“It’s not realistic or helpful,” said one European military official of the “tech sovereignty” discussions. “Most of our European platforms are relying on American back-end . . . so it’s very difficult to see anything happening in the short term. It’s just not possible.”
Those arguments resonate more with European military officials than with politicians, according to tech lobbyists, because military leaders better understand the risks a sudden decoupling from the US would bring. Such a break, they argue, would create capability gaps and fragmentation, undermining military operations and cyber security, and making intelligence-gathering less efficient.
It’s okay if big changes are not possible in the short term but they shouldn’t ignore the long term.
What if the orange regime decides to go balls to the wall on Greenland? What’s the play? Roll over and acquiesce? Ask them to stop, while they categorically ignore the requests, and likely clown on the relative powerlessness of the EU military apparatus?
Seriously, if any senior officer in the EU can’t see that for the clear and present danger that it is, they should be fired. Of course it’s a dangerous situation. But decades of letting EU defense atrophy is how they got here, and hard choices are now becoming necessary. Better to start the process and endure the pain now, than to be forced into even worse compromises due to imminent or active military action.
It’s okay if big changes are not possible in the short term but they shouldn’t ignore the long term.
In response to the quote you cited:
What if the orange regime decides to go balls to the wall on Greenland? What’s the play? Roll over and acquiesce? Ask them to stop, while they categorically ignore the requests, and likely clown on the relative powerlessness of the EU military apparatus?
Seriously, if any senior officer in the EU can’t see that for the clear and present danger that it is, they should be fired. Of course it’s a dangerous situation. But decades of letting EU defense atrophy is how they got here, and hard choices are now becoming necessary. Better to start the process and endure the pain now, than to be forced into even worse compromises due to imminent or active military action.
It’s just the classic “Im too old or stuborn to imagine anything different than today”
It’s the same people throwing tantrums at their phone because they moved a setting.
Seeing the source (FT) and the Rubio directive, that anonymous qoute from the “European military official” may have come from some hungarian puppet.
Exactly. At least make a plan.