[lpcvoid]

German here: I'd go to war (and likely will, with how it's looking currently) for any country that shares our values and is an ally or friend, that's being attacked by an evil force such as russia. And that of course includes my french brothers to the west.

[samiv]

Finnish reservist here in Germany. Ready to go. Prost!

[lpcvoid]

Prost, my friend. May we never have to meet.

[cft]

American expat here in Spain. I do 11 pull-ups every two days and run 7 miles uphill. Ready to go! Salud!

[samiv]

See you on the battlefield.

[card_zero]

Rarely have prime numbers been so macho.

[blell]

Spanish here: I wouldn't go to war even for my own country, imagine for the likes of France or Germany.

[lpcvoid]

80 years ago we were the bad guys, and far more brave people than me, from other countries, stepped up to curb the evil. This time us Germans need to be on the right side.

[C6JEsQeQa5fCjE]

> This time us Germans need to be on the right side

Your country is the second largest weapons exporter to Israel.

[yodsanklai]

Thanks German brother :) I think our main issue in Europe is the lack of a common language. It makes it harder to build strong ties and realize how close our values are.

[lpcvoid]

Which is why I long for the day where a European federation supersedes the weak and fragmented national states we have now.

Adopting English as legal secondary language in every EU member state would maybe be a good first step.

[blackoil]

Vat hapened tu ze komon English I got mail abaut 20 yers ago?

[ffsm8]

Agreed, there is always this little story to remind us of our unity - at least from the perspective of the draftees/workers back in ww1, where everyone was basically forced to fight each other by the elites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce

[ahmeneeroe-v2]

That's pretty caveated. Not exactly a ringing war cry

Shares values AND Ally AND Being attacked AND Attacker is evil

I think you'll continue to be safe posting on HN

[lpcvoid]

People place individual, stringent conditions on life threatening responses? Keep going, you're on to something there.

[ahmeneeroe-v2]

Very funny you got me there.

I think you’ll find that threats of violence (which is what your comment is) need to be much more unhinged to be effective deterrents. Remember you’re warning off barbarians (eg us Americans or the Russians), not civilized folk.

[coryrc]

Are you posting from Ukraine?

[SanjayMehta]

If he is, it won't be for very long. The most visible merc was a retired US colonel, he ran off home within weeks, got drunk on the War on The Rocks podcast and revealed the corruption and depravity of the "good guys."

[modzu]

most humans share the same core values. values antithetical to war.

[Saline9515]

You should define what "our values" is when making such bold statements.

[lpcvoid]

Freedom of speech, democratically elected representatives, protection of minorities, religious freedom, to name a few.

I can already hear people storming out of the woods, ready to write how the EU itself is undemocratic, or how free speech isn't real in western European countries. I disagree with you.

[Saline9515]

Well, indeed, freedom of speech in the EU isn't freedom of speech as only a certain type of speech is allowed. Conveniently weakly defined "hate speech laws" (even in private conversations!) allow easy political suppression. Or just lawfare through defamation, which is happening in Germany at the moment (4,400 defamation cases by politicians, last year).

Regarding the EU, the only elected representatives don't have the right to choose which laws they will vote for. If it was in a soviet country no one would call it a democracy.

[SanjayMehta]

Jacques Baud, Alina Lipp, Thomas Röper, Nathalie Yamb, Xavier Moreau disagree with you.

And unlike you, some random anonymous poster on this polite version of Reddit, everyone knows what they do.

[lpcvoid]

They are pro russian propaganda mouthpieces and can go fuck themselves. Specially Alina Lipp, may she have fun in her beloved russia.

[SanjayMehta]

Have you ever been to Russia or The Ukraine?

Have you ever even met anyone from either country?

[lpcvoid]

I know both people from Kiev, and people who fled russia in late 2022. I don't care for your pro-russian worldview. And I know you do it on purpose, but it's "Ukraine", and not "the Ukraine". It's a sovereign state, not a russian oblast like you have been taught by the Kremlin.

[Saline9515]

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky

[lpcvoid]

Kremlin mouth-peaces can express their bullshit worldview outside of the EU, and they do that quite liberally. It's up to society to ignore them, ultimately it's everybodys own decision. But if you come somewhere, spread propaganda while being paid by adversaries, then you aren't welcome. I applaud the EUs sanctioning of these individuals, and I don't really care to hear from pro-russian folks why that's a bad thing in their eyes.

[comonoid]

... such as usa?

[lpcvoid]

I have many moral problems with that scenario. I used to live in the US a long time ago. The US is sick; there's a mad king at the top who doesn't have the well being of the nation in his interest, and he is driving the world towards war with every passing day while dividing his own people. War with the US isn't a clear cut "good vs evil" situation as the EU vs russia would be, it would be a utter tragedy, not wanted by neither the populace of the EU, nor the US.

That said, yes, I would defend Europe against the US, even though I think that fight would be short, deadly and decisive if it really came down to it.

What a fucked up world we live in, just because idiots voted for a convicted felon.

[yodsanklai]

> War with the US isn't a clear cut "good vs evil" situation as the EU vs russia would be

I don't think EU vs Russia would be a "good vs evil" situation. Russia/US seem pretty similar to me, dictatorship/propaganda with a majority of the population being regular people not in favor of any war, and 30% of indoctrinated people.

[nkmnz]

You seem to have very little contact to Russians living in Russia or Germany. Their version of "not in favor of any war" is a very strange one – it's more a stance of indifference than disfavor.

[watwut]

Russians were and are pro war by all reports.

[yodsanklai]

not my Russians friends or colleagues. I also don't trust any poll coming from Russia.

[comonoid]

Propaganda never sleeps.

[gowld]

I don't know why you believe that a decades-long strict dictatorship like Russia has more democratic support for its "evil" government than a country whose leader was elected just 1 year ago with approximately 50% of the vote.

[lpcvoid]

Russians are lining up to go to war under the promise of money, around 30k a month last time I checked. Americans not so much, in particular not against Europeans. It's different in my view.

[ubertaco]

As an American, a sizable number of Americans are lining up to join ICE under the promise of money.

And also, our whole military recruitment strategy here outside of drafts has been "the GI bill" – paid tuition in exchange for lining up to go to war.

I don't know that the gap in morals is as wide as you think.

[mothballed]

Americans don't need money to fight. I was paid $0 with the YPG and had to bankroll my own time. Lots of Americans there. I met a lot of them that didn't even really give a shit about the sides of the war, they just needed to fight something. We're a savage people.

Which historically has worked more for us, than against us.

[lpcvoid]

But is it 30k people a month, for years on end (or rather 75k considering US population is around 2.5x the size of russias population)?

Russians are much, much worse than Americans in terms of their eagerness to kill others, in my opinion. I wish it were not so.

[jyounker]

The rot is much deeper. Donald Trump was impeached twice, and both times the Republicans voted to acquit him.