Paradox games are all basically Spreadsheet: The Game, set in various historical periods or fantasy/sci fi settings. Stellaris never really got its hooks into me the way CK3 or HOI4 did, but it’s there for next winter. I made the mistake of downloading too many DLC’s on a sale and now there’s too much for me to learn.
I also have Victoria 3 but haven’t put more than a couple hours into it. It’s still there for me when I get bored. They are all awesome when you get past the learning curve and learn the mechanics. They are really great for learning the political geography of the periods and even some other stuff, although they aren’t 100 percent accurate by any means.
Back to reality, the USA still has a TON of troops in Europe. I’m sure a lot of those assignments are sensible cross-training assignments with NATO allies and the like, but do we REALLY still need to be occupying Germany and Italy? Or Japan, for that matter?
Those US troops in Germany didn’t seem to bother Putin when he invaded Ukraine.
I think it’s good to have strategic locations at the ready. They didn’t jump right in for Ukraine right off the bat, but if things escalate its good to have a base of operations for the European theater, Pacific, etc.
Plus, regardles of the hyperventilation being done in the headlines, if diplomatic relations were that bad, they’d tell us to get the hell out of their countries.
There’s that argument, but it seems like overkill to me. It certainly made a lot more sense during the Cold War when the Iron Curtain cut Germany in two and gave the Soviets a massive advantage in the borders they needed to defend. The Fulda Gap was such an important strategic chokepoint that is now in NATO hands.
Since 1991, our presence sure has seemed to result in much of Europe spending very little on defense, while towns like mine in the USA are stretched to the fiscal breaking point and we just keep getting taxed, while public services and social conditions degrade rapidly.
We still have the US Navy and US Marine Corps who can project power to any coastline in the world, which no other country can do. The UK needed to pull out every stop they had to retake the Falklands, and their capabilities have diminished since then.
I think a lot of these troop deployments are gravy trains of money that a lot of people, including local Europeans near US military bases, have grown accustomed to and will complain about loudly if stopped.
Even S. Korea is doing quite well for itself now, compared to how they were at the end of the Korean War. We’re still technically in a state of war with N. Korea, so it does make sense to keep some troops there.
The Mayor of Lewiston said last week that we (Lewiston) need to “match Ukraine’s courage.” He’s quite likely the only White House guest worse-dressed than Zelensky. What you’re seeing here is what he wore to a formal White House Christmas event last year, hosted by the Biden Administration. He was only there because our town had a terrible mass shooting that Democrats found to be politically advantageous.
And those numbers aren’t even that high. Especially when you consider most troops are serving in support roles so it’s not like we have 35,000 infantrymen in Germany.
How is that any different than the US? Most Americans have not and will not serve in the military. On a side note, in the US at least, the middle class supplies the most people to the military.
Yeah. An old buddy of mine was actually stationed in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. It has wound down since then.
The US did move out from there when there was kerfuffle in Boznia & whatnot after the collapse of the USSR. UN peacekeeping & whatnot.
I’ve seen some perspectives that have said that the Cold war never actually ended. There’s still all of the espionage, still all of the nukes pointed at eachother, just less tension.
Trump seems to agree that we have too many active duty troops in Europe. If only he had a social media troll to follow him around and say that they aren’t even real troops, since they aren’t all infantry or something.
I thought he was ignoring me? Like I said, he is unhinged and weirdly obsessed. Note, he claims I said they weren’t real troops because they aren’t all infantry. Clearly, I didn’t say or imply that. He is a disingenuous piece of shit. I did serve in the military, unlike him, and I wasn’t infantry, so I would never demean, diminish or belittle troops who were not infantry. They all play important roles and, unlike him, they all volunteered to serve their nation.
Posters here can dislike me. They can disagree with me. It’s fine; it’s how the internet works. Can none of you can see this guy has some deep-seated hatred and anger towards me; something personal; some grudge; that he is so emotionally invested that he has stooped to lying, mischaracterization and twisting words (which, ironically, he has accused me of doing), to the point he comes off as mentally deranged (he even called me a klansman, wtf?)? If none of you can see what a weirdo he has become, then I am at a loss for words for the first time. Seriously, he needs an intervention.
