Comments by "andy99ish" (@andy99ish) on "EU Debates | eudebates.tv" channel.

  1. The EU cannot even save Europe. So how the planet ?
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  2. "Von der Leyen's Powerful Address at Munich Security Conference: A Bold Vision for Europe's Future!" Gosh, that is getting closer and closer to North Korea. Do they think that we cannot make our judgement about a speech ? And they call that channel "EU debates". Vance was so right.
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  3. The EU is a powerful economic Union, yes. But not a political union, let alone a military one. Nor will it be one. As in this respect we Europeans just do not sit in one boat. Nor in one tradition. E.g. Greece loves Russia since centuries. Poland will not provoke Russia, just because a Macron dreams of reestablishing French glory. Germany still remembers very well how attacking the Soviet Union ended. Italy shuns wars generally. Hungary depends on Russian spare parts for its nuclear power plant, which provides 40% of its electricity. Austria is militarily permanently neutral by its constitution. The Baltic states are acutely fearing Russia. Portugal has little feelings towards it. See, Europe is complex. I guess you are not European, correct ?
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  4. A useful framework to think about European attitudes towards Russia might look like as follows: There are 3 belts of EU/NATO countries and one group friendly to Russia since centuries: Belt 1: countries in immediate proximity to Russia and afraid of its unprovoked aggression: Baltic, Finland, Sweden, probably Norway. Belt 2: countries more afraid of provoking Russia than fearing its unprovoked aggression: Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Romania, Turkey, probably Slovenia, Croatia. Belt 3: all other to the West (France, Benelux, Italy, Iberian, British Isles), who aren't really afraid of Russia. Traditional Russophiles: The predominantly orthodox, ex Osman countries of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia. Now one could debate about specific countries, including these EU/NATO countries I have left out. Yet in my assessment the big picture is valid enough to predict, that there will be no common European policy towards Russia.
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  5.  @ClemensKatzer  Poland will follow the USA. And the USA, as so often in the past, has reached its limits to fund an unwinnable war. More generally the Baltic countries should be advised, that NATO is not an insurance for mini countries wanting to provoke Russia. That might sound harsh, but realism in the end is much more ethical than feeding illusions, which in the end led to massive damage of the Ukraine.
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  6. NATO is not at war with Russia.
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  7.  @platinaatje6134  "What did the "US gave Europe for free??" Let me inform you: a) the Marshall plan. b) coverage from Soviet threat for 45 years.
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  8. How can the Ukraine be involved ? Zelensky's mandate has expired. And now he even goes after his rival Poroshenko.
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  9. In other words she comes from a country whose political class is quite inexperienced. It shows.
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  10.  @Lasse65  If Russia is so weak, why is everybody so afraid of it ? Your infantile arguments are on top self-contradicting.
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  11. Ms Kallas needs some lessons in how big politics works. She is mistaken to think that tiny Estonia is at the heart of strategic global issues. She is also mistaken as to the readiness of a whole continent, Europe, to enter into a permanent hostility towards Russia.
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  12. Both the EU and the Ukraine gets a lesson in US Realpolitik. It is astonishing for me, as a European, that a general public, which boast with its education, is astonished about that. The USA in each and every conflict of the last 80 years reached a point, when they no longer wanted to finance an unwinnable war. And they never much cared about the side they previously have supported. There is nothing specifically Trumpish about that.
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  13. She lives in the illusion that tiny Estonia is at the heart of big politics.
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  14. @ I hasten to inform you that the biggest NATO country in Europe, Turkey, is not putting in money. And I would advise you to be careful with thinking and stating that any NATO country is at war with Russia. That is frivolous.
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  15. @ No single NATO country is under attack. Be careful with words.
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  16. Free Speech is dangerous according to Scholz. And criticizing EU officials is unacceptable for him.
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  17. Oh sure. By your wish .
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  18. @ He/she is the EU Nostradamus.
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  19.  @georgeholmer8563  Yes, Draghi retreated from Italian politics into that parking space for politicians who have no chance to make it any more on national stage. That parking space is named EU institutions. Actually for many it is a political boneyard. By any standard retreat from a competition is the same as loss of it.
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  20.  @VilhelmEdgren  "Europe" did not found the USA. But Europeans who wanted to change their individual lives and by seceding from their European motherland set up a republic, which was exceptional in its times. Let's not pretend that the US did not develop anything new.
