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納瓦爾尼的去世未能給共和黨參議員 J.D. 萬斯帶來任何影響
https://www.politico.eu/article/navalny-death-fails-to-move-the-dial-for-vance/
在慕尼黑安全會議上，美國參議員加倍強調烏克蘭應該將領土割讓給俄羅斯。
參議院繼續就對外援助計劃進行辯論，因為該計劃已接近通過美國 參議員 J.D. 萬斯 | 奇普·索莫德維拉/蓋蒂圖片社
蘇珊·林奇 2 024 年 2 月 18 日
美國參議員 J.D. 萬斯在美國國會中以最強烈反對援助烏克蘭的人之一而聞名。 現在他已將這一信息帶到了歐洲。
在本周末的慕尼黑安全會議上，這位 39 歲的首次當選參議員再次強調了他的觀點，即幫助烏克蘭不符合美國的利益。
萬斯在接受《政治》雜誌采訪時表示，烏克蘭人是“令人欽佩的人民，正在一場令人欽佩的衝突中戰鬥”。 “但對於我們應該實現的目標，確實缺乏戰略明確性，”他說。
“我們根本沒有製造能力來無限期地支持東歐的地麵戰爭。 我認為領導人有責任向他們的人民闡明這一點，”萬斯說。“這種情況預計會持續多久？ 預計花費多少錢？ 重要的是，我們實際上應該如何生產支持烏克蘭人所需的武器？” 他問。
在慕尼黑巴伐利亞霍夫酒店神聖的大廳裏，國防和安全官員每年都在這裏聚會，這樣的言論是一種褻瀆。 一年一度的聚會是對跨大西洋關係的慶祝，也是親烏克蘭情緒的堡壘。
慕尼黑安全會議長期以來吸引了大量美國參加。 從已故的約翰·麥凱恩到喬·拜登，數百名美國政界人士曾跨越大西洋，討論安全、國防和戰略問題。
在俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾·普京發動的戰爭臨近兩周年之際，烏克蘭總統弗拉基米爾·澤倫斯基和外交部長德米特羅·庫萊巴率領烏克蘭代表團前往慕尼黑，請求提供更多幫助和彈藥。
“潛在的動態”
阿列克謝·納瓦爾尼 (Alexei Navalny) 的去世是在周五會議開幕之際宣布的，這給會議進程蒙上了陰影。
但對於萬斯來說，這並沒有改變微積分。
“看，他顯然是一個非常勇敢的人。 很難不欽佩他，但我認為這並沒有真正改變潛在的動態，”來自俄亥俄州的共和黨人萬斯說。
“這顯然是一個悲慘事件。但你必須清醒地看待這個問題，”他說。 “普京不是一個偉大的人，但這並沒有改變美國或歐洲的戰略要務。我們知道納瓦爾尼死了，因為我們知道普京是一個殘酷的人，但我知道普京是一個殘酷的人 一年前，我知道一年後他將成為一個殘酷的人。”
萬斯表示，他沒有計劃在慕尼黑會見烏克蘭代表團。 “我認為我不會學到任何新東西。我以前見過烏克蘭領導層，但它在日程安排上行不通，”他說。
但他表示，他在會議上的談話並沒有改變他的想法，即美國必須退後一步，而不是參與烏克蘭擊敗俄羅斯的努力。
他說，即使美國眾議院最終批準了一項長期停滯的對烏克蘭援助計劃，“這也不會改變基本事實——我們可以發送的彈藥有限，烏克蘭在 自己的人力。 情況必須從根本上改變，他們才能在戰場上取得重大進展。”
“我們必須麵對現實”
這位參議員還深入闡述了他有爭議的觀點，即烏克蘭最終將把領土割讓給俄羅斯。
他說：“任何和平解決方案都需要烏克蘭做出一些重大的領土讓步，而且你會達成和平協議，因為這是擺脫衝突的唯一出路。我們必須麵對現實。”
在慕尼黑會議上，此類言論被禁止，因為烏克蘭試圖為其西方盟友提供更多火炮。 在數十次閉門會議中，烏克蘭官員表示，他們迫切需要更多武器，尤其是金牛座巡航導彈和遠程 ATACMS 導彈，因為他們試圖擊敗弗拉基米爾·普京的軍隊。
“烏克蘭人已經證明，我們可以迫使俄羅斯撤退，”澤倫斯基在周六的主旨演講中對代表們說。 “我們可以奪回我們的土地，而普京可能會失敗，這種情況在戰場上已經發生過不止一次了。”
立陶宛外交部長加布裏埃爾·蘭茨貝吉斯反駁了萬斯的言論，認為西方安全受到威脅。 “擁有一個安全的烏克蘭不僅符合烏克蘭的利益。 這是歐洲的，也是跨大西洋的，”他告訴《政治》雜誌。
“穩定是有利可圖的。每個人都從中受益，”蘭茨伯格斯說。 “事實證明，它對歐洲和美國都是雙向的，並且已經有效了半個多世紀。”
萬斯的慕尼黑之旅是
