"The age of American dominance in European security looks like it won’t end anytime soon." Or it could end next week, willy nilly. It's not unbelievable that Xi, using a different set of values in his calculus than the Brahmans at Foggy Bottom, could decide on any given Sunday that considering the possible change in US leadership, the best time to strike is now.
Trump could very well beat the margin of cheating, and win the election, and say "Europe, you're on your own."
Europe desperately needs to get over their belief that the world revolves around them, and everyone will spring to their defense if attacked.
Someone in a previous thread once aptly said, "We don't give a sh*t about anyone other than the UK." Presumed NATO obligations aside, that is Truth. Make of it what you will, EU.
If I were to rate the EU nations I'm willing to support, first would be britain - then Poland, and maybe the baltic nations....then the balkans. Then Canada, Spain, Portugal. Somewhere down near the bottom? Germany and France. Italy and Greece? Hell no
When we were attacked on 9/11 Denmark sprang to our aid. Denmark had more casualties, per capita, than the United States. Based on the size of the nation, they lost more men in combat than we did.
A nation which sent soldiers to bleed and die in our defense is worth our support.
I lived in Canada for twelve years, and my wife and BIL were in the Canadian Defence Forces - my wife even worked in a civilian capacity with them at HQ.
I have a great deal of respect for the people who serve in the DND.
But the support they are given, the money they waste in stupid things like bilingualism (it would be FAR less expensive to teach the Francophones english than to try and teach the English to speak french), the build it here no matter how expensive it is....
“The US has a comprehensive military strategy” - it does? Even if you accept this premise, we have not been allocating resources and building things to support this strategy.
Hah. Note that was a quote by some guy from "Air Street Capital" so from his perspective, it's probably true. "comprehensive military strategy" = "giving me a blank check with no accountability whatsoever".
"The only thing Putin understands is power". I agree with that quote from your first link (thank you, by the way) , but I don't think the speaker understands what that means or is willing to accept the consequences. When a US politician says something is "unacceptable" they are talking nonsense; they will, and do, accept anything. When Putin said Ukraine in NATO is "unacceptable" he meant it--hence the current unpleasantness. We don't have to like Putin, but we do have to deal with him, without moral posturing and wishful thinking. That's reality and realism.
Putin thought Ukraine would be an easy conquest. Ukraine had been working to bring their military up to NATO standards, and were well along that path. While there are many things Putin finds unacceptable (Ukraine outside the Russian empire is just one example) You have to be able to make your will stick. Putin has not been able to, and if eh west keeps supporting Ukraine as they should, he will never be able to.
Putin conquering Ukraine is not acceptable either.
"Putin conquering Ukraine is not acceptable either." The European countries should believe so. It is not the U.S. that has an inch of soil at risk. I refuse to support any longer the idea that we need to care more about Europe than Europe cares about itself. With the critical problems we have I don't give a damn about Ukraine. We cannot afford to continue being the Dudley Do Right for the World. America First. Ukraine is NOT a critical national security concern for America. Nice to have, but...
So tell us, pray tell, what foreign army was resident in Ukraine that Putin invaded to drive out? We await your superior enlightenment with bated breath.
That article mostly BS. The occupation of Europe has long been over, and US troops were kept there through the early 90s because of NATO commitments. When my father was stationed in Germany during the late 60s, there were 400K US troops there. There are now less than 80K. For that twit to assert that the US has subjugated Europe is to deny practically every fact about the situation in Europe.
His "view" is simply of a piece with the rest of the left and just as warped.
OK, thanks for the recommendation. Just bought a used hardback copy from Amazon for $2.80 and will give it a shot, and try to be an optimist. Might be a hard sell as it was written in 2008 and lots of trust has been frittered away in the past 16 years (probably exponentially in the past 3). Am rusty on Latin declensions. Hope this clarifies whether it's "Pax Americana" or "Pax Americanorum".
Yep, alas. The Bubdesrepublik has gotten stupider since the victory of he socialist coalition on 1969. They used to have the best Army in NATO, but no more.
