Tim the Tank Nut

Look, you are obviously a smart guy. You put an enormous amount of effort into making what you post here as oblique as possible. In the interest of clarity and fairness lets unpack this just a little bit. Trump is throwing out the Nordstream option as bait. I can assure you that if Germany is going to buy gas, Trump intends that it be US product, not Russian. The Russians know this too and that make's bad bait, but bait it is none the less. After reunification Germany did suggest focusing on NATO defense and did reshape part of its forces to suit the needs of others including the US. At the same time Germany used the "peace dividend" to draw down forces far past what any reshaping could legitimately account for. If I am not mistaken about it there is a thread about the topic from some years ago. There's not much defending the statement that the German military is worse for being a professional force rather than a conscript force. That's an awful indictment to make. Chancellor Merkel fancied herself an Eastern Centric Bismarck who could unite all Germany's threads under some sort of modern equivalent to the Reinsurance Treaty. I am sympathetic to Germany's physical location but Russia was always going to be a larger physical threat than the US was/is to Germany. Merkel sought to co-opt Putin through economic ties much as Trump seeks to do now. The end results will be the same. Trump, as a businessman, has to try these methods and let them fail in order to move on to different and more substantial methods. It's a weakness of his but one that we will have to tolerate. Merkel on the other hand had no immediate threat and chose to reduce energy independence and open borders without regard to future consequences. If that it what Germany voted for then yes, Germans are at the root of the problem but I don't know that Merkel campaigned on those themes. All of today's issues have their starting point from that "end of history" period which was where you got way too many dreamers in power. Now, we are all suffering for it.

Gabbard has a new project now to work on. Better comms between Administration figures who need to be meeting face to face. The leak isn't the issue. It's the mediocrity of it that is galling. Hegesth's points are well made, Vance continues to disappoint. Graham's content was actually funny.

Poland has spent enough. Trump and the USA will fight for Poland. I feel like I am familiar enough with events during Reagan's time to say that Reagan LED enough to beat the Soviet Union with its own spending. Keep in mind that Ted Kennedy was on record over and over to let the Sovs have what they wanted. I don't mean to imply that the fifty States in the United States are the same as the nations that make up the EU. Clearly there's a difference but the idea that the USA can completely disregard public opinion is under the same constraints here is your nations are there.

Seahawk, if that's some clever way of defending Germany's energy policy vis a vis nuclear energy and Russian gas you're going to have to be a lot more specific. If's its just one of those "can't tell if you are serious or not" posts let me just say that act is wearing pretty thin. A text box doesn't allow others to interpret your content quite like you think it does. Looking at another possible interpretation: if you are trying to defend Merkel's record, I don't think you are going to be able to convince me that she didn't make a shambles of Germany and Merkel is the one who convinced Trump through her actions to view Europe as he does now. If you are assuming that Trump doesn't understand the European mindset I can assure you that his wife does and in THAT particular bedroom he's not telling her how things are going to be. On the best day that's a fifty fifty split. More often than not Donald is behind the eightball by ten points where Melania is concerned.

RO11 no biggie It's a hot topic. Even on old Tanknet this sort of thing would have people going at it. On current Tanknet things are more, how shall we say, verbose?

I'm old enough to remember the vilification of Reagan and his "unwarranted" build up and the "unacceptable increase in East-West tension" as it played out over the eighties. As far as it being willful ignorance goes, in my case I'm simply not willing to write all the individual names of countries in Europe when I can simple write Europe. It's a convenient shorthand. Besides, Europe consistently refers to the US as a single entity when in fact it is a 50 state amalgamation that is currently politically divided in a catastrophic manner. I've been lucky enough to travel Europe on three occasions. I like the place, I like the people, and I like how things feel there. I am not anti European in any way. That doesn't preclude me from pointing out things that I disagree with. Germany's energy policy in particular is an example of text book stupid. Europe as a whole is just as guilty of feeding the Chinese dragon as the US is and then acts shocked that China suddenly has copies of BMW's best cars. Really, you put the factory there and now you're surprised? That's Democrat level stupidity. My perceptions of the current state of world events is shaped by a life time of experience and a certain knowledge of what does and does not work. The USA has made terrible decisions since the early nineties. That means there's been 30 years for other nations to start getting their act together. The Eastern NATO members (Poland) are the ones who take NATO seriously. Germany has the attitude of "me worry? Poland is between us" and geographically that's true but it sort of negates the point. If the US points out that we have these nifty oceans then the US is bad but when Germany leaves the Poles to burn, well that's just an internal European matter and not a world concern. For my part, the entire argument is specious. Negotiations are in play at all levels and the US hasn't reneged on any commitments. Certain parties are making claims of future events to satisfy their own political machinations.