這是他自 2022 年當選美國參議員以來首次訪問歐洲。作為首次競選候選人，他因 2016 年回憶錄《鄉巴佬挽歌》而名聲大噪，現已成為美國前總統唐納德·特朗普的堅定捍衛者，盡管此前他曾這樣描述自己 作為一個“從不支持特朗普”的人。
萬斯參議員向慕尼黑安全會議發出“警鍾”
2924 年 2 月 18 日
https://www.vance.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-vance-delivers-a-wake-up-call-to-munich-security-conference/
“我認為這裏有一個根本性問題，歐洲確實必須警醒……你無法用GDP、歐元或美元贏得戰爭。 你可以用武器贏得戰爭，而西方卻沒有製造足夠的武器。”
德國慕尼黑——參議員 JD 萬斯（俄亥俄州共和黨）今天上午在慕尼黑安全會議上發表講話，給歐洲敲響了“警鍾”。
請觀看參議員萬斯的講話並閱讀以下文字記錄：
萬斯參議員談到特朗普總統成功威懾俄羅斯、西方生產武器的能力有限以及美國需要將重點轉向東亞：
“我們必須記住，盡管有很多令人沮喪的事情，而且我在私人會議和公開會議上也聽到過很多這樣的說法，但唐納德·特朗普可能是這一代人中最能威懾俄羅斯的總統。
“事實上，俄羅斯在過去20年裏唯一一次沒有入侵外國是唐納德·特朗普擔任總統的四年。 有趣的是，這麽多人指責特朗普、我或其他人落入普京的口袋，但弗拉基米爾·普京說他想成為下一任總統的人不是唐納德·特朗普——他說喬·拜登是他首選的候選人，因為 他更容易預測。
“現在，在歐洲安全問題上，我認為歐洲確實必須意識到一個根本問題。 我本著友誼的精神而不是批評的精神提出這一點，因為，不，我不認為我們應該退出北約，不，我不認為我們應該放棄歐洲。 但是，是的，我認為我們應該轉向。 美國必須更加關注東亞。 這將是美國未來 40 年外交政策的未來，歐洲必須認識到這一事實。
“現在，讓我拋出一些事實。 第一，從美利堅合眾國的角度來看，烏克蘭問題是，我相信，我代表了大多數美國公眾輿論，盡管我不代表來到慕尼黑的參議員的大多數意見。 沒有明確的終點，從根本上來說，美國支持烏克蘭的限製因素不是金錢，而是軍火。 美國，順便說一句，歐洲也是如此，我們沒有製造足夠的彈藥來支持東歐戰爭、中東戰爭以及東亞潛在的突發事件。 所以美國從根本上來說是有限的。
“現在，讓我拋出非常具體的細節。 PAC-3是一款愛國者攔截機，烏克蘭一個月的使用時間相當於美國一年的生產量。 愛國者導彈係統是五年前的訂單，155毫米火炮是五年前的訂單。我們在美國正在談論到2025年底將我們的火炮產量提高到每月10萬枚。 此時此刻，俄羅斯人每月的收入接近 50 萬。 因此，烏克蘭麵臨的問題是美國沒有製造足夠的武器，歐洲也沒有製造足夠的武器，而現實遠比美國的政治意願或我們印多少錢然後寄給歐洲重要得多。 我在這裏要提出的最後一點是為了回應，因為我知道人們已經聽到了特朗普所說的話，你知道，他們批評了它，他們說，好吧，“特朗普將放棄歐洲。”
“我認為這根本不是真的。 我認為特朗普實際上是在敲響警鍾，要求歐洲必須在自身安全方麵發揮更大的作用。 德國今年的支出將超過GDP的2%。 當然，這是我們在美國必須真正推動的事情，而現在它終於掃清了這個門檻。
“但這不僅僅是花錢的問題。 德國明天可以部署多少個機械化旅？ 也許是一個。 歐洲的問題在於，它本身沒有提供足夠的威懾力，因為它在自身安全方麵沒有采取主動。 我認為美國的安全毯導致了歐洲安全的萎縮。
“再說一次，重點不是我們想放棄歐洲。 關鍵是我們作為一個國家需要關注東亞，我們需要我們的歐洲盟友在歐洲挺身而出。 我很欣賞我的英國朋友[大衛·拉米]在這裏所說的話。 當然，我認為英格蘭是少數幾個例外之一，它在上一代人中部署了一支非常有能力的軍隊。 但對於歐洲很多國家來說情況並非如此，這種情況必須改變。”
萬斯參議員認為需要通過談判實現和平
d 烏克蘭戰爭：
“普京對歐洲構成生存威脅的想法與我們試圖說服我們的盟友花費 GDP 2% 的事實相比，這是非常困難的。 這些想法非常緊張。 我不認為弗拉基米爾·普京對歐洲構成生存威脅，他的威脅再次表明歐洲必須在自身安全方麵發揮更積極的作用。