If we believe Lt. Gen. Mais on the Bundeswehr Nachgefragt a few days ago, only 80% of the billets are filled and Germany is considering bringing back compulsory service.
I think they will be compelled to do so. They need to build their army back to what is was in the 70s, at a minimum, and just as well trained and equipped.
I feel like the only workable solution for the EU, and by this I mean "No way in hell will they do it", is force homogenization across the continent, working from the same contracts and same supply pools so they get the sort of economy of scale that we do in Freedomland. They have to know they can't (and shouldn't) depend on free eagle rides forever.
Also for the Slackers like Germany to actually step up and do their part, lest they find Russian troops closing in on Berlin, Again.
A new Ukrainian deli and food store opened here in Pensacola just as the Rus-Uke War started. I had eaten Ukrainian food at a deli in Manhattan, Kansas the year before and liked it, so I stockpiled a few hundred bucks of goodies here. Fat lot of good it did, as I had it all gnarfed up in 2 weeks. The owners of the store here were optimistic. Said they'd be OK when/if the war ended in Spring. Just googled it. Looks like it is an Eastern European deli now with Russian/Turkish/Ukrainian foods stocked. Think I'll buy some Russian and Turkish soon. Good taste ought to be apolitical, I guess.
And yet you buy Chinese made goods every day. Something ironic about that. Russia is not a threat to America, and the Chinese may be an existential threat to America as we know it.
The Jackson-Vanik Amendment restricted trade between the US and Soviet-run states, plus the Russians didn't seem to be interested in doing consumer business with the US and would not respond to inquiries about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson%E2%80%93Vanik_amendment
If Putin wins in Ukraine, you will feel the impact. Thinking Russia is not a threat to the US is silly. Putin hates the US with a white hot hate and has as one of his most important dreams the destruction of the US.
Russia is the country with the largest nuclear arsenal. The only one with more nukes than the USA. Would they use them? I really don't think so, but they could.
“Defend Europe against whom? My enemy is not their enemy.”
But there IS a common enemy, even though most Europeans have their hands firmly covering their eyes. That enemy is militant Islam, this time in the form of millions of "refugees" who walk across nations' borders and are ferried to undefended coastlines by NGOs' ships. And aided by complicit "local" government officials like Angela Merkel and Sadiq Khan, the invaders are already there, raping and murdering their way across the landscape.
Add (Sir) Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to that list of government officials who deliberately sought our immigrants from Africa and the Middle East to turn the UK into the UN.
People are animals, not in the insulting sense, but, in reality. We are driven by forces and instincts we do not understand. There are biological imperatives to having children. When the world is shite, when folks are confronted with poverty and privation; they have babies. When things are great, they don't have babies. It's biology. Cf., Gaza.
NATO in this aspect, is a figment. It relies on national contributions, not a top down, strategy-driven building of capabilities. All of the European NATO countries have let their defense and defense industries atrophy to the point where they collapse in on themselves like a black hole. The reason is economies of scale. You can't effectively or efficiently produce and procure 50 tanks or 20 airplanes or 3 submarines or one aircraft carrier with one-off national designs and factories. That's why you have "Eurofighter" and Airbus -- consortiums. Aircraft have been built multi-nationally because of the emphasis on tech and airpower to thwart the Soviets/Russians. But when it comes to military gear that contributes to a coherent national strategy and carry some symbol of the nation, it can't be done in Europe today. Brits want the Challenger, Germany wants the Leo, France wants the LeClerc. That's why the export market is so important. So within NATO and globally, the countries compete with each other and with the US.
And Cdr S put his finger on the real reason for withdrawal from Europe -- the Pacific. I am not a student of tech or industrialization, but I can't think of one thing that Europe produces that is more valuable to the US than the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. We abandoned the 2.5 war strategy and force size driver with Nixon's Guam speech -- we've only paid lip service to multi-war capability since. If push came to shove globally, I know where I would want to put the US military -- and it isn't Europe.
