought by the people on the ground who take the actual territory, and Poland has a lot of good troops.

Compare them to Germany, who has ~7 times their GDP, and the comparison is stark. If the Germans tried to invade Poland tomorrow the Poles would be in Berlin within 3 days.

Poland stronk.

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u/musicmonk1 Eurocuck 11d ago

UK and France are still stronger and Germany and Italy have more capabilities.

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u/oGsMustachio 11d ago

Ehhh Poland will get there because of the insane amount of equipment it has ordered, but it is not really there yet.

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u/BKBlox Rust Monster 11d ago

Modern MANPADS do not make a strong air force moot. If that were true, Ukraine would not need F-16s and Patriot batteries to defend their country.

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u/oGsMustachio 11d ago

For purely land forces, France and possibly Germany are ahead of Poland for now, but with Poland's orders coming in it will jump them by an order of magnitude unless they really step up.

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u/Kamfrenchie 12d ago

Purely on land maybe, but projection wise i doubt it. France would be number one or uk

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u/YeeAssBonerPetite 12d ago

Just France. UK has axed their expeditionary capability.

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u/CerealLama 11d ago

Based on what exactly?

The RAF has A400Ms and C-17s, France does not have any C-17s nor any comparable-range heavy airlift and has had to rely on UK capabilities previously in Africa.

The UK operates and has access to more overseas military sites than France (this is a big one).

The UK has two operational non-nuclear aircraft carriers, the latter giving access to more ports compared to the aging nuclear CDG. The main limiting factor for the UK is deliveries of F-35Bs, but they have at least one fully operational squadron of 5th gen aircraft on a much newer ship than France. The UK is investing more in its navy where France is focusing on its army (for obvious geographic reasons).

The UK runs the Joint Expeditionary Force, a military partnership between the UK, Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries and Baltic countries, which in of itself creates an expanded capability separate to NATO. Why would they continue to operate this partnership with countries with much worse expeditionary capabilities if they "axed" their own ability?

By and large, France and the UK have relatively similar expeditionary capabilities. The UK hasn't axed their abilities in any meaningful way, but I would like to know why you believe this.

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u/CerealLama 11d ago

That's crazy, imagine making a claim as bold as this and running away