“這是第一。 但我再次回到關於“放棄烏克蘭”的問題。如果國會目前正在審議的一攬子計劃，即向烏克蘭提供 610 億美元的補充援助，獲得通過，我必須對你說實話，這不會 從根本上改變戰場的現實。 目前我們可以向烏克蘭運送的彈藥數量非常有限。
“再說一遍，不是靠美國的意誌力或美國的錢，而是靠美國的製造能力。 我剛才強調的所有延期交貨訂單，這些都不是未來的問題。 這些都是當今的問題，並且它們帶來了真正的限製。 所以我想說的是，在這個充滿真正限製的世界裏，在烏克蘭要實現什麽是現實的？ 我們能否將過去 18 個月設定的武器裝備水平發送給未來 18 個月？
“我們根本做不到。 無論美國國會開出多少支票，我們的能力都有限。 彈藥在戰爭中非常重要。 當然，我們沒有談論的是，人力在戰爭中非常重要，而我們知道烏克蘭人在這方麵非常有限。 因此，我們的論點，至少我在這裏的論點是，考慮到我們麵臨的現實，彈藥和人力的真正限製，合理地完成什麽以及我們何時真正認為我們能夠完成它？
“我的論點是，看，我認為合理實現的目標是通過談判實現和平。 我認為俄羅斯現在有動力坐到談判桌前。 我認為烏克蘭、歐洲和美國都有動力坐到談判桌前。 那將會發生。 這將以談判和平告終。 問題是談判何時能達成和平，以及和平會是什麽樣子。
萬斯參議員談與對手打交道時優先考慮美國利益：
“對於納瓦爾尼之死的回應：看，他顯然是一個勇敢的人。 他的死是一場悲劇。 我認為他不應該入獄。 我認為他不應該在監獄裏被殺。 我譴責普京這樣做。 但問題是：它並沒有告訴我們任何關於普京的新信息。
“我從來沒有說過普京是一個善良、友好的人。 我說過，他是一個有獨特利益的人，美國必須對這個有獨特利益的人做出回應。 我們不必同意他的觀點。 我們可以與他競爭，而且我們經常會與他競爭。 但他是壞人這一事實並不意味著我們不能進行基本外交並優先考慮美國的利益。 世界各地都有很多壞人，我現在對東亞的一些問題比對歐洲的問題更感興趣。
萬斯參議員談西方武器製造狀況、去工業化帶來的風險，以及GDP等指標無法表明一個國家的軍事實力：
“我們需要歐洲在安全方麵發揮更大的作用，這並不是因為我們不關心歐洲……而是因為我們必須認識到我們生活在一個資源匱乏的世界。 當我聽到這些問題以及我進行過的許多私人談話時，我認為在慕尼黑安全會議上非常非常主導的態度之一就是美國超級大國無所不能的想法 立刻。
“我要告訴你的是，我們生活在一個物資匱乏的世界，一個物資匱乏、武器製造以及美國製造戰爭關鍵機器的能力的世界，而這個物資匱乏的世界正是我試圖讓我們獲得的。 一切都需要醒來。 在那個資源匱乏的世界裏，我們無法支持烏克蘭、中東以及東亞的突發事件。 這沒有任何意義。 就武器製造而言，數學是行不通的。
“我想在這裏說的最後一點是，我在這個房間裏聽到了很多自我祝賀的聲音，以及我在美國家鄉進行的一些談話，這不僅僅是對歐洲的批評，還有很多批評。 自我慶幸我們的GDP比俄羅斯的GDP大多少。
“是的，我們比俄羅斯更富有。 我們的公民比普通俄羅斯公民生活得更好。 這當然是值得慶祝和自豪的事情。 但你無法用 GDP、歐元或美元贏得戰爭。 你可以用武器贏得戰爭，而西方卻沒有製造足夠的武器。 我並不是想在這裏打擊德國，因為我愛德國，但我想回應一下郎女士之前所說的一些話。 看，德國是北約中唯一一個沒有遵循愚蠢的華盛頓共識並允許自己的國家這樣做的國家。
在 70 年代、80 年代和 90 年代去工業化。 然而，就在普京越來越強大、俄羅斯軍隊大舉入侵歐洲國家的時刻，德國就開始去工業化了嗎？
“看看現在德國製造業工作的人數與十年前的情況相比。 看看現在德國生產的關鍵原材料與十年前的情況對比。 現在的能源依賴程度與 10 或 20 年前相比。 我們必須停止去工業化。 我們希望歐洲取得成功，但歐洲必須在自身安全方麵發揮更大作用。 沒有工業，你就無法做到這一點。”
Navalny's death fails to move the dial for Republican Senator J.D. Vance
At Munich Security Conference, American senator doubles-down on view that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia.