NATO is largely at odds with the EU especially as regards budget. This forces the U.S. to frequently make foreign policy decisions and take actions that are not in our interest.
Your posts are cogent and concise. I would appreciate any suggestion you have for one of us to change our screen name. First name and second initial? How can a screen name be changed?
The "how" is done through the button in the upper right corner of the floating header, at least via the web interface (I don't use the app).
Click that, then select "Settings", and at the top of the settings page click the "Edit" button to the right of your display name. From there you can change the displayed name, and select a handle if you want to start a substack of your own.
As for what to change it to, I'll leave that up to you and the other "Harry".
The Suits at JCS have been hand selected by the most evil politicians the country has ever produced. Winning isn't an option and failure is just a steppingstone to success.
At this point Europe is de-industrializing so fast thanks to Genocide Joes minions blowing up Nordstream and cutting of energy discussions like this are farce. Europe is learning the grim truth of that 1968 observation by Mr Kissinger.. "it may be dangerous to Amercan's enemy, but to be Americas friend is fatal." And no, the Russians are NOT coming...
Ceuta & Melilla get over run often despite the walls. Spain probably has worries because of centuries of Islamic occupation. Bet Josephus Seaxpaque in Europe, despite having a wider body of water than the Rio Grande, worries more about the invasion from the South than one from the East.
Given teh NGOs that are ferrying invaders to Spain, it is a serious worry. They could do something about the NGOs, and they should. Impounding the ships is just the minimum they should do.
The industrial revolution began in Great Britain because it was the first nation to permit individual liberty. Economic freedom, the free enterprise system, coupled ingenuity with the ability to make a personal profit. The rest, as they say, is history.
Europe has chosen that path for itself based on the "green" energy investments they have wedded themselves to... German industry has made it abundantly clear that they are struggling to see a path forward where they could keep production in Germany. Given the priesthood of green energy zealots we have in our midst, they're perfectly content to applaud the EU's investments in alternative energy production because they and the EU elites have one mutual thing in common... they all suck at math.
Sleepy Joe did not blow up Nordstream. Gazprom did the dirty on that because of contract provisions. Putin had ordered the taps closed and Gazprom was going to be forced to pay compensation for gas not delivered. Gazprom did the deed so they could declare force majeure to avoid paying compensation.
The ages-old nemesis from the East supported the Union in the US civil war when the major European powers were trying to find a way to use the Confederacy to cripple the US economy. Also, Germany an France tried to wipe out Russia within a hundred years of each other.
France and the UK stayed out of the war and refused to support the Confederacy. British workers were entirely against helping the Confederacy because of Slavery, and France was not going to do anything if Britain did not. They did not attempt to wreck the north's economy.
The issues are dealt with in a book out on the net. You can find it by searching for,
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Britain and the American Civil War
by Ephraim Douglass Adams.
It's a free book. I turned it into a pdf and put it on my tablet to read last winter. The facts are not what people like to think. There has been far too much indoctrination on the subject by conformist historians.
[Insert uncivil and disrespectful comments [[sulphurously and copiously qualified]], including several obscenities and scatological observations of explicit vulgarity here...]
Perhaps it's time to follow-up on the ten year quote attributed to Ike. Give them to 2035 and then leave. Macron can put Merkel in charge of their mutually desired EU Army.
Mutti Merkel's political career is over. She won't be put in charge of a public restroom. How much longer Scholz is going to last is the major question now.
Europe will reap what it has sown. Sadly, so will what was once the USA.
The lag time is about seven years; Munich 1938, Nagasaki 1945.
They're going to be really shocked when we decide to really take advantage of their helplessness, aren't they?
"The age of American dominance in European security looks like it won’t end anytime soon." Or it could end next week, willy nilly. It's not unbelievable that Xi, using a different set of values in his calculus than the Brahmans at Foggy Bottom, could decide on any given Sunday that considering the possible change in US leadership, the best time to strike is now.
Trump could very well beat the margin of cheating, and win the election, and say "Europe, you're on your own."
