What is up with the EU

[MiniSpdRcr]

China is where we need to be looking closely, the people there are realizing how much better off they are with capitalism, and the potential for them to quickly become the world's greatest economic power is bigger than anyone will really give them credit for.

---Fred

I second this statement.

[1stdeadeye]

SInce the EU is mostly for economic purposes I don't see why it'd need a great military.

They don't. Because as soon as the German's cross the Rhine into France, Chirac will be calling his best friend Bush for help!

[Thordic]

They don't. Because as soon as the German's cross the Rhine into France, Chirac will be calling his best friend Bush for help!

The Germans would have to have an army for that. The only western european countries capable of defending themselves these days are the UK and Spain.

[teufelhunden]

Whatever we do, however many millions of dollars we donate to these damaged nations, it will never be "enough" in most nations' eyes.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041228-122330-7268r.htm

[Can_Opener]

If the United States continues to become a service only economy, our country's fate is going to be a sad one. We need to prevent the movement of industry to other countries by actually reestablishing a strong import tariff to protect domestic workers so that businesses cannot outsource anymore.

Otherwise the United States is going to end up in bad shape when countries like China do finally capitalize on the fact that they have a large population of very intelligent/capable people and and the means to become world powers.

The European Union is also a threat similar to this, a unified Europe is actually fairly powerful because they gain a similar power that we have here in the U.S., each state can essentially be compared to a mini-country (and they were much like this in the early days of the Republic). Because there were a bunch of states that each have unique resources they were able to combine together for trade, etc. The EU has this same power because each country has its own unique resources/industry, as long as they continue working together they can produce much more, much cheaper because they aren't taxing the hell out of eachother with import tariffs/duties, and their unified currency binds them together much like the unified dollar bound the early state's economies together, instead of one nation's/state's currency being worthless in another state or having to be exchanged, it is valid universally throughout the Union.

On an added note: That guy from the U.N. can shut up.

[Muzikman]

For those saying you have to take all of Hitler to make reference to him. This is not true. There are many sides to Hitler, one of which was a united Europe, which was the reason we were over there fighting the war. We were not there to help the Jewish, hell we didn't even know about what was happening there until the war was almost over. The only reason Hitler even invaded the other countries because they did not want to lose their power. Hitler actually gave the countries the choice of joining his, or fighting him. If they all would have just joined, you would have had the EU.

[drg]

I think one thing getting left out of this discussion on military is that the EU has nuclear-armed members. Say what you will about France, but they have nukes now. In fact they have the most nukes out of any other EU country, and any country other than the US, Russia and China, according to estimates. They aren't going to surrender to ANYBODY anymore. This is what nukes do for you. That's why places like North Korea and Iran want them.

[1stdeadeye]

The Germans would have to have an army for that.

Says who? We are only talking about France here. They would surrender to the German Boy Scouts!

[Lohman446]

I think one thing getting left out of this discussion on military is that the EU has nuclear-armed members. Say what you will about France, but they have nukes now. In fact they have the most nukes out of any other EU country, and any country other than the US, Russia and China, according to estimates. They aren't going to surrender to ANYBODY anymore. This is what nukes do for you. That's why places like North Korea and Iran want them.

They may have nukes.. and that may be true for anyone else.. but its the French

I wonder if they have white flags painted on those nukes?

[TheDuelist]

We were not there to help the Jewish, hell we didn't even know about what was happening there until the war was almost over.

Thats not completely true. No we didn't join the war because of what was happening with the Jews but we did know something was going on. Its another example of how isolationism will get you in trouble.

[SAW]

I agree. The German atrocities didn't start behind WWII's "Iron Curtain" (Just using the phrase, hinting towards Germany's secrecy), they began in the mid-late 1930's. We knew about it, but we didn't think much about it. That kind of thing (Relocation, riots, racism) wasn't a big shock to the US of A, we had experienced it ourselves in previous years. However, when the FULL picture came out, of course we were upset.

EDIT: "Stingy"

[drg]

They may have nukes.. and that may be true for anyone else.. but its the French

I wonder if they have white flags painted on those nukes?

Yeah, yeah, hacking on the French may be the trendy or fun thing to do these days, but the truth is France has a pretty darn decent military industry and has pretty competent warfighting capabilities. We'd welcome their forces in Iraq as we do in Afghanistan if they'd send any.

And of course, having nukes mean never really having to be anyone's *****, ever.

[Lohman446]

Yeah, yeah, hacking on the French may be the trendy or fun thing to do these days, but the truth is France has a pretty darn decent military industry and has pretty competent warfighting capabilities. We'd welcome their forces in Iraq as we do in Afghanistan if they'd send any.

And of course, having nukes mean never really having to be anyone's *****, ever.

Its not just trendy these days, its been cool for decades... perhaps centuries

[SAW]

I have a record of France's military actions during the past few centuries. I may post later...

[B.A.M.]

The EU is quickly becoming the world's economic leader.

end of story.

Not if we blow them up

Also on the history channel they did a review on the countries air craft carrier

Italy. 2 billon

Britain. 4 billion

France 6 billion

Usa 12 billion nueclear powered

Also they have this show called top gun on tech tv.

They compare contries weapons, vehicals and what not and we always have the best and most.