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2025-02-16 Europe

Is Europe a Greater Threat to US Citizens Than Russia?

[HotAir] I have intimated this before, but it bears repeating after JD Vance's epic takedown of European powers, about which Beege wrote an outstanding post earlier today.

Vance was, in swamp terms, not very diplomatic. In more colloquial terms he let them have it with both barrels, pissing off the Germans fiercely enough to earn a rebuke for the totalitarian leftists who run that failing country.

Vance, channeling many of my posts I am sure, had this to say:
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Or go to the post we had here at Rantburg yesterday.

That is exactly right, and I would go a bit further (and have). Europe in recent years has become a greater threat to the United States of America, or at least the rights of American citizens, than Russia is.

Short of initiating a nuclear war--which they would never do--Russia presents no military threat to our country. We could wipe out their conventional military power in a weekend. Russian influence in the United States is minuscule because, aside from oil, which we can do without, they have little that we want, and they are little more than a gas station with nuclear weapons.

The Ukraine war shows that they cannot defeat a small country, no less the United States, and until we made Ukraine an issue of national importance, nobody in America, including business people, cared much about the country. The idea that Russia would invade a NATO country is a fantasy. They would get crushed.

We do compete with them for resources, but let's face it: China is our main adversary, not Russia.

So what about the Europeans? Over the past decade or two, they have become a massive thorn in our side. By pushing ESG, NetZero, and censorship that impacts American citizens and direct interference in our political campaigns, the Europeans have made a direct attack on Americans' rights. None of these is a theoretical threat. Americans' lives have been made worse, our rights have been restricted, and this is happening all while American taxpayers have been footing the bill for Europe's defense.

I was an ardent cold warrior, and I still despise the current Russian regime. They are akin to a mafia and profoundly illiberal. But Russia presents no direct threat to the US, Europeans, and especially our rights. If Russia disappeared from the face of the Earth little would change for Americans.

If the EU disappeared, however, Americans' rights would be more secure and our corporations would become far less woke. And while the disappearance of the market would cost us dearly, the reduced military expenditures would be a nice bonus.
Western Europe is the Vatican of Globalism.

Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-02-16 02:38|| || Front Page|| [11161 views ] Top

#1 Russia wants to take over all of Europe and finlandize the US globally.

Is that a realistic prospect? No.

But the Taliban inflicting a shameful defeat on the US and NATO, in a war that the US and NATO had to win, wasn't a realistic prospect either.

If Ukraine collapses I expect the rapid deployment of Russian & PLA tripwire forces to Hungary and Slovakia in a coup de grace for NATO and the EU.

These deployments would happen at the request of the Hungarian and Slovakian governments, so there would be no Article 5.

This major European political crisis would give the Chinese the opportunity to make a move on Taiwan.

I'm not denying the absolute insanity and hostility towards the US put on display by European politicians.

A EU commissar threatening US media, the likely next chancellor doing the the same; these are indeed acts of insane hostility among nominal allies.

Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-16 05:29|| 2025-02-16 05:29|| Front Page Top

#2 Elmerert, your enemies (and mine) are not in Moscow or Beijing. They are in Brussels & DC.

Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-02-16 06:10|| 2025-02-16 06:10|| Front Page Top

#3 More so in Brussels than DC but also in Moscow & Beijing.

The enemy of my enemy can also be my enemy.

It is however true that for a large faction of the Western political class the dispute with Moscow isn't about the establishment of a European slave empire but about who gets to be the ruler, the Moscovite of the Brusselite elites.

The West in toto has adopted the bad habits of despotism during the last years.

We have become more like China, Russia and the Muslim world.

This is true for Europe and also for the Anglosphere outside of Europe.

The difference is that there's a chance of a revival of free societies in the West, especially after the reelection of Trump.

I see no such chance for China & Islam. WRT Russia I don't know.

Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-16 06:40|| 2025-02-16 06:40|| Front Page Top

#4 Russians will be busy re-establishing their empire: access to Black sea & Baltic, etc ... for the next generation. And that's only if the things work out for them.
Also Russia is your best potential ally against China - because China wants Russian far East. In fact, I sometimes wonder if American anti-Russian sentiment is a Chinese intelligence operation.

Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-02-16 07:00|| 2025-02-16 07:00|| Front Page Top

#5 In fact, I sometimes wonder if American anti-Russian sentiment is a Chinese intelligence operation.

It would also make sense for the Chinese to simultaneously nudge Russia into a limited sub-nuclear conflict with the West which would exhaust and distract Russia and the West.

Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-16 07:19|| 2025-02-16 07:19|| Front Page Top

#6 Let's you and him go out behind the pub for a good scrap.

Posted by Besoeker 2025-02-16 08:47|| 2025-02-16 08:47|| Front Page Top

#7 Getting back to the central thesis, you have to ask: When was the last time Russia sucked the US into a war? How 'bout Europe? (Specificaly Britain.)

Posted by ed in texas 2025-02-16 09:26|| 2025-02-16 09:26|| Front Page Top

#8 While modern Europe is an increasingly insipid descendant of its past, it does not, yet, pose a threat to the United States except through its increasing cultural decline. But a future "Europistan" does, and that frightful possibility looms larger each passing year.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2025-02-16 13:57|| 2025-02-16 13:57|| Front Page Top

#9 ^You should look where the ideologies like: environmentalism, genderism, hate speech, etc...; we all love so much - originated.

Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-02-16 14:03|| 2025-02-16 14:03|| Front Page Top

#10 I fear (but kind of look forward to it) that the Europeans will just snap and exterminate all of their 'immigrants'. It is in their DNA.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2025-02-16 18:33|| 2025-02-16 18:33|| Front Page Top

01:19 Elmerert Hupens2660
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