{"id":1600173,"date":"2022-08-11T06:47:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T10:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1600173"},"modified":"2022-08-11T06:48:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T10:48:22","slug":"the-russian-military-looks-like-a-joke-why-cant-europe-defend-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-russian-military-looks-like-a-joke-why-cant-europe-defend-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Russian Military Looks Like a Joke. Why Can&#8217;t Europe Defend Europe?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-russian-military-looks-like-a-joke-why-cant-europe-defend-europe%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1600173&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><span>One of the more frustrating aspects of U.S. foreign policy is the ritual hand-holding of Europe. Since the end of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/world-war-ii\/world-war-ii-history\"><span>World War II<\/span><\/a><span>, through the Cold War, and continuing in the decades after the Cold War, the U.S. has been Europe\u2019s primary defender. Such a fact should register as deeply strange \u2013 shouldn\u2019t Europe be the primary defender of Europe? \u2013 yet it has been accepted as a routine and necessary facet of the U.S. defense posture.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Russia\u2019s Paltry Military Budget<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>The U.S. has the largest defense budget in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/country-rankings\/military-spending-by-country\"><span>world history<\/span><\/a><span>. Last year, the U.S. military budget was $778 billion. China registered a distant second, spending $252 billion. Meanwhile Russia spent just $61 billion on their military \u2013 less than one-tenth of U.S. expenditures.\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>Russia\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sipri.org\/media\/press-release\/2022\/world-military-expenditure-passes-2-trillion-first-time#:~:text=Russia%20increased%20its%20military%20expenditure,cent%20of%20GDP%20in%202021.\"><span>defense budget<\/span><\/a><span> should raise several questions \u2013 questions such as, how much of a threat do they really pose? Are we overspending on NATO? Does the U.S. really need to be so involved in Europe? After all, Western Europe\u2019s three most powerful states \u2013 the UK, Germany, and France, NATO members all \u2013 spend $59 billion, $52 billion, and $52 billion on their militaries respectively. One might expect that when the defense spending of just three NATO members roughly triples the defense spending of Russia, the United States need not be so heavily invested.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Instead, the U.S. has pressured its European allies to increase their defense spending. That pressure did not start with Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine \u2013 it has been going on for a long time. Nor has it ever really been suggested that the U.S. draw down their spending in Europe \u2013 only that European countries match the U.S. contribution to European defense.\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seeing the Light<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span>U.S. presidents dating back to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2016\/10\/03\/trumps-nato-heresy-eisenhowers-wisdom-james-robbins-column\/91282406\/\"><span>Eisenhower<\/span><\/a><span> have scolded Europe for not properly contributing to the defense of Europe, and for overburdening America with the task. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/14\/us\/politics\/nato-president-trump.html\"><span>Donald Trump<\/span><\/a><span> made waves during the 2016 campaign because he was so openly critical of how blatantly NATO took advantage of the U.S. Trump angered our allies when he threatened not to honor <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nato.int\/cps\/en\/natohq\/topics_110496.htm#:~:text=Article%205%20provides%20that%20if,to%20assist%20the%20Ally%20attacked.\"><span>Article 5<\/span><\/a><span> unless the nation in need had reached a threshold military contribution relative to their GDP. Trump was wrong to propose conditioning Article 5 on a spending benchmark \u2013 but he was correct in asserting that Europe should be defending Europe. What Trump never proposed, however, what never found its way into the conversation, was that perhaps the U.S. should be spending less on European defense.\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/profile\/andrew-j-bacevich\/\"><span>Andrew Bacevich<\/span><\/a><span>, an outspoken critic of U.S. overinvestment in European defense, wrote eloquently about his conversion from a U.S. Army Cold Warrior into his present, enlightened state. \u201cMy own education did not commence until I had reached middle age. I can fix its start date with precision: For me, education began in Berlin, on a winter\u2019s evening, at the Brandenburg Gate, not long after the Berlin Wall had fallen,\u201d Bacevich wrote. \u201cWhatever I had expected, what I actually found was a cluster of shabby-looking young men, not German, hawing badges, medallions, hats, bits of uniform, and other artifacts of the mighty Red Army. It was all junk, cheaply made and shoddy. For a handful of deutsche marks, I bought a wristwatch emblazoned with the symbol of the Soviet armored corps. Within days, it ceased to work.\u201d Bacevich made similar insights during an Army trip into <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/countries\/german-democratic-republic\"><span>East Germany<\/span><\/a><span>, behind the Iron Curtain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAlthough commonly depicted as the most advanced and successful component of the Soviet Empire, East Germany more closely resembled part of the undeveloped world,\u201d Bacevich <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Washington-Rules-Americas-Permanent-American\/dp\/0805094229\"><span>wrote<\/span><\/a><span> in <\/span><i><span>Washington Rules: America\u2019s Path to Permanent War<\/span><\/i><span>. \u201cThe roads \u2013 even the main highways \u2013 were narrow and visibly crumbling \u2026 the villages through which we passed were forlorn and the small farms down at the heels \u2026 we noted a significant Soviet military presence, mostly in the form of trucks passing by \u2013 to judge by their appearance, designs that dated from the 1950s.\u201d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>The ultimate point: The Soviet Union was hollowed-out and weak, hardly worth the immense U.S. military attention. The point holds today, as the Russian military <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2022\/08\/09\/russia-has-lost-up-80000-troops-ukraine-or-75000-or-is-it-60000\/\"><span>struggles<\/span><\/a><span> to overtake a fledgling, under-equipped, unsophisticated <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/08\/putin-has-a-tough-choice-to-make-when-he-realizes-his-ukraine-invasion-failed\/\"><span>Ukrainian<\/span><\/a><span> force. The Russian threat has been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/08\/putin-the-powerless-the-russian-military-is-slowly-dying-in-ukraine\/\"><span>overblown<\/span><\/a><span>. And so has U.S. spending on European defense.\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><i><span>Harrison Kass is the Senior Defense Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, he joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. He lives in Oregon and listens to Dokken. Follow him on Twitter @harrison_kass.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the more frustrating aspects of U.S. foreign policy is the ritual hand-holding of Europe. Since the end of World War II, through the Cold War, and continuing in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1600294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1600173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1600173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1600294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1600173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1600173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1600173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}