A White House spokesperson put it the best, I think:
The White House spokesperson Andrew Bates, when asked about Trump’s comments, said: “Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged – and it endangers American national security, global stability and our economy at home.”
What’s so insane about all this is that Trump saying something like that out loud means it’s now practically gospel to the vast majority of GOP voters, and might as well be official party policy.
Europe would do well to become military self-sufficient. Of course once they are, there’s not much reason to keep US forces in their territory either, so I’m not sure how much the US really wants that.
The idea that Europe isn’t militarily self-sufficient is, frankly, horseshit. The US just has such an incredibly outsized military that anything will look “insufficient”
We can’t supply Ukraine with enough weapons… or even munitions, as the self-pledged 1mill 155mm shells will be only halfway met (hopefully). The few self-designed combat aircrafts we have are painfully mediocre (Eurofighter, Gripen, Rafale…).
Definitely don’t think we would fare any way decently in an actual war without US backing nowadays.
Being able to supply another country with weapons and ammunition while keeping enough stock for your own military is not the definition of a self-sufficient military, though?
If we were able to succesfully do so, I would agree with that. We aren’t succeeding in supplying enough to keep Ukraine in the game right now, though.
Gripen mediocre?
Do you have facts to back that up?
Or anyone else for that matter. Armed Europe has a somewhat violent history.
Yeah, as opposed to any other country with arms which have a totally nonviolent history.