Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[Sheilbh]

Although all those countries are in the EU and Spain has the same currency as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland.

A direct threat to Spanish territory may be unlikely, but it's not exactly faraway countries of which we know little.

[crazy canuck]

He was trying to make the point that the US is farther away from Russia so has less to fear than Spain, the implication being that Spain has more reason to spend on their military.  But our geographically challenged American friend has at least one fundamental problem with his argument.

How utterly pedantic.  Spain is much closer to the Russian threat than the US.  Russian forces in the Far East will be annihilated in a matter of days, so pose no threat to the US. Yi's point is correct even if he worded it imprecisely.

Then I guess we don't ever need a navy or an Air Force because the only risk is that the Russians marched through Europe by land. Good to know I guess Canada doesn't have to have any military spending now and the whole arctic defence strategy is a waste of time.  What a relief.

[Neil]

Although all those countries are in the EU and Spain has the same currency as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland.

A direct threat to Spanish territory may be unlikely, but it's not exactly faraway countries of which we know little.

If you want to take economic factors into account, then everyone is on the frontlines.  A major war between powers anywhere in the world would have far-reaching economic consequences.  A war between the US and China would collapse the European economy, and likely the EU, for example.

[grumbler]

Then I guess we don't ever need a navy or an Air Force because the only risk is that the Russians marched through Europe by land. Good to know I guess Canada doesn't have to have any military spending now and the whole arctic defence strategy is a waste of time.  What a relief.

That's what you guess, huh?  I'll bet you guess poorly.

[crazy canuck]

Then I guess we don't ever need a navy or an Air Force because the only risk is that the Russians marched through Europe by land. Good to know I guess Canada doesn't have to have any military spending now and the whole arctic defence strategy is a waste of time.  What a relief.

That's what you guess, huh?  I'll bet you guess poorly.

Merry Christmas grumbler, you made a stupid mistake and you double down.

Don't ever change

[DGuller]

Never has such a strong desire to feel smart met such a catastrophic inability to be so.