Europe desperately needs to get over their belief that the world revolves around them, and everyone will spring to their defense if attacked.
Someone in a previous thread once aptly said, "We don't give a sh*t about anyone other than the UK." Presumed NATO obligations aside, that is Truth. Make of it what you will, EU.
I am reminded of something JRR Tolkien wrote in the LOR trilogy, in, I believe, The Two Towers:
“I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side."
- Treebeard”
― Tolkien J.R.R.
If I were to rate the EU nations I'm willing to support, first would be britain - then Poland, and maybe the baltic nations....then the balkans. Then Canada, Spain, Portugal. Somewhere down near the bottom? Germany and France. Italy and Greece? Hell no
Roger that, Doc. Every. Word.
When we were attacked on 9/11 Denmark sprang to our aid. Denmark had more casualties, per capita, than the United States. Based on the size of the nation, they lost more men in combat than we did.
A nation which sent soldiers to bleed and die in our defense is worth our support.
It's not an inclusive list
Canada has to be higher on the list. It is one of two countries that border the U.S.
I lived in Canada for twelve years, and my wife and BIL were in the Canadian Defence Forces - my wife even worked in a civilian capacity with them at HQ.
I have a great deal of respect for the people who serve in the DND.
But the support they are given, the money they waste in stupid things like bilingualism (it would be FAR less expensive to teach the Francophones english than to try and teach the English to speak french), the build it here no matter how expensive it is....
Sorry, but no.
How about we only help the provinces West of Quebec? Leave the Francophiles to their own devices. Oui?
Why give them the James River Hydro projects? And what about New Brunswick....I don't trust those bilingual clowns. Can't make up their minds.
“The US has a comprehensive military strategy” - it does? Even if you accept this premise, we have not been allocating resources and building things to support this strategy.
Hah. Note that was a quote by some guy from "Air Street Capital" so from his perspective, it's probably true. "comprehensive military strategy" = "giving me a blank check with no accountability whatsoever".
That does seem to be the dominant and most persistent strategy; buy the FOGOs whatever toys they claim they need. Trust them, they are the experts.
And what toys do the FOGOs need? The ones that get them high paying sinecures from the company that makes the toy. Self-licking ice cream cone.
For that reason alone, retired GOFOs should not be able to work at any contractor for a minimum of 10 years post retirement.
Hah, they’ve already preemptively figured out a way around that. Contractor just endows some think tank and sets up the GOFO there.
The US has many comprehensive military strategies.
A euro could be excused for thinking the Ukraine war was created by Obama, Brennan, Biden, Nuland, Soros and co. - and thems that broke it can fix it.
There is no excuse for the eurotrash to think that. Putin started the war by invading in 2014.
Yeah, well, he'd not be alone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4
Mearsheimer is not the knowledgeable man people think.
Why Mearsheimer is wrong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlB-pRqdyBg
'In praise of reality, not realism: An answer to Mearsheimer', EUIdeas blog post by Veronica Anghel and Dietlind Stolle:
https://euideas.eui.eu/2022/06/28/in-praise-of-reality-not-realism-an-answer-to-mearsheimer/
"The only thing Putin understands is power". I agree with that quote from your first link (thank you, by the way) , but I don't think the speaker understands what that means or is willing to accept the consequences. When a US politician says something is "unacceptable" they are talking nonsense; they will, and do, accept anything. When Putin said Ukraine in NATO is "unacceptable" he meant it--hence the current unpleasantness. We don't have to like Putin, but we do have to deal with him, without moral posturing and wishful thinking. That's reality and realism.
Putin thought Ukraine would be an easy conquest. Ukraine had been working to bring their military up to NATO standards, and were well along that path. While there are many things Putin finds unacceptable (Ukraine outside the Russian empire is just one example) You have to be able to make your will stick. Putin has not been able to, and if eh west keeps supporting Ukraine as they should, he will never be able to.
Putin conquering Ukraine is not acceptable either.
