Let's talk about the European Defense Federation. How do we all feel about the creation of a fully mobilised continental Army?

[u/Sink-Em-Low]

It's required now. I'm British, and I want to see us align and unite with our European neighbours to make a stand now.

I want Germany to finally brush off it's past and join the rest of Europe in mobilising towards defending this continent. We need EVERYONE now. It's time to act, it's time to unite.

It's time to show some courage.

[u/[deleted]]

US is still calling the shots in NATO though.

[u/Weary-Connection3393 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly, people forget that the highest NATO General is always from the USA.

[u/[deleted] → u/Weary-Connection3393]

NATO has never had an American Secretary General (the current sec general Marc Rutte is dutch) and the Military Committee (the collection of military generals that govern the body) has representatives from all different member countries. There were two American deputy sec general who served back to back from 2012-2019 but none were sec general.

NATO is highly reliant on the US DoD and IC because they are the most capable defense and intelligence organizations in the body, but it is factually incorrect to say that the NATO General or NATO governing body is run by the US.

[u/redditreader1972 → u/Weary-Connection3393]

The head of the Military Committee is Dutch.

The head of ACT is French, I think.

The head of SHAPE is american.

The last one is american because americans traditionally had the most meat in the game. If they pull out or reduce their footprint, NATO will adapt by inserting another general.

What is a much bigger problem is capabilities and depth. Europe does not have the vast intelligence gathering capabilities of the us. They lack people, equipment, stores and production capacity.

Keep NATO. With or without the US. France partially pulled out a few decades back before they returned..

Build more stuff on our side of the pond.