I hate war, I hate profiteering off human misery and I hate that the only way to deterr others from attacking you is to be ready for war yourself because humans still can’t get over the drive to dominate and exploit.
But that despicable reality of the Security Dilemma means we need to spend money on defense. We cannot yet trust other humans enough that disarmament is viable. I consider myself a pacifist, but I am not so naive to think violence can be checked by words along. The feather may be stronger than the sword, but only if it lives long enough to write.
I hate that so much production has to be wasted on means of destruction. I hope we never have to use them.
Europe is already spending 430 billion Euros annually on defense (compared to about 150 or PPP adjusted 300 for Russia).
This is not about pacifism, this is about not being manipulated into spending even more, when you could rather look into what you are already spending and use that more efficiently. There is a lot of potential to massively improve spending efficiency and also strengthen the defense capabilities.
Defense is not the only problem Europe has, and also just ramping up defense spending elsewhere does not help the Ukrainians defend themselves against Russia.
I hate war, I hate profiteering off human misery and I hate that the only way to deterr others from attacking you is to be ready for war yourself because humans still can’t get over the drive to dominate and exploit.
But that despicable reality of the Security Dilemma means we need to spend money on defense. We cannot yet trust other humans enough that disarmament is viable. I consider myself a pacifist, but I am not so naive to think violence can be checked by words along. The feather may be stronger than the sword, but only if it lives long enough to write.
I hate that so much production has to be wasted on means of destruction. I hope we never have to use them.
Europe is already spending 430 billion Euros annually on defense (compared to about 150 or PPP adjusted 300 for Russia).
This is not about pacifism, this is about not being manipulated into spending even more, when you could rather look into what you are already spending and use that more efficiently. There is a lot of potential to massively improve spending efficiency and also strengthen the defense capabilities.
Defense is not the only problem Europe has, and also just ramping up defense spending elsewhere does not help the Ukrainians defend themselves against Russia.