OT: Military Defense of Europe-Which Opinion is Correct?

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https://thehill.com/policy/defense/nato-chief-mark-rutte-europe-us/
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte insisted Monday that Europe is incapable of defending itself without U.S. military support and would have to more than double current military spending targets to be able to do so.

In reality, this is absurd. The 30 European NATO nations have a combined population of over 800 million and more than half the global GDP. Their combined forces have 3.5 million troops. Add Ukraine’s 800,000 and you have a force more than four times what Russia can muster. Russia has a population of 140 million and a GDP of $7.7 trillion, which is 3.6 percent of Global GDP. European NATO nations have a combined GDP fifteen times that of Russia. Not surprisingly, the NATO nations closest to Russia spend more on defense and have larger military forces than nations more distant from Russia, like Spain, Italy, France and Britain.

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But we are 335 million of the 800 million.

Google Query AI
As of early 2024–2025, the European Union (EU) has a population of approximately 449 to 450 million people . It is important to note that the EU currently consists of 27 member states, not 30, with Germany being the most populous country at over 83 million residents.

They can defend themselves, but not with overwhelming odds. The Europeans now want to step up. The distrust of the US and Trump is fueling them. They need to step up. We can not on our lonesome face Russia and China. China is too powerful. Japan wants to step up as well.