74
UK's Starmer commits to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP
(www.euractiv.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
74 points (97.4% liked)
Europe
1519 readers
333 users here now
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.
founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
Cool story bro. You tell Russia, China, and various other countries that.
Baltic states.
Taiwan, by extension.
Are you against military spending in general or against the oppurtunity costs of military spending for something specific?
I think this guy is a revisionist Tankie. Russia and China have a history of expansionism and conduct provocative military exercises near NATO and Southeast Asian country borders.
Best to ignore them and they can sit in the mud of downvotes for others to read and realize they are full of beans.
You're joking, right? Russia regularly threatens to nuke the UK, has done several misinformation campaigns in our political system, and even carried out an assassination using fucking chemical weapons on British soil. Sounds pretty hostile to me.
China has spoken at length about intending to take back Taiwan, an ally, and the west can't let that happen, it would be disastrous. They also had a violent crackdown on Hong Kong which the UK has a unique vested interest in for obvious reasons, state-sponsored Chinese hackers have on multiple occasions targeted UK institutions, including hospitals and the Ministry of Defence.
And yes, various other countries. What, you think nowhere is hostile? There's active battle against Houthis who are attacking merchant and military vessels right now, for example.
If you think countries don't need defensive capabilities, you are wrong. You'd think that would be plainly obvious right now, considering a country in Europe is being fucking invaded right now.
Lmao you're acting like the press in Russia is free. It isn't. Nuke threats on state TV, large government-backed papers, government staff, and Putin-allied ex-presidents are government sanctioned.
What obligates the UK to defend its allies? Oh I dunno, promises made, morals, and the cold-hearted pragmatist view that losing Taiwan would be a complete disaster for the UK and the world in general. Semiconductors are kind of a big deal. There's this new invention called the microprocessor - they're pretty neat, and used practically everywhere!
I don't know why I'm bothering talking to a tankie. No matter what I say you'll never shift from your position that Russia/China good, west bad.
Because they are.
Very few do. That's unfortunate, but countries can't really get by if China decides to sanction them. They're very embedded in the world economy. So we support Taiwan while not officially recognising them as a state wink wink.
The UK has recognised them more than most though. There are embassies, there have been state visits (extremely rare when it comes to Taiwan), and the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee have stated that "Taiwan is an independent country" - in other words, the UK has went as far as you can go in recognising Taiwan without having sanctions from China.
If you put any thought into the geopolitical and economic ramifications of it, you'd understand why it's a lot more complex than the primary school-level understanding you appear to have of the situation.
Never said that. You asked why the UK should defend allies being invaded by dictatorships like Russia or China, and I gave that as one of the reasons to do so.
Because they do, along with everybody else.
Committments made to help allies.
Omg are you actually this clueless? Practically everyone uses TSMC. The world would be set back so much without TSMC. They're the market leader. Even Intel uses TSMC.
You don't see what's morally wrong with Russia or China invading their neighbours, killing thousands, and making them live under a dictatorship? You don't see what's morally wrong with Russia committing a genocide now? The rape and torture they've committed and are committing right now?
Jesus. I mean I know you're a tankie, but that's fucked up even for them.
Ironic.
Yeah, obviously Russia has the best interests of Europe at heart... Hence their bloody invasion