Europe

Clickbait title again! 😡

"If Russia attacked us and we took our gloves off, I think we would defeat Russia quite quickly."

Yes, agreed. There isn't even any bluster in that statement. And I think NATO agrees that this option isn't off the table.

But a cornered animal will do weird pointless self-destructive things, and it's possible it still has one or two functioning nukes...

edit:

I'm getting replies that seem to assume that I just dismissed Russia as toothless. I haven't said that.

I had a closer look at some articles about all that, and while most stick to the "official" numbers, and while it can be said with certainty that Russia has and is actively developing some nuclear weapons, there is no definity about how many there actually are or if they are deployable or even working. Careful phrasing like "it is generally estimated" or "Moscow claimed" is prevalent.

And that's the problem. As long as Russia is what it is we will never know. But they're not doing well and I think it's fair to speculate that the "official" numbers might not reflect reality anymore.

In war you can have all the advantages you can think about and still lose. Overconfidence about military supremacy has a huge cost if the war proceeds.

Germany in WW1 entered it avoiding attempts at deescalation, because it was overconfident it would overwhelm France and Russia. Both France and later USA had to withdraw from Vietnam. For recent example Russo-Ukranian war had Russia at clear advantage in manpower and industry, but we know now in retrospect, that it was not a couple of week pacification campaign as even myself was convinced it would be.

I guess that statement was likely a diplomatic posturing, but keep in mind that military conflicts very rarely go according to plan. The only certain thing that happens is human suffering inherent to military conflicts.

The problem isnt defeating russia or pushing it back. It it doing so while not triggering a nuclear response. So salami tactics it is. Currently russia loses entire generations on foreign battlefield. Signs of internal collapse are there.

I just feel like we should investigate russias sponsors like china and stop or threaten to stop trade with them plus finance their antagonists like pakistan (eww) or taiwan or whatever group gives them trouble.

I'm just here for the tankie posts

Right now russia has almost no reserve left to fight the EU. We know that it won't be nato because nato would include the US which isn't interested in fighting russia.

I don't believe you. Prove it.

Not a fan of this guy, but he's absolutely right about this one. Assuming the US wouldn't actively aid Russia, which isn't exactly guaranteed.

Russia only attacked Ukraine, because it was weak, vulnerable, and alone. None of these are true for the EU. Attacking any EU country would be suicide.

NATO is worthless, because it only does what its leader says. It's not a reliable security guarantee, and it's precisely why we're even talking about this to begin with.

As opposed to NATO Article 5 only requiring members to provide support thay they deem necessary, Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union requires all members states to 'aid and assist it by all the means in their power'.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/glossary/mutual-defence-clause.html

“Even without the US it’s still overwhelming, and I haven’t checked recently how many F-35s and JASSMs and all the deep-strike capabilities we have.”

Who's to say the US wouldn't order Lockheed Martin to stop all software updates for European F-35s, basically turning them into more expensive F-16s?

“But if the Ukrainians have knocked out half of Russia’s refining capacity in six months, we could do it in six weeks and take out the other half,” he continued.

Yeah because you have the drone production capacity and knowledge Ukraine has, right? Then why do you use Jets to defend drones at the EU border?

This guy is getting nervous, and that's exactly what Putin wants. He wants to spread insecurity about supporting the Ukraine. Doubt Russia has the illusion of "defeating Europe", that is ridiculous if we look on how they are doing on the battle field in Ukraine.

The EU could increase its chances by applying a Cuba-style embargo on Russia but then Germany couldn't buy Russian gas...