Comment by pbak | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pbak | Hacker News Reader

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If I'm not mistaken the OC gentleman is Belgian. I surmise that as "benefit", you mean "protection".

Last time there were battles on Belgian soil was Napoleon. Germans kind of breezed through twice. Contemporary Belgium however is bordered by two nuclear powers.

Who is the US protecting Belgium with all of this, since the USSR dissolved ?

The action these days is in Poland, Ukraine and the eastern Baltic countries. Even Germany moved a number of armored divisions there.

I hardly see Russia with less than a quarter of the industrial output and half the population walk it all the way to Brussels. I mean... we're not in 1815 anymore...

Moreover, NATO infrastructure and nukes only make it a prime target for ballistic missiles.

I'd be interested in how you get to a positive benefit vs. risk balance in their case. I might have missed some major contrary arguments.

Actually I’m not necessarily arguing one direction or the other. To be honest, at this point I don’t think the US or Europe truly benefits from a US military presence over there (at least since the mid-late 90s). As an American, I’d be happy if we didn’t have much beyond an embassy level presence pretty much anywhere. I even say this as a military kid who enjoyed the best times of my life living in Europe on US bases.

It just seemed odd to me that it came off as one sided in the comment. As if the favor was entirely from Belgium to the US.

Thank you for your measured response.

> As if the favor was entirely from Belgium to the US.

I get what you say.

Anyways, we'd all do better to demilitarize a little. The current geopolitical trends are really worrying.

Belgium is constrained by US in many ways and is often used and abused by US and its close allies [1]. That it managed to have a decent policy around vaccine production is a great achievement.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/21/british-spie...

> Even Germany moved a number of armored divisions there. Actually, US troops located in Germany are moving to Belgium and Italy, not Poland. Althoug even this is under question now for well over a year.

[1] https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-and-security/news/u...

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