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Nato leaders agree not to mention World Cup to Donald Trump to avoid irritating him
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
645 points (98.9% liked)
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Some recent reports claimed EU needs about 10 years to become militarily independent from USA. Some other reports claim that Russia is planning on testing NATO in the near future. Most countries realize now they can't rely on USA anymore but not talking about football is small price to pay for keeping the alliance together a little big longer.
There's no avoiding rocking the boat with a narcissist. There's no placating them. The only ways to deal with them is to bully them or ignore them.
Yes but you don't have to rock the boat more just for fun. No talking about football is a small price to pay for keeping the alliance together a little big longer.
Here's the thing, barring a nuclear weapon I think Poland or Finland all by themselves could take Russia and there's no one else really threatening Europe at the moment.
Trump also doesn't respect placation, it just invites him to go harder. What he does respect is popularity and violence. He's cool with Mamdani because the mayor is popular, he's deferential to Putin because Putin projects violence.
People keep thinking Russia wants to fully invade Europe and send their tanks to Lisbon or something. They don't. They want to invade the Baltic States. Are those strong enough to stop Russia? No. They will need help. They need NATO.
Poland and Finland most likely can withstand invasion the same way Ukraine did but what will happen to EU economy when part of free market is now under Russian occupation and some of it's members are waging war on their territories? What will people do when drones and rockets start falling on their cities?
What Russia wants is to destabilize Europe. Russia is now more and more dependent on China. So.. what does China want?
Their official concern (which I don't believe is authentic, I think they just want to feel powerful) is that they're worried that an invading force that reaches the steppe can just cruise through central Russia - which means they'll need to draw a line from the Baltic's to the black sea through Poland and Ukraine.
My personal opinion is that China and the CCP is primarily concerned with internal stability, undoing the century of humilation, and increasing ethnic homogeny through subjugation.
Long term I can see conflict between China and Russia over outer Manchuria, especially when the stresses of climate change begin to impact the Earth.
However, Russia has nuclear weapons.
True, but clearly it feels like using them to conquer their neighbors would have negative results
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