1. Spending <1.2% of GDP on defence
2. Reducing tanks to 18 (Holland). 18! 1 per million people. 57 howitzers. 40 fighter aircraft.
3. Germany : arming its troops with broomsticks. BROOMSTICKS (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germany-s-neglected-soldi...)
4. Belgium : 0 (read it straight) 0 MBT. 0. 1 Self propelled gun I think.
These are rich and powerful countries. They have been utterly delinquent for the last 20 years. When you see unanswered Russian aggression in the east it's because these people who should be the core of European power have pretended that everything will be alright if they let their martial capabilities rot.
It's not only their forces (and foreign policy, particularly Germany's and the EU's in Ukraine and the Balkans). The near evisceration of the European military infrastructure and production capability has screwed everyone. Where is the Tornado replacement? Let alone the Eurofighter replacement? How many F35's has Germany bought (spoiler :0) how much more expensive has that made F35 for everyone else (spoiler : alot).
Now the Germans are going >2% on defence - how many years will it take for that kind of money just to repair the barracks? Where is the Dutch emergency budget? (https://nltimes.nl/2022/03/01/dutch-armed-forces-facing-russ... --- let's grow towards 2%!)
Also the wording is an allusion to the first world war.