gosub
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Trump is attacking the French president for saying Europe needs to do more to defend itself — something Trump has also said they should do
Getting a real sense of deva vu from this. The last time, a US President demanded Europe paid more for defence, (when it was agreed that certain countries were spending a similar proportion of GDP on defence). It caused headaches for certain European companies civilian wing production....
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Gulf war II happened not that long after....Have been trying to use web archive to find what I said at the time but its not the best interface. Anyway was along the lines of UK involvement wouldn't have made any difference to the speed of what happened in Iraq. I know everyone remember's the late Robin Cook's principled resignation over the issue, but from a pragmatic point of view it was Claire Short's resignation that was the significant one. The case for UK involvement was built on being there to help shape what came after....Bob Woodward's book State of Denial gives good back ground on why her resignation should have been regarded as equally principled and significant.
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In other news, back then the Chinese were only posturing over places like Mischief Reef, now they have runways built there.
