Quote from: o48o on Today at 11:54:33 AM

Quote from: paxmao on February 17, 2025, 06:34:43 PM

From the Munich conference a few things have become clear.

After JD Vance's speech, which was like listening to a creature comming from another planet - not in a good sense - saying that Putin is not a threat to Europe, that the threat is not letting Putin take over Romania (implicitly) and not allowing disinformation campaigns, the the German representative tell him to basically f*ck off....

And then came the obvious conclusions, presented by several key French, German and Baltic leaders - with a Chorus by Zelensky - US is no longer a reliable ally. At any moment, Trump will decide that Europe need to "pay for protection" like he is doing with Ukraine (perhaps not even that, he is simply telling Ukraine to pay without protection).

So, there is no way around, Europe has to pay, but most of the leader are agreeing now that if it comes to spending on military, it will be done in by developing the local industries.

In my view, Europe has an unique opportunity to invest with the learnings of Ukraine - more unmanned vehicle, better defensive means, different tactics and, over all, a wide nuclear deterrence.
All this is costly, but it is the price of having Putin around, so...

BTW,... "I told you" like... a year ago.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5484886.0

As an old pacifist, one starts to think if it would be smart to invest in some responsible European weapon industry, or to innovative companies that develop tech that can be used in weaponizing.

Investing to weapon tech is less unethical now, but because of responsibility/url] of business is to increase its profits, they are basically going always to be lobbying pro-gun laws even if there's no wars. And that could lead up to situations like in US, and without good enough support networks, it just brings out more mass shootings and all that. Not to mention that there's no control over which entities ends up buying them in the end.

Which is all true, but not the only truth. Unfortunately to be very moral and responsible you need to be alive, have a country that works and do not be under the foot of a dictator. All those things are much easier when you have a sufficient deterrent.

Europe has been getting the "peace dividend" of bein under NATO umbrella, but that is no longer there so... time to act.