I chuckle honestly. I'm far from an expert on Europe but I have been paying attention to the EU since the early 2000s. On the one hand they are basically admitting that they have been passively ridding on the US's dime for decades. I mean, anyone that is paying attention and honest knows it. The establishment in the US wants to keep the status quo because the US is an empire. Trump looks at it differently. Like, what are we getting for all this money we are blowing? Russia is NOT the USSR. The world has evolved greatly since the 1990s and NATO was designed for an enemy that no longer exists.

On the other hand I wonder if the US leaving NATO will lead to wars in Europe. I don't buy the lie that Europe is united. I know many Americans do but I don't buy it. There are centuries of conflict in Europe and I wonder if we will see that come back. If it does I'm in favor of letting them work it out themselves. These conflicts need to be rejected by each people group for what they are. Elites seeking to gain more land, power, and wealth at the expense of the blood of plebs.

I think this headline is funny because already I'm hearing division between the Germans and the French. Europe is a mess and I don't see them improving as a result of this. Now... if we continue to see more anti-EU movements arise there might be a chance. Those groups get called far right. I don't really care what they get called. They sound like people that want to move back the halls of power to their own capitals instead of Brussels.

Economist Bob Murphy commented on the reaction of Europeans to Trumps meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Its kinda wild to watch people that want a leader to give them money mock that leader. Its weird. I hadn't thought about it but he makes a good point.

Additionally everyone demanding Trump state that the war is Putin's fault and they he invaded... duh. But if you are negotiating with someone that has a position of strength you don't start by calling them names. And we are all supposed to believe Putin is this evil mad man but at the same time the way he should be addressed is by pointing a finger at him. Its kinda dumb.

If you have a crazy dude that is a threat to a bunch of people, you want to de-escalate not escalate. The war mongers seem to want WW3 while telling us all we need to be worried about Putin starting WW3. Its pretty dumb to me. I don't have a problem with people saying "we can't trust Putin". Of course. Are we 5 years old? We can't trust our own President.

What is most ironic to me in all of this is that the people that scream about nationalism demonstrate it more strongly than Trump. They act like the US and NATO are innocent and have never lied or misled the Russians. They never caused any reason for alarm. The US and NATO are only good and their intentions should just be trusted. Its absurd when you consider the different administrations and their actions over the decades. Bush was called Hitler like Trump is now. The hate for him was insane (for many good reasons).

I don't think Americans realize how biased they are towards the USA and NATO. I don't think the USA is worse than Putin. But there are no clean hands here. And no, I don't trust either side. The idea that Zelenskyy is just working for the people is naive. I promise you he has some very nasty dudes running him. He is working to save his own skin. I believe the same of Putin. These guys are puppets. The plebs are cannon fodder and the sooner the US pull support and this ends the better. If Trump can make a deal that prevents Putin from taking the rest of the country that would be great.

Ukraine was NEVER gonna win this war. Even with all the money in the world they will not win it. That was never the goal from the NATO perspective. It was to bleed Putin and remove him from power from the inside. That failed.