Germany decides to leave history in the past and prepare for war

[myrmidex@slrpnk.net]

Leftist parties in my small country in Western Europe are mainly advocating for more diplomacy.

They're generally on board with the idea that NATO expanded too much eastwards, undoing a promise made after the fall of the USSR. So they seem to view Russian attacks on Georgia, Crimea and now the rest of Ukraine as a logical consequence. With enough diplomatic maneuvering, they believe the situation can be resolved in a peaceful manner.

[Guest]

I don't think bolstering up defence spending is bad.

It is much better to be prepared than sorry, also negotiating from a strong standpoint is helpful towards some other nations.

[Guest]

I understand Russia's reasoning, but without punching power we are at mercy of those who have it. Russia went from a insignificant poor country with nukes in the 90s back to main player worldwide today, mainly by weakening the other side with information warfare.

[archmageazor@lemmy.world]

We either get militant, or we get steamrolled by those that already are.

[cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

[skua@kbin.earth]

Every part of the world has a history of imperialism. Europe just happened to be the part that developed the tools to do it on the biggest scale, and the continent eventually burned itself down with them

China has had several of the biggest empires in history. So has India, so has Iran. Peru was once the seat of one of the biggest empires, and so was Mongolia. The Songhai and Mali empires were enormous. Ethiopia, the one part of Africa that kept outside conquerors out the longest, was itself a massive empire. Tonga once subjugated most of the other Pacific Islands.

The European empires inflicted a horrific amount of suffering, and they aren't completely gone. The mindset that created them, unfortunately, has been present in just about every society for all of history

[matombo@feddit.org]

2020s repeat the 1920s bingo: The red scare is back

[matombo@feddit.org]

Thing is: Militarism is also no solution to avoid WW3, however people wanting more troops and weapons are hardly question if that is really an effective solution.

[barsoap@lemm.ee]

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

[5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Just because you might call yourself militant doesnt mean that you need to querfront with all militants. Militancy is simply a tool.

[noneofurbusiness@fedia.io]

Here's my perspective as a non-European watching this shitshow unfold: That's fucking stupid. I mean NATO is a defensive alliance so what the shit?

[myrmidex@slrpnk.net]

The parties I talk about are not a fan of NATO, let that be clear. NATO has multiple authoritarian regimes under its wings, not only Trump but also Erdogan and Orban. Meloni's Italy is not too far off either, so I suppose that makes it hard for leftist parties to get behind it.

[myrmidex@slrpnk.net]

Next to diplomacy, punching power can very well come in an economic form, e.g. still multiple tens of billions of euros flow to Russia to purchase fossil fuels.

[isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de]

~ $ apt assessment

E: Invalid operation assessment

[povoq@slrpnk.net]

The EU defense spending is already massive, easily outclassing everyone but the US.

The problem is on what the money is spend on, as much is wasted to national white elephants or transferred to unreliable US defense companies.

And in general way too much is spend on global force projection tech. There is for example no need for the EU to have a navy fleet that can operate independently for many months in the Pacific.

[matombo@feddit.org]

How does a strong military prevent a war? It didn't work WW1 or 2.

[serinus@lemmy.world]

Well, you got the first part right.

[homesweethomemrl@lemmy.world]

Take a lap

[homesweethomemrl@lemmy.world]

[5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

I see your attempt of derailing, but I'll play the game.

How does appeasement prevent a war? It didn't work for the First or Second World War.