"Putin conquering Ukraine is not acceptable either." The European countries should believe so. It is not the U.S. that has an inch of soil at risk. I refuse to support any longer the idea that we need to care more about Europe than Europe cares about itself. With the critical problems we have I don't give a damn about Ukraine. We cannot afford to continue being the Dudley Do Right for the World. America First. Ukraine is NOT a critical national security concern for America. Nice to have, but...
Yeah and it would be our fault if we invaded Mexico to drive out the Chinese army
So tell us, pray tell, what foreign army was resident in Ukraine that Putin invaded to drive out? We await your superior enlightenment with bated breath.
Europe's ages-old nemesis used to be Carthage, Picts, Vikings, the Ottoman Turks, France, Prussians/Germans and even those old proto-Russians, the Huns and Mongols. Russia is not the Soviet Union. The four points beginning with the third paragraph in the below link is sort of instructive. I don't endorse it but its viewpoint may be worth a read. https://forbiddentexts.substack.com/p/what-is-the-global-american-empire?utm_source=cross-post&publication_id=677645&post_id=75420376&utm_campaign=1013635&isFreemail=true&r=1i2jd&utm_medium=email
That article mostly BS. The occupation of Europe has long been over, and US troops were kept there through the early 90s because of NATO commitments. When my father was stationed in Germany during the late 60s, there were 400K US troops there. There are now less than 80K. For that twit to assert that the US has subjugated Europe is to deny practically every fact about the situation in Europe.
His "view" is simply of a piece with the rest of the left and just as warped.
The "real" enemy? https://twitter.com/i/status/1749436533185118614
Read the book "Empires of Trust".
OK, thanks for the recommendation. Just bought a used hardback copy from Amazon for $2.80 and will give it a shot, and try to be an optimist. Might be a hard sell as it was written in 2008 and lots of trust has been frittered away in the past 16 years (probably exponentially in the past 3). Am rusty on Latin declensions. Hope this clarifies whether it's "Pax Americana" or "Pax Americanorum".
QM - you do realize, of course, that the modern German Army only has only 62,800 soldiers in the Heer...right?
And 50,000 rifles. Which melt.
Yep, alas. The Bubdesrepublik has gotten stupider since the victory of he socialist coalition on 1969. They used to have the best Army in NATO, but no more.
I've not a fan of Germany having the best army in Europe. It never works out well.
If we believe Lt. Gen. Mais on the Bundeswehr Nachgefragt a few days ago, only 80% of the billets are filled and Germany is considering bringing back compulsory service.
I think they will be compelled to do so. They need to build their army back to what is was in the 70s, at a minimum, and just as well trained and equipped.
I feel like the only workable solution for the EU, and by this I mean "No way in hell will they do it", is force homogenization across the continent, working from the same contracts and same supply pools so they get the sort of economy of scale that we do in Freedomland. They have to know they can't (and shouldn't) depend on free eagle rides forever.
Also for the Slackers like Germany to actually step up and do their part, lest they find Russian troops closing in on Berlin, Again.
Which side to we root for if the Russians are attacking Berlin?
On entirely pragmatic grounds,
when was the last time you bought anything Russian?
It seems that everything I buy is made in China, India, Vietnam, etc.
I actually looked at a Mercedes and discovered that the engine was made in South Africa.
I have been told that the uranium used in our nuclear power plants comes from Russia.
Thank Hillary for that.
A new Ukrainian deli and food store opened here in Pensacola just as the Rus-Uke War started. I had eaten Ukrainian food at a deli in Manhattan, Kansas the year before and liked it, so I stockpiled a few hundred bucks of goodies here. Fat lot of good it did, as I had it all gnarfed up in 2 weeks. The owners of the store here were optimistic. Said they'd be OK when/if the war ended in Spring. Just googled it. Looks like it is an Eastern European deli now with Russian/Turkish/Ukrainian foods stocked. Think I'll buy some Russian and Turkish soon. Good taste ought to be apolitical, I guess.
We're not allowed to buy anything Russian.
The last thing they built that you'd want to buy was the ZIS-115 armored sedan. They stopped making those in 1948.
