Europe quietly growing some fucking balls but it's still too much of a pussy to send combat troops to defend Ukraine
Is what the headline should say.
- It doesn't even need to be combat troops, for each combat troop there are about 3-4 handling everything else, like supplies, maintenance, instructors etc. We could send troops to help with those personnel demanding tasks, without being in actual combat.
  I absolutely agree that Europe needs to wake up, and take the consequence of Russia starting an unprovoked war against a European democracy.
  Give Ukraine EVERYTHING they need ASAP, and help with back-end personnel.
  Europe has a 10 times bigger economy than Russia, but Russia still manage to outspend Europe on military. Europe only needs to spend about 3-3.5% to catch up, and we are not (politically) able to do even that?
  
  Europe has a 10 times bigger economy than Russia, but Russia still manage to outspend Europe on military.
  In GDP terms the EU has a 10 times larger economy, but in GDP adjusted for purchasing power it is only 4 times larger. In absolute terms EU military spending is higher then that of Russia, but it is about the same, when adjusting for purchasing power.
  
  I had to check that out, because I found that very hard to believe.
  But it appears you are right:
  https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD?locations=EU
  26,431,141 million (international dollars) 2023
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)
  5,816,000 GDP (millions of current international dollar) 2023
  So EU is almost exactly 4.5 times bigger on PPP.
  but it is about the same, when adjusting for purchasing power.
  OK fair enough, but the point is that it needs to be at least the same for Ukraine. But maybe I wasn't clear on that part.
  One of the reasons PPP is so much better per dollar in Russia, is that energy is cheap. But the entire energy sector is hard pressed currently, and is running at huge deficits.
  In fact the Russian economy is so hard pressed from sop many sides now, like worker shortage, inflation, state deficits, insane interest rates, that makes investments near impossible.
  So Russia is cooking the books in almost every way possible. So we can't trust new numbers and deficits, they claim to have growth, but evidence shows the opposite.
  Another thing is PPP numbers don't work for imports, so the degree they rely on China, India, North Korea and Iran, the better PPP numbers aren't much help. In those cases it's the nominal number that counts.
  Still it's a valid point. 👍 😀
  
  Europe only needs to spend about 3-3.5% to catch up, and we are not (politically) able to do even that?
  Because usually extra spending comes from the healthcare and pensions of the population who are already having problems after the inflation what doesn´t get much votes and probably pushes more people to the far right who rather invite Putin in.
  
  Actual war funding generally comes from taxing the rich too. In USA during WW2 the rich had to pay 90% taxes!!!
  All of Europe has been giving the rich lower taxes for decades, raise the taxes on the rich could easily cover most, also without going to extremes. We only need about 1% extra tax to cover the increased military expenditure.
  To claim we can't afford that without sacrificing healthcare and services is based on propaganda by the 1%.
  
  is based on propaganda by the 1%.
  Yes, a lot of modern politics is based on it unfortunately
- Everyone seems to be forgetting that France has already offered/threatened to send troops to Ukraine but got shut down by the US (and other NATO countries). Never underestimate the ability of a French leader to go full Napoleon if the opportunity presents itself.
- You go. I don't want.
  
  I'm too morbidly obese to be useful.
  
  Do you have computer or electronics skills? Ukraine needs tons of people with those skills to help build and set up drones. That’s what is winning them this war.
  
  The only thing that will help them win the war is personnel and ammo. You can have a remote drone fleet completely wipe out the entire Russian army, but if there's no personnel armed with weapons to occupy the conquered land nothing productive is actually going to happen.
  
  They’re never going to capture Russia on foot. The way they win the war is by destroying Russian oil and gas infrastructure, their weapons facilities, and their command and control infrastructure. They win when Russia can no longer continue the fight, not by occupying Moscow (which they don’t want anyway).
  
  never going to capture Russia on foot
  You need to work on your reading comprehension, because that's not what I said nor meant to say. Try again.
  
  Be the barricade you always destined to be.
  
  But my flesh is soft and weak

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