From: Dumas.Walker@f10.n1.z17521.fidonet.org   
      
   > The anxiety is partly misplaced. Trump's truculent brand of American   
   > nationalism is a terrible idea for many reasons, not least in the   
   > encouragement it gives to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to target weaker   
   > U.S. allies. But Trump is also the messenger of a warning Europeans   
   > desperately need to heed.   
      
   While I don't disagree with the sentiment here, I do disagree with those   
   examples.  Putin and Jinping seemed much more encouraged to start   
   (re)targeting allies (Ukraine, Taiwan) after Trump left office.   
      
   > Growth and dynamism: In 1960 the EU 28 . the 27 countries currently in   
   > the European Union, plus Britain . accounted for 36.3% of global gross   
   > domestic product. By 2020 it had fallen to 22.4%. By the end of the   
   > century it is projected to fall to just under 10%. By contrast, the   
   > United States has maintained a roughly consistent share . around a   
   > quarter . of global GDP since the Kennedy administration.   
      
   That is interesting, and concerning.   
      
   > Military power: When the Cold War ended in 1990, the West German   
   > military fielded more than 500,000 troops and spent 2.5% of its GDP on   
   > defense. As of last year, it was down to 181,000 troops and 1.57%.   
   > Britain's Royal Navy, the most powerful in the world at the outset of   
   > World War II, can now deploy just 10 submarines and fewer than two dozen   
   > major surface warships, some of which are inactive.   
   >   
   > In an all-out war, the British would exhaust their defense capabilities   
   > in about two months, according to a report to the House of Commons   
   > defense committee. The same would likely be true . if not much sooner .   
   > for every EU member-state apart from Poland, which aims to spend as much   
   > as 5% of its GDP on defense next year.   
      
   > . As Europe's NATO members struggle to meet the bare minimum goal of   
   > spending 2% of their GDP on defense, are they willing to come to grips   
   > with the fact that they probably need to spend twice as much?   
      
   These military facts/numbers have provided fodder for the aforementioned Trump   
   nationalists in the US.  They use them as proof that other NATO countries are   
   not pulling their weight.   
      
   > Trump's ideas about NATO,   
      
   Which come from the facts and numbers stated above, which the US media in   
   the past has tried to refute.   
      
   > his zero-sum attitudes about winning, his   
   > fondness for strongmen and his ignorance of and indifference to history   
   > are all, rightly, causes for European alarm. But people, and nations,   
   > succeed or fail to the extent that they refuse to hand over   
   > responsibility for their fates to others.   
      
   Because they don't like these things is not necessarily a reason to act in   
   complete opposite of them.  They should do what is necessary in spite of   
   what Trump says or thinks...   
      
   > "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to   
   > become nothing, have no place in it," V.S. Naipaul once warned. It's   
   > good advice for Europe on this solemn anniversary of their previous   
   > liberation.   
      
    ... and they shouldn't be hoping for others to bail them out if the crap   
   hits the fan.   
      
      
    * SLMR 2.1a * It's never too late to have a happy childhood.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)