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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (238494)	6/23/2005 4:06:09 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572970

Re: What I meant was that they are increasing the strength of their military to try and neutralize some of the strength of the American and Russian armies. I understood as much.... You merely fail to understand that "increasing the military" to catch up with the US and Russia needs MONEY, a lot of money... Money that most EU countries are already spending on welfare, pensions, healthcare,... With barely 1.5% GDP growth overall, I don't think Europe can afford both a Pentagon-like military behemoth AND the world's allegedly most generous welfare system. Besides, to boost military spending in France, Germany,... requires a serious (geo)political reason. Don't expect public opinion in France, Germany, Italy,... to quietly accept that their governments splurge zillions of euros on brand-new carriers, bombers, missiles,... just for the sake of catching up with the Joneses. That's where crusading in Iraq would have helped --as an excuse for a more aggressive military buildup. Gus