The Volokh Conspiracy Asked the Question I've Had for Decades

From The Volokh Conspiracy. "500M Europeans Are Begging 300M Americans for Protection from 140M Russians Who Have Been Unable to Overcome 50M Ukrainians for Three Years"

Well, my question has always been - at least since The Berlin Wall came down - "Why doesn't Europe pay for its own damn defense?" And yes, this is from more than a week ago, but it only came to my attention recently.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk asked Europe to step up, and pay their fair share.

But I thought this was a well-put call for action, from a country that is estimated to have spent 4.12% of its GDP on defense in 2024, compared to a 2.02% average for European NATO members and Canada, and 3.38% for the U.S. "The Polish military is now about 200,000, which makes it the third-largest in NATO after the U.S. and Turkey and the largest among the alliance's EU members."

In fact, if you look at Europe's military spending since the 1990s, the economic powerhouses have not even spent the 2% of GDP on military that they COMMITTED to. Trump, in his first term as President, gave them a dressing down, and they laughed it off.

By the way, the only other NATO member that spent a higher fraction of its GDP than the U.S. is Estonia, at 3.43%. Latvia and Lithuania are also high, at 3.15% and 2.85%, well above everyone else except Greece at 3.08%. The one behind Lithuania (though closer to the middle of the pack) is Finland, at 2.41%. See a pattern?

Click thru for more, and a link to the NATO document detailing defense spending through 2024.

Hat tip to Granite Grok: Why CAN’T You Deal With Ukraine Yourselves?

Both stress and big flashlights can show reality to those who are living in another world and dimension. In this case, it is the Euro weenies who are all about continuing the Never-Ending-Ukranian War – even as they’ll only fight if the US is involved:

Why haven't they spent money on military? Because since the 1950s they've relied on America. There is no other reason. Early on, it made sense, probably. Since the 1980s, not so much.

Except for Poland. Trump went after the EU in his first term just to get them to spend 2% of their GDP on their militaries without much success. Poland, knowing the danger from Russia, is at 4.12%. It is now the powerhouse of the EU, far exceeding Germany, Britain, and France with respect to actual capability.

And you don't build a military overnight. You have to buy and maintain equipment. You have to recruit (though Europe is considering a draft again) and train troops. And that is hard today. Take Germany. Their Tank crews ride around in vans for war games because the tanks are broken. Same for helicopters. Or it was true the last time I looked, which admittedly was before COVID.

If Europe isn't interested in paying for its own defense, why should the US pay for it?