“[Putin] does not stop stressing what he’s really longing for, like, a renaissance of the Soviet empire,” Pistorius said of Putin. “He wants to be the dominant power in Europe. […]”

pain

Germany’s biggest defense contractor, Rheinmetall, and its subsidiaries have won a commanding share of recent government contracts.

Twitter: Germany is now rebuilding its military, and Rheinmetall is building and expanding 13 arms factories across Europe.

[60 Minutes Video]

Rheinmetall was one of Germany’s major arms producers during WWI and WWII.

seen-this-one

  • RedSturgeon [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    10 days ago

    “Nobody wants to go to war. But if it happens, you have to be there to defend your country,” he said.

    Ask every politician if they will send their children to war.

    • Red_October [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      10 days ago

      It wouldn’t be surprising if this whole thing blossoms into a war between Russia, allies, and NATO. NATO wants the balkanization of Russia, U.S. wants that because it would hurt China. It would be very prolonged because modern war is fought very differently, but western Europe would eventually have its teeth smashed in the same way as Ukraine.

      However this could all still easily happen when you look at it from the perspective of a failing blood empire rapidly losing at chess.

      • juniper [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        10 days ago

        I am torn. I expect material conditions will lead to war which will eventually cause a mortal wound to empire, so long as we don’t die in nuclear holocaust first. However, this “conventional modern” war also means incredible destruction like we see in Ukraine on an evener larger scale. Massive environmental harm and human suffering. What is to be done?

        • Red_October [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          10 days ago

          What is to be done is modern war and revolution within the empirical core. Look at the statistics on infrastructure destruction and civilian casualties within Ukraine and Russia over the past three years (from Marxist-adjacent news sources, yada yada information warfare fuck wikipedia free Donbass). This war has primarily been fought by cheap, easy to produce, post-capitalist standardized robots. The number of deaths in the Ukrainian military is contributed by NATO wanting to sacrifice Ukraine as a geopolitical testing ground for war against Russia. The material conditions in the west will end with the hanging of landlords or the quiet and slow death of an abrahamic-based, pedophile run, pseudo-religious ethnostate. Either way is good for me. Fuck my country.

          Tldr; the last three years have shown us how WW3 would go. Severe social and infrastructure damage from fighting within Europe, the sacrifice of a ton of ground troops to socialist drones playing a war of attrition that the western powers will burn themselves out to prolong because they know they will lose no matter the human and nature cost.

  • Euergetes [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    10 days ago

    WHO believes this? genuinely, who actually believes the country that hasn’t won a war with Ukraine in 3 years somehow has the capacity or ambition to invade germany?

    • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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      Russia is obviously not going to invade Germany. But there are big differences between Ukraine and say making a move on one of the smaller Baltic countries, and European NATO doesn’t have troops forward deployed to where the frontlines would be, and lacks mid air refueling capacity for their air forces if the USA stays out of it, which will limit European air force’s power projection capabilities, even if they are superior to Russia’s air force.

      While this is a thread by a NATO liberal, it outlines the problems European militaries have in a potential conflict

        • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          10 days ago

          why would the europeans do a war if the US told them not to?

          European politicians openly recognise that the relationship between the EU and the US is adversarial now.

          A significant split is occurring and EU wants to go its own way. I’ve been saying for months now that this was coming, that these people were saying this behind closed doors over a year ago, now it is moving into public.

          • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            The Europeans are pissy about Trump treating them as bad as other American vassals but they do not want to go their own way, they simply want to go back to the halcyon days of polite liberal harmony right before Trump was elected.

            I would find it easier to believe in the European elite’s desire for increased autonomy if all of that military spending went to domestic or third country arms manufacturers but as long as the money is shipped to American and “Israeli” arms manufacturers it is a tribute that reaffirms European subservience to Washington.

            Even if European rulers wanted autonomy they would not be able to have it. Europe has made itself too dependent on America, not just in military matters but also in everything from financial systems, IT infrastructure and energy supply to culture and ideology.

            • BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              10 days ago

              That ”buy European” shit is so funny. What do you think is going to have more of a geopolitical impact, some people deciding to BuY EuRoPeAn, or most European countries agreeing to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP because of NATO?

              Besides, we saw some of this during Trump’s first term (and Bush’s time in office too), when a respectable adult biden-alert was in office again, all the US criticism evaporated.

              • Hyper_red [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.net
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                10 days ago

                The buy European shit is a way western Europeans can be racist to everyone else without being “barbaric racists, like the rural and urban poors” it’s just white nationalism with a thick coat of 2016 liberalism

            • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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              The problem with buy European is what? Europe doesn’t produce a stealth fighter like the F-35 currently. As for air defence, SAMP/T’s Aster 30 series interceptors are adequate for defence against ballistic missiles, but the radar is inadequate, so Europe has to wait for SAMP/T NG to match PATRIOT PAC-3 and PAC-3 MSE. Air defence against longer range ballistics like Oreshnik, only the US and Israel in the western sphere of influence make systems for that, and Germany has bought the Israeli Arrow 3 because it’s cheaper than AEGIS ashore. Europe is not going to buy Chinese weapons for the most part. I guess the plan is to buy US weapons until the European equivalents are online, but that’s going to take a decade minimum.

