Denmark Will Hold June Referendum on Joining EU’s Defense Pact
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Source: https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/forsvarsforbeholdet-skal-t...
Right now everybody here finds those arguments laughable. Finland went from 20% NATO approval to +50% in one week.
NATO has not been poking anyone, but Russia has now occupied or attacked 2 out of 3 of it's non-NATO neighbors in the west.
I hope that the right lessons about this crisis (in my view at least) are drawn by the population of Europe. Thank god Europe is a set of democratic states, and the view of the populous is essential. If Russia gets bogged down and then has a compromise forced on it I fear that the leftist agenda will be to claim that all is well and the current level of unpreparedness is acceptable.
I am already hearing this from the "dinner party crew". God knows there are other priorities for spending, refugees, post-covid health, green transitions. But make no mistake, win or lose the Russians will be back. A conventional war, with the USA kept out by nuclear fear must be a dead cert loss for Russia. If it isn't they will try it.
"China is now launching the enormous warmongering campaign. In 2021 they produced the most expensive Chinese movie ever, The Battle at Lake Changjin, on the battle of Korean War against the US"
"If you watch recent Chinese movies like the Wolf Warrior, you'll see that China is preparing its public opinion for the war with the US. China may not say it to the US but they're absolutely saying this to their citizens. You can't fool yourself about it"
It might pay off to see Europe through a European lens and not through an American one. Quite a few countries have had unbroken rightwing governments through decades of disarmament because we were ignoring the crazy bear living next door. And some of the countries that had 'left' leaning governments have pretty good armies.
But alas, everybody just gotten too emotionally gratifying to cheer and help Zelenskyy to piedpiperred his people to doom like the Battle of Hattin.
Do you not realize we live in a global economy and Russia is being cut off? There was no global economy during WW2. The U.S. was not cut off for invading Iraq. The Russian economy is in shambles they cannot fight a long war in their current state.
I suggest you delete your account and stop posting the dumbest shit ive read on here in the last few weeks over and over again.
It's a highly questionable form of communication that won't sit well with people who are already not aligned with your views. Even less likely you change minds this way. The effect of this style of discourse is that by calling your opposition deluded and out of the loop of what you believe is the truth, is that you will only get them to back down on their believe.
Because why would anyone sign into HN just to be insulted? More importantly, if your points do have value (and I'm sure some of them do) they will be drowned out by the name-calling.
The sad thing is that any value you may bring will not be evaluated by your peers if the basics of discourse are already violated. It's nice to be nice and won't cost you anything. On the other hand how can somebody be right on any subjects if that person has never learned to engage in healthy dialogue to discuss these subjects with anyone holding different views? Even they are correct they will not sharpen their mind with the same potential they could. For you it's counter-productive because nobody will ever give you a seat at the table even you would bring in a refreshing new angle.
I'm not attacking you nor do I care about your downvotes, but consider getting help because it's likely a pattern that you have learned from your environment and it will certainly hold you back. And you can actually sharpen these things if you surround yourself with a different crowd. HN is a perfect place to grow. But it just takes time. Good luck.
It's not a "EU defense pact", at least not in the Nato article 5 way.
https://nyheder.tv2.dk/politik/2022-03-06-danskerne-skal-ste...
(Backgrounder on this from a Danish perspective, via Google Translate.)
The EU has no common army, but the member states decide for themselves their military forces. However, they can decide that they will carry out a joint EU operation.
But when those decisions are made, Denmark is not included due to the defense reservation.
Denmark's defense reservation has existed since 1992, when a majority of Danes voted no to the Maastricht Treaty.
This means, among other things, that Denmark does not attend the meetings when military operations are discussed under the auspices of the EU.
Denmark also does not participate in the EU's military operations, does not finance them, and neither soldiers nor military hardware is provided to EU-led conflict areas.
Like Germany seems to be doing, they need to realise that they are part of a major power, and that they should stop playing the little guy hiding in his corner. An EU army should not be an offensive force, but is should be credible enough to safeguard the EU’s security.
I think implicitly everybody has always relied on France having 'our' back, the French have been pretty strong and independent military wise over the last 35 years (and long before then, in fact) and have been very careful about what they do and what they don't subscribe to from a military point of view. No nuclear codes owned by the US for the French.
Another huge asset that comes with France is a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
> No nuclear codes owned by the US for the French.
Indeed. But the French arsenal is still tiny. I wonder if Putin would test it by annexing an “insignificant” part of a non-NATO EU member (so that’s pretty much a bit of forest in Finland). A somewhat blood-less operation like Crimea would be a real conundrum. Or would have been, 2 weeks ago: that there is a bit more resolve now.
If anything, the current war demonstrates the importance of sticking together.