So, I don't know where your opinion comes from. But I think you could be better informed ;)
Ps. I do think we should buy less US and spend more European. Eg. The F-35 is a joke currently, considering the costs.
Defense spending alone is meaningless if there is not an accompanying ability/willingness to project power. Russia is certainly not shy about projecting it's power and European countries have been when it comes to Russia. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia certainly don't feel their security would be guaranteed in the absence of the United States being in NATO. Thanks to a successful Russian campaign to undermine confidence in the United States increasingly U.S. security guarantees are becoming less reliable.
The shift to a multi-polar world has begun. Will European governments rise to the challenge?
x 4 doesn't justify "a bit of duplication"
The difference is big enough. If we talk GDP, Europe is > ~13 times Russia. And don't forget, the size of their troops were x 5 during the USSR. Guess how much that helped.
Propaganda vs reality ;)
PS. https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-a-big-shift-russians-take-to...
Quote: you are nothing with an army, if civilians aren't happy.
In case there is misunderstanding on what I meant by duplication let me be more specific. The UK and France both have similar military command structures. Thus collectively both militaries are paying for the bureaucratic overhead of maintaining of two militaries whereas Russia pays for only one. Both militaries have personnel dedicated to HR, admin, police and other ancillary costs for maintaining a military. Since there is no Euro wide military the collective spending on defense is inefficient.
From my perspective The EU is militarily disjointed, fragmented, and overall weak. I'm speaking solely in terms of military might and force projection.
You already mention 3 countries. You are forgetting Georgia and a lot of other countries.
Europe is a democracy and tries to influence with trade, not war. We do not force western opinions that much as America does.
PS. I'm aware of Europe's history, but we live in the present. The EU is still young ( 1999 was the Euro ) and people seem to forget this all the time. I'm pretty sure that almost everyone who reads this will be older.