U.S. Senator J.D. Vance | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
U.S. Senator J.D. Vance has made a name for himself in the United States Congress as one of the most vociferous opponents of aid for Ukraine. Now he has brought that message to Europe.
At the Munich Security Conference this weekend, the 39-year-old first-time senator doubled-down on his view that helping Ukraine is not in America’s interests.
Ukrainians are "admirable people fighting an admirable conflict," Vance told POLITICO in an interview. "But there's a real lack of strategic clarity about what we're supposed to accomplish," he said.
“We simply do not have manufacturing capacity to support a ground war in Eastern Europe indefinitely. And I think it's incumbent upon leaders to articulate this for their populations," Vance said. "How long is this expected to go on? How much is it expected to cost? And importantly, how are we actually supposed to produce the weapons necessary to support the Ukrainians?” he asked.
In the hallowed halls of the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich where the annual gathering of defense and security officials is taking place, such talk is sacrilege. The annual gathering is a celebration of transatlantic relations and a bastion of pro-Ukraine sentiment.
The Munich Security Conference has long attracted a large U.S. presence. From the late John McCain to Joe Biden, hundreds of U.S. politicians have made the trip across the Atlantic to talk security, defense and strategy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba have led the Ukrainian delegation in Munich, pleading for more help and ammunition as the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin approaches its two-year anniversary.
'The underlying dynamics'
The death of Alexei Navalny, announced just as the conference was kicking off on Friday, has cast a dark shadow over the proceedings.
But for Vance it doesn’t change the calculus.
“Look, he was obviously an extremely brave guy. It’s hard not to admire him, but I don’t think it really changes the underlying dynamics," said Vance, a Republican from Ohio.
"It’s obviously a tragic event. But you have to go into this clear eyed," he said. "Putin is not a great human being, but that doesn't change what the strategic imperatives of the United States or Europe are. We know Navalny died, because we know Putin is a brutal guy, but I knew Putin was a brutal guy a year ago and I know he will be a brutal guy a year from now.”
Vance said he had no plans to meet the Ukrainian delegation in Munich. "I didn't think I would learn anything new. I've met the Ukrainian leadership before, and it just didn't work in the schedule," he said.
But he said the conversations he has had at the conference have done nothing to change his mind on the imperative for the United States to step back, not engage, with the Ukrainian effort to defeat Russia.
Even if the U.S. House of Representatives ultimately approves a long-stalled aid package to Ukraine, he said, “it doesn’t change the fundamental facts — that we are limited in the munitions that we can send, that Ukraine is limited in terms of its own manpower. The situation has to fundamentally change for them to make significant battlefield gains."
'We have to deal with reality'
The senator also dug in on his controversial view that Ukraine will ultimately cede territory to Russia.
“Any peace settlement is going to require some significant territorial concessions from Ukraine, and you're gonna have a peace deal, because that's the only way out of the conflict," he said. "We have to deal with reality.”
At the Munich conference, such talk is verboten, as Ukraine tries to make the case for more artillery from its Western allies. In dozens of closed-door meetings, Ukrainian officials have made the argument that they desperately need more weapons — particularly Taurus cruise missiles and long-range ATACMS missiles — as they try to defeat Vladimir Putin’s army.