          • Euergetes [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            10 days ago

            the only reason European “interests” are in defending an ever eastward ‘front’ against Russia are because of the US! if the EU was actually interested in pursuing an independent path they’d start by investigating and rectifying nordstream.

            it’s all bluster and kayfabe from a euro ruling class utterly inextricable from US dominance.

          • built_on_hope [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            10 days ago

            Is it real or is it just bluster because Trump is unpopular among the European electorate? I seem to remember them making similar noises when the tariffs came in and then quietly completely capitulating

            • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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              It’s real in that they do not want to be US vassals. It’s popular because of Trump. It’s not going to be quick or easy though with how reliant upon the US militarily. The push to build a bigger EU military is not because they believe in war with Russia being likely, it is because they recognise how much it fucked them, the US bombed nordstream and the EU just had to take it because they had no choice. It was either pander to the US or suffer economic ruin without oil and gas that is now shipped via boats from the US.

          • Hyper_red [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.net
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            European liberal leaders aren’t actually adversarial to trump.

            They only pretend to be for their population.

            Behind closed doors they’re 100% doing everything he asks and is sucking him off

            They all instantly bent over when Trump told them to buy more American arms and cut their social welfare for if

        • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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          I don’t think that something silly happening in the Baltics, Russia then invading say Estonia while the Americans decide to stay out of the fight directly, but continue to sell weapons to Europe and provide intelligence, is that unrealistic or outside the realm of possibilities. Unlikely, sure, but it’s definitely something that can happen. If fulfills the ultimate Russian geopolitical goal of de-legitimising NATO by attacking it’s weakest point, and testing just how committed Europe is to defending NATO’s relatively new and smallest members. The US won’t see the need to intervene directly unless there’s a massive frontline collapse in eastern europe, but will be happy to sell weapons and grind away at Russia further, via European NATO instead Ukraine.

          Outside of a “boots on the ground” type war, a long range conventional strike exchange between Russia and Europe is also within the realm of possibilities, and probably more likely than boots on the ground. Pakistan and India, two nuclear armed nations, had one this year. Israel and Iran have had multiple since April 2024, including a 12 day long one in June of this year. In both cases, more exchanges are probably inevitable before the decade is finished. Ukraine fires US and Anglo-French made missiles into Russia proper. Russia already flew decoy one way attack drones over Poland a few months ago. Styrofoam decoys with no warhead sure, but still very much an action taken.

          • Euergetes [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            10 days ago

            the arrangement of an attack on a NATO country in a way that produced ignorable US losses would require downright collusion with Russia. US congress and people (as of 2025) would demand war for killing/capturing 10 yankee soldiers, nevermind a brigade or division

          • huf [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            yeah, what’s russia gonna do when one of the baltic states starts shelling their russian minority? cos that’s what i fear is the next step here. i know estonia’s been drooling to do that since the 90s.

  • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    EU/US: Completely undermine Ukrainian government and openly support it’s destruction, help push open fascists into power which forces succession of majority ethnic Russian territories out of fear, Ukraine starts shelling said territories

    Russia: Mobilizes to stop it after constantly demanding stop to it

    EU/US: rUzZiA wAnTs To KiLl YoUr ChIlDrEn

  • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    Russia is a basket case, a gas station with a failing army that has mostly been killed by now, no paved roads and no washing machines. Their puny little economy will collapse by next Thursday.

    Russia is also the new third Reich/Soviet Union/Mordor. They are scheming for our demise and unless we sacrifice our economic future and slash every welfare programme to buy more bombs, Putin’s Asiatic hordes will swarm all of western Europe.

    The enemy is too weak and too strong. I am a very serious adult in the room.

  • demerit@lemmygrad.ml
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    Russia is robbing your freedom, which we are already taking and dont really give a damn about - but muh putin evil!

  • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    Living freely is when you get arrested on the street for speaking the wrong language, beaten by police for wearing a watermelon pin, drowned by the cops throwing you in a river because you dared to assemble in a group, your kids must learn violent racial supremacist propaganda in support of a modern genocide to atone for the previous genocide the state did, and have your reading group gets shut down because the state designates one of the core philosophies and academic practices of the 20th century as “incompatible with the state”.

    Fuck Germany. Piece of shit Nazi country that never really changed. germany-cool

  • cornishon@lemmygrad.ml
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    Putin will come for you toothbrush and eat all your schnitzel with his comically large spoon!

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    In America, “our freedoms” is code for “our capital investments”, there’s no other way to coherently frame it.

    In Europe now, “the ability to live freely in peace” is code for “our imperial superprofits”.

    It would probably be worth it to them to arm al-Qaida & friends just so they can do invasions interventions to keep a wide range of countries subjugated.