replying to RO11: I didn't say "too much". I think you misread me. The US based Pax Americana was/is almost identical (in concept) to the peace that Great Britain brought across the oceans with the RN. Somebody always had an issue with it but in the main it was a net good. Ironically if it was the RN today doing what it did then Stuart would object to it. The US umbrella gave an economic opportunity for everybody. All we've caught for it is grief. I don't feel like Europe owes us anything for what has been done so far. It was all in our interests to do it. At the same time, I don't like being bashed for our interests changing and not continuing the free ride.

I wish that I had the clarity of thought that Burncycle360 brings with his posts. It's like reading Charles Krauthammer again. You should be in the business (except, of course, that such views are not in vogue these days). I'd like to focus on this: "it's good to see the status quo finally disrupted" It had to be. The path we were on was/is unsustainable and nearly a mass psychosis level event. I'm a huge Star Trek fan and find many of the themes from the Original Series are relevant to the world that I live in. The bridge crew, if it saw today, would be amazed and not in a good way. If change didn't come then the path is grim and certain. Trump, for whatever his faults is completely willing to shout that the Emperor has no clothes. In his first term he was hesitant and unprepared. Now he's a man who knows he was supposed to have died and didn't. Many people would've become more timid. To his credit Donald Trump is not. Europe has had much provided by the USA. The whole world has benefited from Pax Americana. The USA is certainly a benefactor as well. Now, the USA has a healing process that it must go through. That itself could still go very badly. If we make it through then we can take another look at establishing a new Pax Americana. For right now our resources are the least we've had since before the war. Either Europe decides to help or not. If Europe decides to thro in with China then let's be honest Churchill's quip bout the crocodile couldn't be more apt.

it's okay, their going to text the notice about offing Goldberg to the Yemenis.

nothing to see here move along...

In several exercises China seems to be practicing for a blockade against Taiwan. It seems to me that such a strategy is designed to make many targets for the USN and its associates. After all, we can sink ships more quickly than Taiwan will run out of food. Regarding the robots, that always ends well.

replying to rmgill: My expectation is that Trump will bite into an apple and say "I don't like to lose". We are in the first half of the movie. It could still go terribly wrong but I think Trump has it figured out. His methods are New York and that plays badly in Europe but our options are few. None of our European posters here have a real understanding about the changes in the USA over the last decade or so. Our domestic political challenges are incomprehensible to most foreign observers. If we get ourselves on track none of the off shore stuff can beat us. If we don't then it won't matter anyway.

looking at topic line 3 about readiness for a peer to peer conflict has as much to do with will as equipment. The US is very split politically. This makes unity in the face of conflict unlikely. Currently we have Democrat political operatives demanding the return of violent illegals to the United States. That sort of mentality is going to affect military readiness. We recently had a Joint Chiefs Chairman open a backdoor channel to the CCCP leadership disputing Government policy. These things matter and will take time to correct. It wasn't that long ago that a US President told Putin that he'd "have more flexibility after the election" which was an honest statement but not one for the good of the Ukraine. On the equipment side we are very good but not nearly as good as we think we are. Luckily for us the military equipment that China uses is all MADE IN CHINA so it's worse and their political hierarchy is even worse than Russia. Mr Putin was undoubtedly surprised at the poor showing of his military forces. Chairman Xi will wish his showing was as good as Russia's if the big war kicks off. There are going to be a lot of really hungry Chinese if they sink a CVBG because around 2000 dead is what sends the US into freakout mode. We aren't ready for drone war. There's a lot to learn. We aren't ready for Cyber war. Our forces are still trained for small unit ops, not divisional maneuvers. All that is going to take time and time is a luxury that depends on the enemy. You are certainly correct about it being a fine line and Trump is pushing it right to the edge. It remains to be seen if he pulls off a Captain Kirk maneuver of if he becomes Captain Terrell of the Reliant. He's taken us this far, I'll ride with him the rest of the way. If you knew how bad things are here in the US and how they were for the last 4 years I think you'd have a better understanding of our willingness to trust President Trump.

Yes, yes they have. When we took the tanks over in 06 or so the people of Normandy were wonderful. Anyone in France who was alive then remembers.

Germany's response to Fukushima is why someday Merkel's name will be a hissing in the dark.