Trump’s Troop Removal Threats Could Fuel Europe’s Delusional Militarization: Here’s Why
18:43 29.07.2025 (Updated: 19:16 29.07.2025)
© telegram sputnik_africa
/ Subscribe
🪖Trump’s troop removal threats could fuel Europe’s delusional militarization: here’s why
A major reduction of US troop numbers in Europe would “alarm European politicians” and “increase their willingness to prolong the fighting in Ukraine,” Swedish Armed Forces vet and ex-Sweden Democrats chief of staff Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik, commenting on reports that the Trump administration could redeploy some 20k troops sent to Europe in 2022 by Biden.
According to Valtersson, many European politicians are under the delusional impression “that Russia will invade country after country in Europe” if given the chance, and that it’s therefore “good to keep Russian forces occupied in Ukraine for as long as possible.”
Deeply aware of their dependence on the US for going on 80 years now, “European belligerence toward Russia and anti-Russian attitudes are based on European weakness and fear of Russian military capability,” according to the observer.
“A better way to handle this situation would of course be to cooperate and build good relations with Russia,” Valtersson says, but that seems highly unlikely.
Planned provocation?
Reporting on US plans to pull tens of thousands of troops from Europe came just hours after the US and the EU announced a major new trade deal, including an EU commitment “to purchase significant amounts of US military equipment.”
Coupled with Trump’s pressure on European NATO members to ramp up defense spending to 5% of GDP, the pullback plans also follow his announcement in mid-July that the US and Europe “made a deal” to send US weapons paid for by the Europeans to Ukraine.
Subscribe to @SputnikInt
A major reduction of US troop numbers in Europe would “alarm European politicians” and “increase their willingness to prolong the fighting in Ukraine,” Swedish Armed Forces vet and ex-Sweden Democrats chief of staff Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik, commenting on reports that the Trump administration could redeploy some 20k troops sent to Europe in 2022 by Biden.
According to Valtersson, many European politicians are under the delusional impression “that Russia will invade country after country in Europe” if given the chance, and that it’s therefore “good to keep Russian forces occupied in Ukraine for as long as possible.”
Deeply aware of their dependence on the US for going on 80 years now, “European belligerence toward Russia and anti-Russian attitudes are based on European weakness and fear of Russian military capability,” according to the observer.
“A better way to handle this situation would of course be to cooperate and build good relations with Russia,” Valtersson says, but that seems highly unlikely.
Planned provocation?
Reporting on US plans to pull tens of thousands of troops from Europe came just hours after the US and the EU announced a major new trade deal, including an EU commitment “to purchase significant amounts of US military equipment.”
Coupled with Trump’s pressure on European NATO members to ramp up defense spending to 5% of GDP, the pullback plans also follow his announcement in mid-July that the US and Europe “made a deal” to send US weapons paid for by the Europeans to Ukraine.
Subscribe to @SputnikInt