Just to show that this is personal, a poster liked my post yet, this piece of shit won’t attack him with a barrage of lies.
I don’t necessarily disagree either. Its a plastic number that is based on need, diplomatic relations & tons of other stuff.
There is tons of support staff in the military, which I also don’t disagree with either. Whether enlisted or civilian, its basically like a mid sized town, but with some real specific tools and intentions.
Stretching the concept a little, in the area I’m a little more familiar with- Newport News, Norfolk & surrounding areas, the entire coastal mid-atlantic region is based around support of the fleet and other military endeavors. Its like a giant sprawling military/industrial complex from the mouth of the Chesapeake to Philadelphia.
If you were to suddenly remove the military component of that whole stretch, it would become a ghost land.
Well, when those troops leave Europe they will go somewhere else, and all of that gravy flows to the new place.
Poland is upping their game already and hopefully more of Europe does too. There is zero reason why Europe can’t see to its own defense in 2025. We are always a short boat ride away.
@zecarlo Of course it is personal, dipshit. You have been polluting my threads for years, insulting me, my family, and my town behind a white hood of total anonymity.
I’m sure your military service is just as real as your BJJ coaching from Royce Gracie.
You could always start your own Trump thread, but you wouldn’t get the same attention you get from being a nasty and insufferable contrarian in mine. I suspect you gain a lot of satisfaction with every topic you zecarlo into oblivion, otherwise you wouldn’t have almost 1,000 replies to me.
There is some revisionist history going on. The Cold War was about stopping two things: Soviet territorial and ideological expansion. It’s why we supported anti communist regimes in Central and South America, in spite of their brutality. We also supported political parties in Europe that opposed their communist counterparts. The Soviets were funding those communist parties after all. Why did we support Soviet opposition in Afghanistan? Because we wanted to impede territorial expansion, not because we cared about Afghanis.
Our military bases in Europe were not there to protect Europe for the sake of protecting Europe. They were there to project power. It wasn’t simply about deterring a Soviet invasion but letting the Soviets know that we can reach out and touch them much easier than they can touch us. Why do we think the Soviets wanted missiles in Cuba? So they could send us that same message.
If the Soviets had somehow managed to conquer Western Europe, it would have not have been in our best interests. They would have benefitted from Europe’s brainpower (remember how their was a race between the US and the USSR to snatch up German scientists) and manufacturing capabilities. But, besides the consequences of territorial expansion into Western Europe you also had the aforementioned ideological expansion. The Soviets would also win if they made political gains in Europe. Being there, for us, allowed us to deal with both forms of expansion. When Reagan said tear down the wall, that was about the ideological side of the Cold War. We weren’t just fighting the Soviet military but communism and the Red Scare.
The Chinese played the long game as they didn’t get involved in this game of trying to be the biggest military superpower but focused on becoming an economic superpower. Something to consider is the position of Churchill who warned of an Iron Curtain. In 1947 he stated that Bolshevism should have been killed at birth. This was two years before the Soviets tested their first nuclear bomb. We had a brief window of opportunity to end the USSR before nukes entered the pictured. Maybe, we allowed the Cold War to come about in order to have a reason to spend a fortune on our military.
It’s why you shouldn’t look at overall numbers but in terms of units. I was in a company with four platoons but we also had medics, mechanics, armorers, etc. who supported us all. Who do you cut?
Thats an all for 1 and 1 for all scenario. You really can’t cut anybody. There are a ton of really good reasons and years of trial and error behind why they’re set up like that.
I’m not saying to cut numbers or keep them as they are, just that you can’t throw numbers out without considering the things you mention. In Germany, we have a relatively high amount of troops but we also have Ramstein air base which, as anyone could imagine, requires a lot of personnel to manage. It’s not just some pilots and jets.
I doubt more people are getting away with murder…a sizable number of those are likely revenge for a previous killing. America has some sub-societies that do not wish to be part of the larger society…and those sub-societies are responsible for a lot of America’s crime.
And our prison numbers would likely be far lower if we had not de-institutionalized mental health.
I dunno. Its all above my pay grade.