[shlip]

We will soon discover if the EU actually as a spine or is just a bendover for the US...(My money is on the latter, and I'm from EU)

[padjo]

Also from the EU and I think the EU cannot back down here. The only way the US gets Greenland is if they seize it or the population votes for it. A tariff is just not going to make a difference and underlines to the EU how craven the US has become.

[komali2]

Fascist states get at least one free pass. For Germany it was Poland, for the USA I believe they're deciding between Venezuela and Greenland. Personally I think the better bet is Greenland because they can probably get Venezuela for free after since nobody cares about Venezuela. A "two in one deal" if you will, perhaps one of America's greatest inventions.

Edit: I meant to write Austria but am so used to writing "German invasion of Poland" that that's what came out of the thumbs

[SirWalross]

Poland was hardly a free pass. The Sudetenland was the free pass.

[wongarsu]

The Greenland situation is more like Germany annexing the Sudetenland (the border regions of Czechoslovakia) in 1938. And after that Hitler got his homeland Austria as another freebie. That's stretching the analogy a bit, but Venezuela might be Trump's Austria. His Poland would be something like Canada

[voidfunc]

Europe cant afford to have enemies on both sides. It will align with the US reluctantly because even a bat shit crazy US is better than Russia. China plays it too close to the chest to be a friend.

[dh2022]

I think Europe can handle Russia by itself quite well. The Baltics are vulnerable, but Poland will definitely kick Russia's butt in a military engagement. Poles will defend EU's eastern flank.

I expect Europe to distance itself from US. Let's see.

[padjo]

I don’t buy this at all. Russia is a relatively small economy with a tiny fraction of the EU population. The US is not going to launch a shooting war with Europe. Europe is not going to back down here. This Greenland thing is deeply unpopular in the US. It’s only a conflict because of one senile old man who will be dead soon.

[anal_reactor]

> Europe cant afford to have enemies on both sides

Neither can the US. Imagine Europe supporting China in exchange for China backstabbing Russia - entire Ukraine and Belarus and maybe even Kaliningrad suddenly are up for grabs for EU while China gets Russian territories that it has historical claims to. Then China gets access to European technology (ASML and Airbus) which means that the US stops having massive technological advantage and suddenly the conquest of Taiwan starts being more realistic. China and Europe are too far away physically to come in direct conflict, especially as EU doesn't care about being a superpower.

This is unimaginable right now, but the more EU decouples from the US because of its unreliability, the more it might actually work out.

[palata]

> Europe cant afford to have enemies on both sides.

Well, Europe effectively has enemies on both sides right now.

[tpm]

It will not align with the US if that means territorial losses. Russia is an economical lightweight that's causing a bit of a headache on the eastern border but for the EU looking weak would make things so much worse.

[mjmsmith]

But would you trust the bat shit crazy US to protect you from Russia?

[throwaway_20357]

Indeed. As the US abandons it, the EU seemingly has no other choice than to find ways to align with Russia now.