A credible European deterrent – one that could prevent, for instance, a rapid Russian incursion in the Baltics – would need a minimum of 1,400 tanks, 2,000 infantry fighting vehicles, and 700 artillery pieces. This is more combat power than currently exists in the combined French, German, Italian, and British land forces.
What Russia has proven with Ukraine is that they are a paper tiger. They’ve spent so long trying to build this image that they are second only to the US in military might, but then they began scraping their barrels to deploy troops to Ukraine. I think the EU could eradicate the Russian government with just the troops we have today, and then some.
However, where Russia’s strength lies is their control and manipulation of information. Russian agents all over are funding and supporting political parties that destabilize the country they’re in, removing them from the fight before they begin. Their greatest victory in that is the US. We see there exactly what Russia wants for the EU. That’s where we need to up our defenses.
We don’t attack Russia because Putler is a tiny bitch that would choose to destroy the world over losing.