PNN – In an article, a western media pointed to the growing weakness of the European Union, especially in the military field and its excessive dependence on America, and assessed it as a cowardly, weak and defenseless organization against Russia.
According to the report of the International group of Pakistan News Network, “Focus” magazine wrote in an article: In an era of changes and with the US turning and Russia’s aggressive action, Europe is facing the challenge of expanding its military capabilities. As a result of these conditions, Europe’s deficiencies are becoming more and more apparent.
The author further pointed out the six major military vulnerabilities of Europe and wrote: Europe is in a dangerous situation militarily. On the one hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin is clearly not afraid of a protracted war in Europe, and war seems to be his lifeblood. He does not suffer but grows (in the shadow of this war). He does not back down. He continues to improve.
It is precisely in this period of history that America has turned away from Europe, and what began with isolationist rhetoric during the “Donald Trump” era, continued during the presidency of Joe Biden: America no longer wants to be the protector of European governments and the post-war era is over. This Europe, which has found an enemy and lost a protector, will soon see its situation.
The author went on to write: Anyone who looks at this continent with the radar of rationality will quickly recognize its six major military weaknesses:
First, Europe is not a nuclear power. Joschka Fischer, the former foreign minister of Germany, started a discussion about this and announced: Who will guarantee the security of Europe if the United States disappears?
He declared that Europe needs a nuclear deterrent. Britain and France have nuclear weapons, but the continent of Europe remains largely empty. The security of Europe and especially Germany depends on the United States and its willingness to use nuclear weapons to defend its NATO partners. This is a guarantee, but not a certainty.
The report continues: The second issue is that NATO is dependent on America. According to the coalition, 20 of NATO’s 31 members are likely to miss the two percent target by 2023, including France, Germany and Italy. The two percent goal was to ensure that each country invests two percent of its GDP in security.
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Since this has not happened, NATO’s ability to assert itself still depends on the United States of America. Last year, about 70% of defense spending was allocated to the United States. While Russia and China have braced for global tensions over the past decade, increasing their defense budgets by 300 and 600 percent respectively, defense spending in the European Union has increased by only 20 percent over the same period, according to a report by the European Parliament. That is: Europe has retreated to the land of dreams.
The third issue is that the German army is not ready for operations. In 2011, conscription was suspended in Germany with widespread popular support. The consequences are significant today: in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Bundeswehr had 450,000 soldiers – today it has just over 180,000.
The same picture emerges in other major European countries: South Korea now has as large an army—about half a million men—as Britain, France, and Germany combined. Even the German army is barely equipped. As the Wall Street Journal reported this week, the German military’s ammunition reserves are only enough to defend the country for two days.
The fourth problem is that even France and England cannot replace America.
According to Global Firepower, a website that uses public data to publish annual military power rankings, the UK is the strongest military nation in Europe, followed by France.
But the British Army only has about 150 operational tanks and perhaps 12 operational long-range artillery pieces, write Cass Colchester, David Luhnow and Boyan Panchowski in the Wall Street Journal. According to these experts, the warehouses were so empty that last year the British Army thought of buying several rocket launchers from museums to upgrade and donate to Ukraine.
France, the next biggest contributor, has fewer than 90 heavy artillery pieces, roughly equivalent to what Russia loses on the battlefield in Ukraine each month, according to the report.
The author further evaluated the European arms industry as a dwarf and wrote: Anthony King, professor of war studies at the University of Warwick, says: Europe systematically demilitarized itself because it should not have spent money. This issue is also evident in European arms companies. While Germany’s largest defense company Rheinmetall had sales of $6.7 billion last year, Lockheed Martin’s sales in the United States were $65.9 billion, ten times that.
After World War II, people all over Europe relied on the benefits of peace and largely left the arms industry to the Americans. The world’s five largest gun manufacturers, which together account for 32 percent of industry sales, are all based in the United States.
In Europe, especially in Germany, young people do not want to become soldiers. In 2022, the “tipping point” year announced by German Chancellor Olaf Schultz, almost 44,000 applications for military jobs were received, eleven percent less than the previous year.
The author concludes that Europe is weak, partly because it does not want to be strong. People reject war so deeply that they don’t even want to prepare for it. They see their deterrence as a provocation for their counterpart, which is why they prefer to play the military wall game. This culture of giving up has not been good for the will to defend.