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  21. ​ @MrJonas7  I actually live in Poland. I know firsthand that Poland helped the Ukraine a lot. Yet 70% of Poles are opposed to send Polish troops to secure the Ukrainian border after a ceasefire. Hence the Polish PM Tusk has declined Macron's idea to do so. See, the main difference between belt 2 as compared with belt 1 is the lack of feeling that war is imminent. Poland specifically has to replenish its weapon stocks depleted by bold help to the Ukraine. That will take 2-3 years. On top Poland feels they were betrayed by France and the British Empire in 1939 and then by US president Roosevelt in 1943 in Teheran an later Yalta. So no trust in Western loyalty in Poland. Which translates into caution.
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  22.  @nathanquinn3499  You have a valid point. Yet whereas the US is a still powerful empire in decline, the EU is a non-entity when it comes to foreign policy. Maybe it is because many Europeans entertain that strange Hegelian idea that there is an autonomous subject "history" which does things ? Like "repeating itself" ?
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  23. Poland and Hungary have pursued a strict immigration policy since years. Both countries were denounced being "nationalist", "hard-right" and even fas cist for doing so. Amusing that now the EU "discovered" that immigration is a valid topic.
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  24. @gregand3083 And even though it is old, no one can counter it. You do not even try :))
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  25. Sloganeering is unethical. The Ukraine is destroyed. Let's see who is ready to pay for its reconstruction.
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  26.  @georgeholmer8563  No, I am not a "EU national". I am citizen of a country which is member of the confederation (somehow misleadingly) called EU. It is a pity you find yourself unable / unwilling to state your views in a concise way. And that is the Eurocrats biggest failure. They do not test their views in public versus critical voices and they think that they just can impose them like a religion. Reflect about that - and have a good day too.
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  27.  @georgeholmer8563  There is neither a nation called EU nor a state called that. You take a shorthand colloquialism ("EU national") for reality. I am afraid that you failed the fundamental test about the very ontological status of the EU. Again, the EU is a confederation, not a federation, in case you know the difference. Draghi at least knows it. And then you seriously argue that Prime Minister of Italy is not a political position / that being nominated for that position makes it an "unelected" one. Now there is hardly any more political position than PM and in Italy a nominated PM then needs a positive confidence vote of both chambers of their parliament. Then you use a misleading term, namely "Eurocritics" as one could be critical of a continent / as if the European Union was Europe. Neither is the case. Finally you depict my precision and knowledge as "anger". On top you imply that one cannot be angry. So in a nutshell, you do not even know what the EU is. Yet hold a quasi religious adoration towards that institution. Quite depressing.
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  28.  @scottweir6799  It was the USA who saved Europe from its own ideas, like national socialism and communism. Sure, the USA did some silly thing too. Yet never of that magnitude.
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  29. The future is a REALISTIC foreign policy which accounts also for the existence of Russia and her interests.
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  30. Ms Von der Leyen was German minister of defense. In essence minister of a non existing military. Now she is speaking on behalf of a political entity called EU. Another illusion. Let's get real: In respect to Russia we Europeans just do not sit in one boat. Nor in one tradition. E.g. Bulgaria loves Russia since centuries. Poland will not provoke Russia, just because a Macron dreams of reestablishing French glory. Germany still remembers very well how attacking the Soviet Union ended. Italy shuns wars generally. Hungary depends on Russian spare parts for its nuclear power plant, which provides 40% of its electricity. Austria is militarily permanently neutral by its constitution. The Baltic states are acutely fearing Russia. Portugal has little feelings towards Russia. Any European military cooperation shall start from frankly acknowledging these differences. "Powerful addresses" will not do.
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  31.  @alhambrabiker1476  Poland is following the US since 35 years. And does so now too. You are uninformed.
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  32. LOL Wake up. This is war. Not a gentlemen's game who argue about fairness.
