Putin laughs hard, slips, hits head and goes into coma, saving NATO

Headline today:

Shaken by Trump’s Criticism of NATO, Europe Mulls Building Own Military Force

I bloody well hope so.

Ok, not really. A pan-European Army would be worse than useless. It would be a provocation. Maybe the Euros would get lucky and Putin would laugh himself to death.

It's a real shame what's happened to NATO.

Back in say, I dunno, 1990, NATO's armed forces were small, but well trained and equipped. The West German Bundeshwer was the largest and best Continental army. Being German they really couldn't help themselves. The British were more professional and better trained, but smaller and lacked some of the punch of those mighty Panzer Divisions. Both the Netherlands and Belgians could put an mechanized army corps in the field. The French had one corps on the Rhine and could send another into action. For that matter France had a fine navy as did of course the Brits. Italy was probably a near equal to France in terms of land, sea and air power.

I wanted to portray a lot these armed forces in the World War series. Just wait till the Final Storm comes out, you'll see whole sections dedicated to the French and Italian armed forces. In Arctic Storm there are references to the Dutch Army, the BAOR is a major subject. In Eastern Storm we see some major West German characters.

We've come a long way.

That's Spain's defense minister in 2008. Somehow the blue berets are appropriate. Maybe she's having a boy?

During the last 15 years of war NATO has been more or less useless. Yes I know they send these contingents to Afghanistan or Iraq. A battalion a here, a regiment there. But its very minimal. Just of the top of my head I can recal stories about Italians refusing to escort convoys, Norwegians refusing to leave the base at night, Germans being too fat....

Yes, yes the caveats apply, of course.

The most important caveat are the English speaking nations. Lookie here, alongside the Yanks in Afghanistan are the Brits, Canadians, Australians, Kiwis. All fighting the Taliban tooth and nail while the defense ministers of other NATO countries, well, do their nails: