Summary
The Munich Security Conference report warns that Trump’s proposed territorial acquisitions, including Greenland, Panama, and Canada, have damaged the U.S.'s global standing, making it seen as a risk rather than a stabilizing force.
The report highlights the decline of U.S.-led global leadership amid a shift toward a multipolar world, with China and Russia expanding influence.
European leaders will press U.S. officials on NATO commitments and Ukraine support.
Survey data shows U.S. risks are now perceived as greater than Russia’s in many G7 nations.
Dear Europe,
Please take us seriously as a threat and invade us and liberate us and adopt us as your wayward bastard child so this can be over.
We really can’t - your oligarchs and other fascists have nukes. This one you’ll have to figure out internally, or we are all screwed. :(
Please nuke us into oblivion 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
France, take us back. I don’t care that I would have to learn the language and even then the francos would make fun of my pronunciation but not fucking England. Germany or Spain also works.
Invite the Red Coats back so they can press reset.
I hope the other countries and their people see the US blowing its legs off and take a moment to reflect if right wing reactionaries really are right for them.
Edit: West Europeans, I’m specifically calling you out. I’ve spoken with my share of right-curious Euros who insist that it is / will be different for them. No it fucking won’t. We’re your ghost of Christmas future. I hope that all that immigration reform stuff is still worth it when the alt-right sells your rights and benefits off to the billionaires for scrap.
Ghost of Christmas past, too.
Canadians, even as their country is directly threatened with economic ruin and annexation, and even as they watch the USA going downhill rapidly under fascism, are about to elect a guy who bases his whole new-found “tough guy” schtick on Trump, and who has courted the support of neo-Nazis. Ontario is about to re-elect the guy who has been dismantling public health, education and transport in favour of profitable deals for his cronies, even after he has been dismantling the province for years already. I really hope Candians see what’s happening next door and think twice, but I have little faith in electorates making smart decisions.
100% agreed. Fuck populists with a rusty rebar.
Hope might not have the best standing at the moment, but I’m right there with you.
That’s sort of what happened last time. Then the people behind the propaganda begun trying to make it global because they realized how easy it was to tell that shit was hitting the fan from the outside. Not sure what will happen this time, it’s not like one can easily tell how many have entrapped themselves in one of their bubbles.
After decades long alliannce-building, the US don’t seem to value them anymore. It’s a strange phenomenon where someone works so hard for such a long time, only to throw it all away some day. Trump frames it all as if the US is being taken advantage of. The truth is that the US gets tremendous benefits from it’s central position of power. If the US breaks away from their alliances, they risk the tides turning against them. If the US is being taken advantage of by appararently all others countries in the world, isn’t it remarkable how it’s doing so well economically? That normal folks aren’t doing well is not a consequence of the economy as a whole not doing well, because by comparison it’s doing phenomenal. It’s because all the money goes to companies and shareholders.
current usa leadership are as much americans as nazis were german. They are, but in such rotten way its like saying cancer is part of you.
It could also be the Elon musk effect.
“Why have three fasteners. Why not two?”
In the same regard they are pushing their allies till one of them breaks. Then they know that’s the point to stop where they get maximum benefit
After decades long alliance-building, the US don’t seem to value them anymore.
That’s because everyone who was on the same page about this was slowly supplanted by Tea Partiers with no understanding of how power systems work. Their only reference is the propaganda that wasn’t meant for the elites, but the previous generation of elites didn’t tell anyone else because name one elite who shares with competition.
I think it’s a lot more malicious than a neglect of institutional knowledge.
The people are suffering economic anxiety, Trump points at <insert economic partner> as the cause of their economic woes, and builds popular support for some stupid land grab that trades the country’s soft power for some quick corporate profits. By the time the long-term damage sets in, they are off to the next grift a few hundred billion dollars richer. Tale as old as time…
They know the damage they are causing–they just don’t care.
It’s even more malicious than that: the erosion of US soft power is good for Russia, and Trump is a Russian asset
“Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven” is not the best ideology for the general wellbeing if the population.
The previous generation of non-elite* who lived through it didn’t tell their children either. The flower children sold out. This has been going on since Operation Paperclip.
Trump IS a security risk. Especially when he is “leading” anything.
At this point, wouldn’t it be safer for NATO to be working to kick the USA out? There are plenty (I don’t know exact numbers) of military bases in Europe that contain US soldiers. Not only does that seem like an insane security risk at this point, but it delays any help coming the way of Canada and Greenland if the US invades.
I realize some people might be scared of escalation, but Trump is already escalating and I don’t think shoving our head in the sand and hope he is bluffing is a smart move.
The US is not just a member of NATO, they are a member that surpass the remaining members (taken collectively) in every regard. Its not just the equipment or manpower lost but the ability to launch a military intervention around most of the globe, something the US, and only the US can do with combined arms. We also lose most of our effective and experienced leadership, technical capabilities like spy satellites and GPS.
If the US want to invade Europe, they can do so while mostly being sure that we (EU) can’t effectively shoot back, with or without the bases on our soil, like it’s not even close.
All that is more reason to try to gain military independence from the USA, not really a good justification to let them hang out in our territory while threatening our allies.
And no matter how mighty their military might be, having military presence in our territory is still a massive advantage. I mean, look how Vietnam and Afghanistan went for them despite their might; they are not an unstoppable force. Why make it easier for them in the ever increasing chance of a war?
Because there’s nothing to be gained and everything to be lost from the US leaving NATO.
Yes, there are good reasons to develop an EU army with the same capabilities as the US but realistically speaking that’s decades away if we could start today but we’re not even discussing it seriously. In the meantime making any decision furthering the US from NATO gives no advantage to Europe.