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  33.  @RdlSssmd  Do you always accuse people of other opinion to be ignorant ? If so then you a good illustration of what Vance said about the retreat of free speech in Europe. Now my grandparents and parents come from a country, which suffered from tsarist Russian imperialism, then Nazi and then Soviet aggression. Living in Western Europe in the early 1980s as a teenager I was speaking out loudly against Western pacifism, which in these times was very pronounced. People back then called me ignorant and a militarist and a "Sovietophobe". Most of them did not even know what Estonia was and were lost when I mentioned it. And then came the 1990s, a historic chance to overcome or at least mitigate traditional tensions with Russia, which was weak and appeasing at that time. Western elites missed that chance. We cannot undo history. But we can do better: We have the problem that the political class of post-Soviet countries lives in the illusion that they can provoke Russia (like Latvia does by repressing their Russian minority), as they deem to be 100% protected by NATO or EU insurance. This is a dangerous fallacy. You might not like that, but sincerity is the best I can do for you.
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  34. ​@ Russia has her interests and strength. Same for the USA. This is what drives the negotiations.
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  35. @ Yet Italians have elected Meloni. So EIX is closer to speaking for Italy than you are.
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  36. What Europeans want in first place is sane DIPLOMACY. One which balances the interest of all countries, including RUSSIA.
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  37. Yes, but while Kallas comes from a politically inexperienced country, Baerbock comes from a country which produced Bismarck, Adenauer, Schmidt, Kohl and the like. No coincidence that the term "Realpolitik" is also used in English. Given that Baerbock is more shocking.
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  38.  @FrankyS74  Indeed, when positions are filled by criteria like sex and race (which I deem to be quintessentially sexist, racist) and not by qualifications, then a civilization's heritage is irrelevant anyway. I am not sure if a Baerbock knows who Bismarck even was, or if a Harris knows about say, the Cuban missile crisis. However we collectively tend to vote for such people. Why ? Because our societies prefer to have a rosy picture presented and real problems pushed aside and ersatz-topics being debated. As a result, we collectively do NOT WANT qualified people. Crazy times.
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  39. In the Ukraine we have a proxy war between the US and Russia. The US invested in Ukrainian soil before and wanted to test the limits of pushing NATO even further eastwards. Now the limits are known. Naturally it is the main players who will negotiate peace. Zelensky's mandate to speak for the Ukrainian people has expired anyway. More generally US politics is mainly realistic. Trump is at least sincere about that.
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  40.  @KazimierzSurma  Quite the contrary. I am all FOR Poles and all FOR rational people !
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  41. Under whose command ? Under whose political control ?
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  42. Who has the power is Ms Meloni.
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  43.  @boozolini4465  Your hate of Russia is pathological. But them again, who cares.
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  44.  @MrJonas7  Ahoj ! I think that Czechia was even more betrayed in the beginning - as in autumn 1939 war was declared by France and the UK to Germany over Poland, and later actually fought. Unlike in Czechia's case. In Teheran / Yalta Poland was somehow more betrayed. It was massively shifted (unlike Czechia) and the Soviets massively pursued the large anti-Nazi Polish underground army, from day 1 after having pushed back Nazis. And maybe Czechia's panslavistic tradition eased Soviet - Czech relations, at least in the beginning - do I guess right ? Fun fact: Just parallelly watching an Arte documentary on TV, about the awful times of 1946-48. Things happening in Eastern Europe are shown en par with the fact, that Gaullists made it hard for French communists to manifest on streets. SMH, we say Europe, but our history is so very different.
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  45. Ladies from Eastern Europe are that way.
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  46.  @RdlSssmd  So she is mistaken as to believe that the EU is an entity of foreign policy. I am citizen of an EU country and my country conducts sovereign foreign policy.
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  47.  @bansi-b  "Europe" cannot do anything, as it is a continent. Russia is the biggest country in Europe.
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  48. The EU, a bureaucratic institution to its bones, does not get tired of playing the guardian of democracy elsewhere. Somehow laughable.
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  49. ​ @appstratum9747  Actually I do not blame the US for pursuing its interests. What I dislike is that by an flowery, idealistic rhetoric of US Presidents and other top US officials people are mislead to believe that the US will actually sacrifice itself for others. And then reality sets in. That why, as a European, I prefer Trump's harsh sincerity. And I welcome his drive to end that war. Even more so, as a majority of Ukrainians and Russians want peace too and a resurgence war driven inflation is felt all over the EU. That peace deals are always massive compromises and not manifestations of justice, I accept as a given.
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  50.  @veronicag.805  You are somehow correct. It is plain common sense. Which was denounced as being "nationalistic" just a couple of months ago.
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