“Ukrainians have proven that we can force Russia to retreat,” Zelenskyy told delegates in a key-note speech Saturday. “We can get our land back, and Putin can lose, and this has already happened more than once on the battlefield.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis pushed back against Vance’s comments, arguing that Western security is at stake. “It’s not just in Ukraine’s interest to have a secure Ukraine. It’s European and it’s transatlantic," he told POLITICO.
"Stability is profitable. Everybody gains from it," Landsbergis said. "It has been proven that it works both ways, for Europe and for the United States and has been working for more than half a century.”
Vance’s trip to Munich is one of his first to Europe since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2022. A first-time election candidate who shot to fame for his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, he has become a staunch defender of former U.S. President Donald Trump, despite previously describing himself as a “never-Trumper.”
Senator Vance delivers a "wake up call" to Munich Security Conference
Feb 18, 2924
“I think there’s a fundamental issue here that Europe really has to wake up to … You don’t win wars with GDP or euros or dollars. You win wars with weapons, and the West doesn’t make enough weapons.”
MUNICH, GERMANY – Senator JD Vance (R-OH) delivered a “wake up call” to Europe in remarks to the Munich Security Conference this morning.
Watch Senator Vance’s remarks here and read a transcript below:
Senator Vance on President Trump’s success in deterring Russia, the limited ability of the West to produce weapons, and the United States’ need to pivot its focus to East Asia:
“We have to remember that despite a lot of the hand-wringing, and I’ve heard a lot of it in private meetings and public meetings, Donald Trump was maybe the best president at deterring Russia in a generation.
“In fact, the only time that Russia has not invaded a foreign country over the last 20 years was the four years that Donald Trump was President. And it’s interesting that so many people accuse Trump, or me, or others of being in Putin’s pocket, and yet the person that Vladimir Putin says he wants to be the next president is not Donald Trump – he says Joe Biden is his preferred candidate because he’s more predictable.
“Now, on the question of European security, I think there’s a fundamental issue here that Europe really has to wake up to. And I offer this in the spirit of friendship, not in the spirit of criticism, because, no, I don’t think that we should pull out of NATO, and no, I don’t think that we should abandon Europe. But yes, I think that we should pivot. The United States has to focus more on East Asia. That is going to be the future of American foreign policy for the next 40 years, and Europe has to wake up to that fact.
“Now, let me just throw a couple of facts out there. Number one, the problem in Ukraine from the perspective of the United States of America, and I represent, I believe, the majority of American public opinion, even though I don’t represent the majority of opinion of senators who come to Munich, is that there’s no clear endpoint, and fundamentally the limiting factors for American support of Ukraine, it’s not money, it’s munitions. America, and this is true, by the way, of Europe too, we don’t make enough munitions to support a war in Eastern Europe, a war in the Middle East, and potentially a contingency in East Asia. So the United States is fundamentally limited.
“Now, let me just throw very specific details. The PAC-3, which is a Patriot interceptor, Ukraine uses in a month what the United States makes in a year. The Patriot missile system is on a five year back order, 155 millimeter artillery shells on more than a five year back order, We’re talking in the United States about ramping up our production of artillery to 100,000 a month by the end of 2025. The Russians make close to 500,000 a month right now at this very minute. So the problem here vis-à-vis Ukraine is America doesn’t make enough weapons, Europe doesn’t make enough weapons, and that reality is far more important than American political will or how much money we print and then send to Europe. And the final point that I’ll make just to respond here, because I know people have heard what Trump said, and you know, they’ve criticized it and they’ve said, well, ‘Trump is going to abandon Europe.’
“I don’t think that’s true at all. I think Trump is actually issuing a wake up call to say that Europe has to take a bigger role in its own security. Germany just this year will spend more than 2% of GDP. That, of course, is something that we had to really push for in the United States, and it just now has finally cleared that threshold.
“But it’s not just about money spent. How many mechanized brigades could Germany field tomorrow? Maybe one. The problem with Europe is that it doesn’t provide enough of a deterrence on its own because it hasn’t taken the initiative in its own security. I think that the American security blanket has allowed European security to atrophy.
“And again, the point is not we want to abandon Europe. The point is we need to focus as a country on East Asia, and we need our European allies to step up in Europe. I appreciate what my English friend [David Lammy] over here said. And of course, England has been one of the few exceptions where I think it has fielded a very capable military over the last generation. But that hasn’t been true for a lot of Europe, and that has to change.”
