Frankreich wehrt sich gegen NATO-Chef Rutte im Streit um Europas Verteidigungsstärke. Der NATO-Generalsekretär teilte dem Europäischen Parlament mit, dass sich der Kontinent ohne die USA nicht verteidigen könne

Don’t underestimate the French, they have ignored the US defence industry for a long time.

Is Rutte a Chamberlain or a Quisling? With the toddler-in-chief creating countless of job opportunities for child psychologists all around the world embassies, it’s hard to distinguish coping from collaborating.

Sounds like goading Putin would do

I am sure Rutte is well compensated for his transparent propaganda.

We really need for our safety to decouple from the US. Right now, US is not an ally or even neutral country, but threat and enemy. Like, they just threatened to invade Greenland and previously Canada, they are sabotaging and undermining war efforts in Ukraine, they keep threatening Europe with tariffs and otherwise. Like this is far worse than what we expect from even neutral countries, and we’re supposed to think they will protect us? Good one…

Not only it is incorrect, but strategically incredibly stupid. Russia was able to succesfully convince whole world that they are dominant military force and whole world ate it for decades. It was mostly just speech.

Now we are trying to convince whole world that we are piece of cake? Like is there a reason for both Putin AND Trump not to believe it?

That guy just hurts.

Rutte is just trumps dog, another weak politician

Come on, you think he is to vote against his own job? Its a “ we from wc-eend advice wc- eend“ play. When Amerika is out, nato is gone. And his job is gone.

What you have to bear in mind about Rutte, is that he has always been more of a transatlanticist than a Pan-European. In the Eurocrises in the 2010s he could be a staunch advisary of any European support from Northern European countries to the then suffering Southern European countries. In 2020, when the Covid pandemic hit a country like Italy hardest in the early days, he was adamantly against a pan-European support fund. Meanwhile, his foreign policy has always been one of the most pro-US of all European countries.

As a Dutchman, I have to admit that Rutte has his qualities. His slimy, diplomatic posture full of praising the other party does get things done. I also believe that his stance of keeping Trump and US militarily on our side for at least another year could be beneficial for Europe to ramp up production massively. But don’t keep your hopes up, he can be terribly naive as well with regards to how far the US have slid into an authoritarian regime.

Go France. Save us from ourselves (again)

He needs to give up trying to suck up to trump. Calling him daddy didn’t work like he hoped

I think Rutte is exactly provoking the reaction he wants to.
Remember, he said that we should prepare for a war our grandparents have seen. And what did we do? Make pinky promises that we will increase our military budget.

Now we are at odds with America, so why not use that to drive his previous message home. Nobody in Europe wants to be dependent on America anymore, but what he says holds weight. Though if we want to we could. But we don’t really want to.

We could be spending like Poland, but we are not. We are too comfortable. Our mindsets need to be changed, and I think this is an attempt at actually doing that

so he says that eu cant defend itself without eu as a counterargument for increasing eu military might? lol

Hardly surprising from Rutte

NATO has always been first and foremost for the security of the US, and under the premises that Europe would be the main battlefield in an open war between the US and USSR/Russia

By implying Europe is weak while the US is strong, you hint potential enemies that it’s better to secure gains there instead of going through a risky Alaskan invasion

Rutte’s comments are always made to ensure no direct attack is ever made on US territory. It’s not treason : Rutte is loyal to the Alliance since day one

The reason the US are pulling out of Europe now may not be because it’s costly or whatever. It’s because the Ukrainian invasion has shown that Russia is no serious threat to the US

That would also explain why they’re now interested in Greenland : it’s not interesting to have the managing role of a territory under a rain of missiles, but if you’re convinced you can protect it correctly, then the gains outshine the costs

Ans Greenland looks juicier if you can make sure the targets remains on (weak) eastern Europe

Look at how NATO was organised : to have a strong but-not-too-much Europe. The idea was not for europe to properly defend itself, but for Europe to hold its ground whatever the price, until finally the US came to the rescue (after 3~4 years, as usual)

I wasn’t excited when Rutte become NATO’s SG. I do get he’s supposed playing both sides and taming the big baby in Washington but his Europe bashing is getting on my nerves. I find here the same insufferable neoliberal preaching without much intellectual input that gave rise to European extreme right. Just stfup for a moment and do your work.

The UK and France have nukes. You don’t need to win a war, you just make sure the other side can’t win either by going nuclear. Don’t forget that Russia has been at war with little Ukraine for how long now? And for what? It’s depleted its economy and almost wiped out a generation of young men.