The smoked sturgeon was da' bomb.
I mean I've got an Izhmash Saiga 12 but I bought that back in like, 2011.
And yet you buy Chinese made goods every day. Something ironic about that. Russia is not a threat to America, and the Chinese may be an existential threat to America as we know it.
The Jackson-Vanik Amendment restricted trade between the US and Soviet-run states, plus the Russians didn't seem to be interested in doing consumer business with the US and would not respond to inquiries about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson%E2%80%93Vanik_amendment
Americans would not tolerate the poor quality of Russian goods, just as we did not tolerate tbe poor quality of Japanese goods in the 50's.
If Putin wins in Ukraine, you will feel the impact. Thinking Russia is not a threat to the US is silly. Putin hates the US with a white hot hate and has as one of his most important dreams the destruction of the US.
Russia is the country with the largest nuclear arsenal. The only one with more nukes than the USA. Would they use them? I really don't think so, but they could.
We would have to say, "they could" for any country that has nukes. Just takes the right (or wrong) circumstances.
I think Matryoshka dolls, though its possible they were made in Ukraine. I'd call the ex to ask her to look at the dolls, but perhaps not.
“Defend Europe against whom? My enemy is not their enemy.”
But there IS a common enemy, even though most Europeans have their hands firmly covering their eyes. That enemy is militant Islam, this time in the form of millions of "refugees" who walk across nations' borders and are ferried to undefended coastlines by NGOs' ships. And aided by complicit "local" government officials like Angela Merkel and Sadiq Khan, the invaders are already there, raping and murdering their way across the landscape.
Add (Sir) Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to that list of government officials who deliberately sought our immigrants from Africa and the Middle East to turn the UK into the UN.
Nope. They sought them out because they realized that the natives weren't making babies and they needed workers to support the welfare state.
Which begs the question why weren’t people having children?
People are animals, not in the insulting sense, but, in reality. We are driven by forces and instincts we do not understand. There are biological imperatives to having children. When the world is shite, when folks are confronted with poverty and privation; they have babies. When things are great, they don't have babies. It's biology. Cf., Gaza.
Actually, God created man in his own image. Too bad so many of them listen to the Snake in the Garden.
I believe the reference is to our immortal soul. The organism in which our souls are temporarily housed is entirely biological.
Our soul is the image of God, these bodies we use to scramble around on this mud ball, are animal in nature.
God is not a slow, fat, old man with joint pain.
All things come to an end. All things
Shelly beat you to it. "'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'"
NATO in this aspect, is a figment. It relies on national contributions, not a top down, strategy-driven building of capabilities. All of the European NATO countries have let their defense and defense industries atrophy to the point where they collapse in on themselves like a black hole. The reason is economies of scale. You can't effectively or efficiently produce and procure 50 tanks or 20 airplanes or 3 submarines or one aircraft carrier with one-off national designs and factories. That's why you have "Eurofighter" and Airbus -- consortiums. Aircraft have been built multi-nationally because of the emphasis on tech and airpower to thwart the Soviets/Russians. But when it comes to military gear that contributes to a coherent national strategy and carry some symbol of the nation, it can't be done in Europe today. Brits want the Challenger, Germany wants the Leo, France wants the LeClerc. That's why the export market is so important. So within NATO and globally, the countries compete with each other and with the US.
And Cdr S put his finger on the real reason for withdrawal from Europe -- the Pacific. I am not a student of tech or industrialization, but I can't think of one thing that Europe produces that is more valuable to the US than the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. We abandoned the 2.5 war strategy and force size driver with Nixon's Guam speech -- we've only paid lip service to multi-war capability since. If push came to shove globally, I know where I would want to put the US military -- and it isn't Europe.
"Aircraft have been built multi-nationally..."
Sweden seems to do quite nicely by itself in the weapons development department.
NATO is largely at odds with the EU especially as regards budget. This forces the U.S. to frequently make foreign policy decisions and take actions that are not in our interest.
