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I screen shouted and linked it Try going back and reading the post
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I screen shouted and linked it Try going back and reading the postI'm genuinely curious - where did you get that figure? What do you think it represents? Because it's not what you think it is.
That's your entire military budget. Are you saying you should NOT defend yourselves at least?I screen shouted and linked it Try going back and reading the post
I appreciate your interest in our country and politics. But seeing as you do not live here and have no history or actual stake in the outcome, I am not sure what you expect from this discussion. You have to see it (if you are genuinely interested) from our (American citizens/voters) point of view.Wow - amazing magic handwaving? Where is the "Prestige" - the thing that replaces the other thing you just smuggled away with your left hand? Because I'm not seeing one?
First - this is about mutual security. I know America thinks it can be totally isolationist and defend itself - but as WW2 showed - what happens overseas matters and eventually comes back to bite America.
Second - by trying to make it all about me obsessing over Trump - you think you can make all these inconvenient facts just vanish with a flick of your left hand?
This is about all those Americans that benefit from having a QUARTER of your military industrial complex supported by the EU!
Weapons manufacture employs something like a million people directly - so that's about 250k people's jobs paid for by the EU. (Back of the envelope.) But - the supply chains throughout your broader economy to the military have a 4 to 1 ratio of jobs to every $million spent on defence procurement.
IF the EU stops buying American military hardware completely - that could be something like 800,000 to 1,000,000 jobs - high paying Aerospace jobs above $100,000, through to supplying widgets for those industries.
Not to mention that DARPA etc will shrink, as the EU's picks up. The EU have 450 million people - 516 if the UK ever re-joins. This could lead to a boom across their whole economy - from military R&D that America used to have the leading edge in.
But while America's had the best deal out of this for decades - Trump's constant whining has you all thinking you're victims and has brainwashed you into isolation - right when China's 1.4 BILLION people are becoming a real threat with all their new military hardware and R&D!
It used to be the mighty NATO working together to defend against Russia and China.
Now it's America against everyone - and crying over pocket change!
You are all such victims! But you've all drunk Trump's coolaid.
THEN there's what happens as the world looks elsewhere - and starts to realise they don't want the American dollar as the world's reserve currency anymore. Wow - I haven't even got my head around how utterly enormous that situation could become!
And people voted for this guy based on what he was going to do to 'save the economy'?
Wow that's a full mind-explosion!
The irony? American Trump voters are walking around with a chip on their shoulders as if the world's been ripping you off and you're all such victims - when you've actually had an unbelievably privileged and rewarding deal over all this - for decades! While you all walk around feeling like victims, it's the rest of the world that has actually been betrayed. Old alliances, strong partnerships, economic trade, cultural understandings, academic institutions, medical research: all threatened by this one man!
Younger people have no idea what's just happened - how fundamental this is! As I've quoted before - this NTY article gets it.
In Canada and Mexico you now win popularity by treating America as your foe. Over the next few years, I predict, Trump will cut a deal with China, doing to Taiwan some version of what he has already done to Ukraine — betray the little guy to suck up to the big guy. Nations across Asia will come to the same conclusion the Europeans have already reached: America is a Judas.This is not just a Trump problem; America’s whole reputation is shot. I don’t care if Abraham Lincoln himself walked into the White House in 2029, no foreign leader can responsibly trust a nation that is perpetually four years away from electing another authoritarian nihilist.So what’s going to happen?NATO is over. Joe Biden spent four years defending the postwar liberal order. That order grew out of a specific historical experience: Isolationism after World War I led to the horrors of World War II; internationalism after World War II led to 80 years of superpower peace. You tell that narrative to the younger generations and many look at you as if you’re talking about the 14th century. The postwar order was a historic accomplishment, but it was a product of its time, and we are not going back to it. It does no good to try to revive the ghost of Dean Acheson; we have to think of a new global architecture.
The West is (temporarily) over. What we call “the West” is a centuries-long conversation — Socrates searching for truth, Rembrandt embodying compassion, Locke developing enlightenment liberalism, Francis Bacon pioneering the scientific method. This is our heritage. For all of our history America understood itself as the culmination of the great Western project. The idea of the West was reified in all the alliances and exchanges between Europe and North America.
But the category “the West” does not seem to be in Donald Trump’s head. Trump is cutting America off from its spiritual and intellectual roots. He has completed the project that Jesse Jackson started in 1987 when he and a bunch of progressive activists at Stanford chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go.”
Gee. Let me try to work out why...We just have no stomach for more wars for other countries and other lands. Especially given the current attitude toward the US around the world. The old saying goes, "If one will have friends, they must show themselves friendly." We are not seeing a lot of that these days...
Trump's weird snuggling up to Putin might just make Putin overconfident and cross some red line in Europe.But seeing as you do not live here and have no history or actual stake in the outcome,
Americans to demand better of their President.I am not sure what you expect from this discussion.
Really? You're going to lecture Australians about Vietnam as if you did us a favour in Vietnam?I can mainly speak for myself; both my grandfathers .... etc etc etc.
They're not funding the universities per se. That are funding research at the universities. Which is then obviously shared with the US. We're talking about matters such as geology, agriculture, foreign aid etc. It's not that Trump is saying 'these are a waste of money'. What he's doing is asking if the universities have the same ideology as he does.This is what we are talking about.
Why are US taxpayers funding Australian universities?
Good grief..nmTrump's weird snuggling up to Putin might just make Putin overconfident and cross some red line in Europe.
One nuclear war can ruin your whole day.
