Now Europe Knows What Trump’s Team Calls It Behind Its Back: ‘Pathetic’
- “I fully share your loathing of European freeloading,” Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, later replied. “It’s PATHETIC.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/world/europe/signal-jeffrey-goldberg-message-hegseth.htmlOpen linkView original on lemm.ee
28 replies
Being called pathetic by a bunch of thinskinned crybabies isn't an insult...
Sure.
But militarily, Europe is quite pathetic for a rich 700 million population region.
Pathetic in what way?
We have the best tanks, the best artillery, the best attack subs, several really good military aircraft programs and more.
The one thing we are lacking is quantity, and even then I wouldn't call us pathetic in that area.
Our military has for the last few decades been based against a resonable enemy, one who will calculate gains vs losses in a resonable manner and who then realize that working together is better than fighting.
This world has now gone, with the war in Ukraine, it is clear that Russian leaders no longer can be expected to act with reason, and Europe is picking up the pace.
Some may argue that it is too little too late, but you know, you can't change the past, if we could act with hindsight of future events then we would be unstoppable.
As a Swede, I am angry with my government for selling off defense resources for decades and dismantling our military, but we are working on sorting ourselves out.
Sweden really should have put in a right of refusal clause to buy back SAAB from GM. At least you still have the airplane division.
Ok, so you have nothing to counter my argument with.
But lets get back to the question at hand, you claim that European militaries are pathetic, but offer no concrete argument to support that claim.
Based on your comments in this thread, I can only assume that you are a troll, Russian asset, or Trump supporter.
Right. The Ukrainian army has been stalling or reversing the progress of the Russian army in a pretty significant way with European and American equipment and similar army sizes to those that other European countries could muster in a hurry.
I believe the question was: "Pathetic in what way?"
Please enlighten us.
Between France and the UK, the EU has more nuclear warheads than China, but you know, after a few dozens who's really counting.
Whereas since WW2, the US military has a proud and victorious record /s
I'm sure it's mutual let's be real
Many european 'leaders' seem pretty fond of them, actually. Orban, Meloni, Merz ... even Finland's Stubb recently visited Trump to play a nice round of golf.
Putin is extremely fond of him
That opinion carries the same weight as a gas station crackhead calling me a dick for not lending him a hundred.
They probably also believe in US exceptionalism 😆🎊
in fairness trump and vance have also done this to their face, so at least the messaging is consistent
Was it even an issue that needed to be resolved by force? Did we European asked them to do that for us? Should they say thank you for being so over reaching?
The EU has had ships in the Red Sea for this reason for a year already, they're just keeping to shooting down missiles and drones instead of flinging missiles into Yemen
So we pretty much had the situation under control?
Depends on what you count as "under control" I guess? No ships have been captured or sunk since last June, so in that regard yes. On the other hand, civilian ships were still getting hit by things a couple of times a month.
Either way, though, the EU has the capacity to shoot into Yemen and isn't doing so. I would argue that regardless of ethics, it's not actually a helpful thing to do. The Saudis bombed Yemen for about a decade, and if that had achieved anything then we wouldn't be in the current situation.
Yeah, because other than the US we don't make a sport out of bombing Yemen
Coming from Trump and his ilk, that's a compliment. Fuck you, too, orange buddy.
I thought they were just selling a story. But he actually believes it. So he's actually a fucking moron.
Amazing
A couple of toddlers won the not-so-popular vote and now their egostistical egos are showing. nothing but baby talk and they need to be put in their place by their european grandmas.
Just "pathetic"??
I'm sure I've been called worse.
Nevermind, we call you that too.
Article is 5 days old fyi
Article...5 days old.... Article 5. Wait, I know this one:
Which is the only country that has ever invoked NATO's article 5?
Bahrain? 🤷