Senator Vance on the need for a negotiated peace to end the war in Ukraine:
“It’s very hard, the juxtaposition between the idea that Putin poses an existential threat to Europe, compared again against the fact that we’re trying to convince our allies to spend 2% of GDP. Those ideas are very much in tension. I do not think that Vladimir Putin is an existential threat to Europe and to the extent that he is, again, that suggests that Europe has to take a more aggressive role in its own security.
“That’s number one. But again, I go back to this question about ‘abandoning Ukraine.’ If the package that’s running through the Congress right now, $61 billion of supplemental aid to Ukraine, goes through, I have to be honest to you, that is not going to fundamentally change the reality on the battlefield. The amount of munitions that we can send to Ukraine right now is very limited.
“Again, not by American willpower or by American money, but by American manufacturing capacity. All of those back orders that I just highlighted, those are not problems in the future. Those are problems today, and they provide real limitations. So all I’m saying is in that world of real limitations, what is realistic to accomplish in Ukraine? Can we send the level of weaponry we’ve set for the last 18 months for the next 18 months?
“We simply cannot. No matter how many checks the US Congress writes, we are limited there. Munitions matter a lot in warfare. What we haven’t talked about, of course, is manpower matters a lot in warfare, and we know the Ukrainians are very limited on that. So our argument, at least my argument here is, given the realities that we face, the very real constraints in munitions and manpower, what is reasonable to accomplish and when do we actually think we’re going to accomplish it?
“And my argument is, look, I think what’s reasonable to accomplish is some negotiated peace. I think Russia has incentive to come to the table right now. I think Ukraine, Europe, and the United States have incentive to come to the table. That is going to happen. This will end in a negotiated peace. The question is when it ends in a negotiated peace and what that looks like.
Senator Vance on prioritizing American interests when engaging with adversaries:
“To respond to Navalny’s death: look, he was clearly a brave person. His death is a tragedy. I don’t think that he should have been in prison. I don’t think that he should have been killed in prison. And I condemn Putin for doing it. But here’s the problem: it doesn’t teach us anything new about Putin.
“I’ve never once argued that Putin is a kind and friendly person. I’ve argued that he’s a person with distinct interests, and the United States has to respond to that person with distinct interests. We don’t have to agree with him. We can contest him and we often will contest him. But the fact that he’s a bad guy does not mean we can’t engage in basic diplomacy and prioritizing America’s interests. There are a lot of bad guys all over the world, and I’m much more interested in some of the problems in East Asia right now than I am in Europe.
Senator Vance on the state of weapons manufacturing in the West, the risk posed by deindustrialization, and the inability of measures like GDP to indicate a nation’s military strength:
“We need Europe to play a bigger share of the security role, and that’s not because we don’t care about Europe … it’s because we have to recognize that we live in a world of scarcity. When I listen to these questions and I listen to so many of the private conversations I’ve had, one of the attitudes that I think is very, very dominant at the Munich Security Conference is the idea of the American superpower that can do everything all at once.
“And what I’m telling you is that we live in a world of scarcity, a world of scarcity and weapons manufacturing and America’s capacity to make the critical machinery of war, and that world of scarcity is what I’m trying to get us all to wake up to. In that world of scarcity, we can’t support Ukraine and the Middle East and contingencies in East Asia. It just doesn’t make any sense. The math doesn’t work out in terms of weapons manufacturing.
“One final point I want to make here is I hear a lot of self-congratulation in this room and some of the conversations that I’ve had back home in the United States, this is not just a criticism of Europe, a lot of self-congratulation about how much our GDP is bigger than Russia’s GDP.
“And yes, we are richer than Russia. Our citizens have better lives than the average Russian citizen. That is certainly something to celebrate and be proud of. But you don’t win wars with GDP or euros or dollars. You win wars with weapons, and the West doesn’t make enough weapons. I don’t mean to beat up on Germany here because I love Germany, but I want to respond to something [Member of the German Bundestag] Ms. Lang said earlier. Look, Germany is the one country, maybe in NATO, that did not follow the stupid Washington consensus and allow their country to be deindustrialized during the ‘70s, ’80s, and ‘90s. And yet, at the very moment that Putin is more and more powerful, where the Russian army is invading European countries en masse, this is the point at which Germany starts to deindustrialize?
“Look at the number of people working in manufacturing in Germany now versus ten years ago. Look at the critical raw materials produced in Germany now versus ten years ago. The energy dependence now versus 10 or 20 years ago. We have got to stop deindustrializing. We want Europe to be successful, but Europe has got to take a bigger role in its own security. You can’t do that without industry.”
