Comment: this is what actual argumentation for increased military spending looks like, not the cheap shots and smears of being propaganda vectors levelled against dissident points of view like those of Sanchez or Varoufakis. Europe deserves better than paranoia and McCarthyism.
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The argument about possible threats is good, but why this means we need to increase defense spending is completely unexplained.
Europe already vastly outspends Russia on defense, and for example Spain buying more Leopard 2 tanks just to have them rot in their baracks is not helping at all.
We need to get more efficient in defense spending and we need to invest in defensive weapons that can be easily moved where they are actually needed. Better locally produced anti-air defense, especially ones cheap enough to work against drone swarms are probably also needed.
But none of that needs 5% of GDP. We could probably significantly reduce current defense spending and still end up with an more effective deterrent against Russia.
Our infrastructure and social services are already massively underfunded. More than doubling defense spending will come at a cost to those services, especially with right wing governments in power everywhere. And the result of that is just as much if not more of a threat to our values and the cohesion of the EU than Russia.