Americans to demand better of their President.
Americans to realise how much Trump has betrayed the entire western world by weaking NATO and snuggling up to Putin - trying to give Putin everything he wants!
Americans to realise Trump LIED to them about fixing their economy - and he's going to take down a bunch of allies as well!
Really? You're going to lecture Australians about Vietnam as if you did us a favour in Vietnam?
I myself served in the Australian army - and heard a lot from Vietnam vets in my time.
Vietnam was a mess - achieved nothing - and was not defending America.
But we backed you up anyway.
America said GO!
So we went!
We BLED for you.
No one else told us to go to Vietnam.
Just our friends in America.
Now we're asking - are you still there America?
Got our backs?
Nope.
It's Trump time!
Allies don't matter.
America maintained world peace by backing NATO all the way - and prospered from 80 years without a major powers war.
American Presidents DISCOURAGED an EU army because with their NATO funding, they kept Europe depending on American military kit - which paid America back for NATO many times over.
Sure maybe the EU could do more - but they'll need time to get their act together.
If America pulls out now - it's a HUGE mistake and enormous betrayal of stuff America used to believe in!
As the NYT says... (and I'll keep sharing this because it makes so many great points...)
It’s very hard to do big things alone. So competent leaders and nations rely on relationships built on shared values, shared history and shared trust. They construct coalitions to take on the big challenges of the age, including the biggest: whether the 21st century is going to be a Chinese century or another American century.
In that contest the Chinese have many advantages, but until recently America had the decisive one — we had more friends around the world. Unfortunately, over the last month and a half, America has smashed a lot of those relationships to smithereens.
President Trump does not seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you. Over the last few weeks, the Europeans have gone from shock to bewilderment to revulsion. This period was for them what 9/11 was for us — the stripping away of illusions, the exposure of an existential threat. The Europeans have realized that America, the nation they thought was their friend, is actually a rogue superpower.
In Canada and Mexico you now win popularity by treating America as your foe. Over the next few years, I predict, Trump will cut a deal with China, doing to Taiwan some version of what he has already done to Ukraine — betray the little guy to suck up to the big guy. Nations across Asia will come to the same conclusion the Europeans have already reached: America is a Judas.
What - you're confronted by the fact that we joined you in a pointless war and bled for you - and now we're asking if we can even believe you would do the same for us?Good grief..nm
Sorry for the late reply (work ... ) ...The name isn't in the top ten in NSW. NSW’s top baby names for 2024 revealed
And I'm a little embarresed to have to point out to an Australian (you list Queensland as your home) that Canberra is actually our capital (not Sydney).
Have you visited any Muslim-dominated areas in Europe lately? Have you studied the gradient of those population nrs in the last decades? You're not aware of what Muslim pressure already has changed in the public space in Europe out of fear for consequences? Have you listened to some preachers that openly state their goals and what they think of Western democracy and its values?Allow me to enumerate these points for clarity and understanding.
Between 6.4% and 6.7% of the German population are Muslim, 48% of the German population identify as Christian, and 46% of the German population do not identify with any religion.
I assume everyone understands that 48% is greater than 6.7%. For those concerned about Sharia law in Germany, there is a greater chance of Leviticus law being implemented than Sharia law.
And yet this does not really justify why you are sympathetic to Trump making NATO seem weaker to Putin and Ping. When you're done ranting out your paranoia about Islam - get back to us with some thoughts about that will you? You know - the OP and all that?Understand me well, I don't hate Muslims at all - I love them. Yet I see societies change before my eyes, and not for the better, given the Western values assumed to be commonplace in the 20st century.
Yes, I have visited several European cities that have large Arab communities. My wife is from Europe, so I spend at least two weeks there each year.Have you visited any Muslim-dominated areas in Europe lately? Have you studied the gradient of those population nrs in the last decades? You're not aware of what Muslim pressure already has changed in the public space in Europe out of fear for consequences? Have you listened to some preachers that openly state their goals and what they think of Western democracy and its values?
Quite recently I watched an interview of Richard Dawkins by Piers Morgan (UK) - he was asked some questions on Islam off the cuff, previously uninformed. Dawkins was visibly upset and simply refused to answer - it was obvious he didn't dare to speak his mind out of fear for violence or legal consequence.
Your last paragraph is hilarious - are you seriously implying the Jewish push for Torah is greater than the Islamic push for Sharia in Germany? Have you counted the number of Sharia courts in the UK operating as we speak? You are aware of honour killings taking place in Europe within the Islamic demographic? Christians don't push for Leviticus Laws .. they don't even keep those themselves.
Understand me well, I don't hate Muslims at all - I love them. Yet I see societies change before my eyes, and not for the better, given the Western values assumed to be commonplace in the 20st century.
Your love for Muslim is like my love for rattlesnakes. I find rattlesnakes fascinating and enjoy watching them on the Discovery Channel. However, I prefer they stay in the southern US and not near where I live.
That is nice to hear.Australia has strategic value to the US and is a reliable ally
Sure - but the cost is enormous. I seem to remember that our original diesel designs from the French were originally nuclear anyway - and had to be redesigned around diesel? I wonder how many extra subs we could get if we just ordered a few offensive nuclear subs and spent the rest on defensive diesel subs.Nuclear subs are the gold solution, the advantage with conventional subs is that we could have had more of them.
Nuclear subs allow further distance travelled, and the choke point to out north are at some distance, we can have subs that can stay on stations for months near the key choke points, we make invading us extremely difficult.
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