Your posts are cogent and concise. I would appreciate any suggestion you have for one of us to change our screen name. First name and second initial? How can a screen name be changed?
The "how" is done through the button in the upper right corner of the floating header, at least via the web interface (I don't use the app).
Click that, then select "Settings", and at the top of the settings page click the "Edit" button to the right of your display name. From there you can change the displayed name, and select a handle if you want to start a substack of your own.
As for what to change it to, I'll leave that up to you and the other "Harry".
I think I was able to change to Harry W.
I changed to Harry L.
If the suits at JCS could engage in inter-service cooperation like we just did, maybe they could break their 78-year losing streak.
The Suits at JCS have been hand selected by the most evil politicians the country has ever produced. Winning isn't an option and failure is just a steppingstone to success.
You are so right! There is an internet meme this week that applies:
"Me and my homies would be stacking bodies by now - George Washington"
At this point Europe is de-industrializing so fast thanks to Genocide Joes minions blowing up Nordstream and cutting of energy discussions like this are farce. Europe is learning the grim truth of that 1968 observation by Mr Kissinger.. "it may be dangerous to Amercan's enemy, but to be Americas friend is fatal." And no, the Russians are NOT coming...
Depends on what part of Europe you are. Baltic states and parts of Eastern Europe have to worry about Russia, Spain not so much.
Ceuta & Melilla get over run often despite the walls. Spain probably has worries because of centuries of Islamic occupation. Bet Josephus Seaxpaque in Europe, despite having a wider body of water than the Rio Grande, worries more about the invasion from the South than one from the East.
Given teh NGOs that are ferrying invaders to Spain, it is a serious worry. They could do something about the NGOs, and they should. Impounding the ships is just the minimum they should do.
So far it's been the Russians, Norwegians, Ukrainians, and the US that blew up the pipeline.
Many others are betting on Grand Fenwick or Fredonia.
Grand Fenwick, for the WIN!
Based on what I've read- Ukraine doing it is in the lead.
Gazprom, almost certainly, as explained above.
And what is so remarkable is that the industrial revolution began in Great Britain.
The industrial revolution began in Great Britain because it was the first nation to permit individual liberty. Economic freedom, the free enterprise system, coupled ingenuity with the ability to make a personal profit. The rest, as they say, is history.
That's one possible explanation.
Europe has chosen that path for itself based on the "green" energy investments they have wedded themselves to... German industry has made it abundantly clear that they are struggling to see a path forward where they could keep production in Germany. Given the priesthood of green energy zealots we have in our midst, they're perfectly content to applaud the EU's investments in alternative energy production because they and the EU elites have one mutual thing in common... they all suck at math.
Sleepy Joe did not blow up Nordstream. Gazprom did the dirty on that because of contract provisions. Putin had ordered the taps closed and Gazprom was going to be forced to pay compensation for gas not delivered. Gazprom did the deed so they could declare force majeure to avoid paying compensation.
The ages-old nemesis from the East supported the Union in the US civil war when the major European powers were trying to find a way to use the Confederacy to cripple the US economy. Also, Germany an France tried to wipe out Russia within a hundred years of each other.
France and the UK stayed out of the war and refused to support the Confederacy. British workers were entirely against helping the Confederacy because of Slavery, and France was not going to do anything if Britain did not. They did not attempt to wreck the north's economy.
The issues are dealt with in a book out on the net. You can find it by searching for,
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Britain and the American Civil War
by Ephraim Douglass Adams.
It's a free book. I turned it into a pdf and put it on my tablet to read last winter. The facts are not what people like to think. There has been far too much indoctrination on the subject by conformist historians.
[Insert uncivil and disrespectful comments [[sulphurously and copiously qualified]], including several obscenities and scatological observations of explicit vulgarity here...]
Perhaps it's time to follow-up on the ten year quote attributed to Ike. Give them to 2035 and then leave. Macron can put Merkel in charge of their mutually desired EU Army.
Mutti Merkel's political career is over. She won't be put in charge of a public restroom. How much longer Scholz is going to last is the major question now.