500M Europeans Are Begging 300M Individuals for Safety from 140M Russians Who Have Been Unable to Overcome 50M Ukrainians for Three Years

A pleasant line from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Politico.Eu). I’ve no well-informed view on the right function of the U.S. within the protection of Europe (although my intuitions are in favor of robust U.S. help for NATO, I am unable to communicate with confidence concerning the topic). However I believed this was a well-put name for motion, from a rustic that’s estimated to have spent 4.12% of its GDP on protection in 2024, in comparison with a 2.02% common for European NATO members and Canada, and three.38% for the U.S. “The Polish army is now about 200,000, which makes it the third-largest in NATO after the U.S. and Turkey and the biggest among the many alliance’s EU members.”

Tusk added,

By the top of the yr, we need to have a mannequin prepared so that each grownup male in Poland is skilled for warfare, and in order that this reserve is sufficient for attainable threats…. Each wholesome man ought to need to prepare to have the ability to defend the homeland in case of want. We’ll put together it in such a approach that it’s going to not be a burden on folks.

By the best way, the one different NATO member that spent a better fraction of its GDP than the U.S. is Estonia, at 3.43%. Latvia and Lithuania are additionally excessive, at 3.15% and a couple of.85%, effectively above everybody else besides Greece at 3.08%. The one behind Lithuania (although nearer to the center of the pack) is Finland, at 2.41%. See a sample?