Yes, you are right but your also wrong. The EU can and would fight back. It would not be an even fight, we would lose badly but it will be fought. And the US will get kicked the fuck out eventually. Because if history has proven anything then it is that the US can’t hold on territory because it loses its will to fight each and every time. The problem is, the US likes winning. It just doesn’t have the faintest idea what to do after.
Imagine working alongside the native army and then one day being told that those who are essentially your coworkers are now the enemy.
Probably one of the many things that will be his downfall if he stays this course. Telling the military to fight people who have been very close allies for so long will not go over well.
This may actually have pretty big consequences for the US, especially if it doesn’t cool-down quickly. How long before some EU nation start to build some military ties with Russia and China ? Sure it’ll take decades to build an alliance, but a couple of liason officer and a joint exercise, most likely using counter-terrorism or anti-piracy as a pretext, may happen sooner than Trump think.
I agree with the sentiment, but I don’t think a military alliance with Russia is even on the table. That’d be replacing one abusive “ally” with another.
Just because America is suddenly untrustworthy and a risk, doesn’t mean that Russia isn’t a threat anymore.Imo, Europe is better off forging its own path, only collaborating with countries such as China when it is in our strategic interest to do so.
Imo, Europe is better off forging its own path, only collaborating with countries such as China when it is in our strategic interest to do so.
Europe, without the U.S. needs to increase it’s military spending. (Same with Canada, who, I hate to say it, really needs to get some nukes onto it’s territory on loan from somehwere)
Ironically, NATO increasing it’s military spending is something that the U.S. has been bitching about for years. So now they’d finally get their wish, but in some weird monkey’s paw Faustian way.
I’d think you are more likely to see the US ally with Russia than to see Europe do so. Given trumps fondness for Putin and all.
We need to provide an inviting environment for research and study, become the learning center of the world, super-partes.
We don’t have alternatives as we don’t have the resources or population of the other powers.
China is a possibility because (AFAIK) they don’t have any territorial ambitions in Europe, but Russia is definitely off the table. I don’t think any significant number of Europeans would be OK allying with Russia. In fact, I think it’s more likely that if a war breaks out that Russia and the USA will be on the same side.
It is way easier to ruin something than to build it up. This goes especially for Trust. Trump is currently burning about any past-'45 trust the US has accumulated in a bonfire of egoism.
And I don’t think that Europe will turn towards Russia or China. Europe is big and strong enough to stand on it’s own.
Guaranteed Putin has put a bug in his ear that only great leaders expand their territories and get enshrined in history.
I mean they do get enshrined in history, not in a good way, until a handful of decades later, apparently.
Why do you think that Europeans are as stupid as North Americans? Sure, here in Canada and the US we love to switch to worse options because “change” but generally the EU is much better about that kind of thing. They’ll strengthen their own militaries and continue working together as they have been.
Also Russia? Really? The ones actually attacking European countries instead of just threatening? Really?
Far right is rapidly rising in Europe.
Absolutely true, but at least right now they aren’t going to switching from the US to the country attacking them becauss they’re afraid of the US attacking them.
“Hey, they might punch us in the face. Say, guy actively punching me in the gut, you like punching do you wanna be friends?”
It’s just such a lame take.
Oic, better the far right at home than the foreign far right. /s
I think we need to start building inroads with our neighbors at home and abroad, and not wait on governments to do anything.
America was insulated from WW2 due to those whole “oceans” thing going on, but European countries take the threat of rightwing land grabbers a lot more seriously.
Some of us Canadians take it quite seriously too these days. Unfortunately we also have a good number of right-wing traitors who have long wanted to turn the country into the USA.
I hope everyone is keeping tabs on those people. who they are.
for if the day ever comes. Those will be the first people taken care of.
A little Manifest Destiny don’t hurt nobody. Except for that one time. Well, maybe a couple times. Every time.
You forgot Gaza in the summary, for a round number of 4. Will he name a fifth? I’m trying to guess who it would be, maybe Antarctica?
BuT hE Is mAkiNG aMeRiCA GreAT aGaIN!
We were a perfectly safe and peaceful country before with our massive military and enough nuclear weapons and nerve gasses to kill every living thing on the planet. Safe!
In some senses this is exactly what Trump wants. He would refuse to be respectful and get respect diplomatically so instead its a “respect me or else” stance, both in an economically and militarily threatening sense.
I think that the problem is bigger than Trump. We can’t really trust an ally whose position can change radically from one administration to another, essentially every 4 years.
Like it was not a risk before. People just didn’t want to see the obvious.
There’s only one person in America that’s making these idiotic proposals, so if it’s that much of a risk, it might be an easy thing for a group of foreign nations with some resources to rectify.
it might be an easy thing for a group of foreign nations with some resources to rectify.
Yeah I don’t think any American allies want to declare war on the US, and I don’t think any American enemies are unhappy with that one person.
I gather the Arab nations are largely displeased with Trump and his propositions.
They’re probably not happy about him pushing for more oil production in the US, but unless he plans on actively forcing oil companies to pump more, that’s not going to be happening because they don’t want their margins to be too low.
If he starts actively forcing oil companies to pump more oil, he’s probably going to be offed by good ol’ American lead rather than a foreign bonesaw.
Or did you mean some other reason?
I mostly meant his plans for Palestine.
Does the rich part of the Arab world care much about Palestine though? I know Iran (not arabs but still muslims) are close allies but what about Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc?
The whole American hole freeway… A large 4 Lane freeway extending the 5fwy all the way down to Patagonia. Its 500ft underground so Mexico and the other Mexican nations wouldn’t be bothered. If they are bothered, they are more than welcome to try fill the hole with precious water…tunnel warfare!
