Wonder WTF Is Wrong With Americans

Some people have made the argument that Europe gets to spend less on their militaries, and thus more on their social programs, because they expect the US to take care of them if there are conflicts.

I've got no counter arguments to the rest (education reduces inequality, we spend more on prisons, the rich own the politicians) that I would consider even halfway valid.

Hi Vanessa,

barnetto a écrit:Some people have made the argument that Europe gets to spend less on their militaries, and thus more on their social programs, because they expect the US to take care of them if there are conflicts.

> and thus more on their social programs,
Probably true in percentage; as for France, our social system is being destroyed.
> because they expect the US to take care of them if there are conflicts.
I don't know if you're speaking about possible conflicts in Europe or the present conflicts in Near East-Middle East.
In France, the military bufget is rather high tho' reduced compared to previous years... we don't have money left dur to xyz (it's another subject).
Regarding conflicts in Africa or Near+Far East:
- France participates much more than other European countries
- our budget is reduced
- we participated too much in the past and are charged with colonialism.

Don't you think we can say the rich own American politicians?

During the cold war, Europe was worried about the Soviet Union. But each individual country didn't have to arm themselves to deal with Russian invasion (although France did anyways, created their own very successful nuclear program). But for decades now, the Soviet Union hasn't been a concern.

I mentioned the argument because it is interesting and potentially was/could be true. But I think nowadays having a large military makes one more willing to go to war. The english version of «déformation professionnelle» is Maslow's hammer: "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

i39.servimg.com/u/f39/18/96/31/31/hammer11.jpg
(je n'ai pas encore le droit de mettre des liens)

A smaller military might have kept GWB from invading a country that posed no imminent danger and prevented all the unintended consequences that followed.

I don't know if it is just me, but when I'm listening to the French news, do they seem to get kind of happy when France goes to war? And does the media sound kind of disappointed that they haven't bombed ISIS or sent any weapons to the Kurds?

Hi Vanessa,

> (je n'ai pas encore le droit de mettre des liens)
It's true that our administrator blocked the links under several posts on the forum (to protect our forum against spammers who publish commercial postings). I thought it might have been around 3-5... might be 10 then.

NATO was created to "mutualize" protection but de Gaulle left NATO.

I don't know about French people but our Presidents have in mind that their ranking rockets when our paratroopers jump over Kolvesi (wrong spelling... this was in the 70s) or our soldiers go to Chad (provided they are successful).