“The European Union has this unique mix of hard power that needs to be increased because it’s not enough, what we have now, but we have at the same time the soft power.
Well sure the hard power is walking out of the door a.k.a Brexit, but soft power? The EU is an addict to Russian natural gas, will have an economy only slightly larger than China in 2019 and is a protectionist trade block.
I always wondered why France, with so many more nuclear weapons than the UK and an army twice the size, was placed firmly behind the UK. Until I realised that the Genarmerie is Army, the state medical arm is Army and that their deployable nuclear power is smaller than the UK by a minimum of 5 times and in our first strike capability by 10 times.
The EU is, once again, over enamoured by it's own rhetoric. It is NATO which ensures the safety of the EU and America and the UK as the bulwark at that. As for sanctions? If the US and China do not go with the EU, they might as well shout in a hurricane for all the good it will do.
Quite literally, the EU, once the UK leaves, does not have the real power to dissuade Russia from encroaching. Only NATO does that. The UK could, alone, devastate every city to medium size in Russia. France could not and France is the only nuclear power left in the EU after Brexit.
I always knew that the EU lived in fantasy land but I never expected them to announce it quite so publicly..
I do wonder when they'll get a clue?
