You were gonna leave, weren't you?

[ddstory]

Britain will veto EU army, says Defence Secretary

OK, here's the deal. For two decades everyone in the EU has been talking about the need to improve cooperation in defense. Some limited success has been achieved in that regard. For instance, some military units have been created, although they've never been engaged in actual military action.

Comments

[johnny9fingers]

Just delay it until we have triggered article 50. The do it without recourse to what the UK thinks. Having made ourselves irrelevant, it is time we were shown the consequences of the impulsiveness of our actions. These questions are no longer our business, and meddling in them is ridiculous.

[policraticus]

As long as the UK is obligated to the EU, it seems like they have a responsibility to speak their mind and fight their corner as best they can.

Once they are out, of course, the point will be moot and the EU can make whatever kinds of mistakes it wants to, all on their own.

Why the military of France or Germany would want to tie themselves to the politics of Hungary or Portugal is beyond me. Why, for that matter, a Danish or Greek soldier would be enthusiastic about fighting under the command of a Belgian is equally curious. But that is just ol' Euro-skeptical me.

[johnny9fingers]

And yet NATO worked.

[policraticus]

Sure. But NATO is/was quite different that what is being proposed, at least as I understand it. Not only did it have the US as a strong foundation to build upon, it also had a clear remit early on to defend Western Europe from the Warsaw Pact. As that remit has expanded and morphed over time, NATO has become the less and less stalwart. The new EU body has none of those early NATO strengths and all the later NATO weakness, in spades. Hey, its up to the EU to try out what it wants. I just think it is a tough thing to cobble together on spec.

[johnny9fingers]

Yet in NATO Danish and Greek soldiers regularly took orders from Belgian Commanders, as did Brits, and NATO high command was and is in Belgium.

But it is all to do with the mission, I suppose.
(Though the French withdrawal from NATO for four decades sort of begs another question, and rather agrees with some parts of your comment.)

I reckon the EU could justifiably regard that a Combined European Armed Force had a mission, and maybe might sell such an idea to Greek folk (who probably could do with the job-creation benefits) and even the Danes. A bit of a shame that we are not involved. It is always best to be comrades-in-arms with the French and Germans when they're being the good guys. For a given value of good, of course.

C'est la vie... c'est la guerre... c'est la pomme de terre.