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“It’s a very small ask,” US President Donald Trump said about his desire to buy Greenland, calling it just “a big, beautiful piece of ice.”
He reportedly raged when Europe sent troops there. But let’s be honest: sending around 40 soldiers from eight nations was more about sending a message than sending actual power.
But what if we assembled a European army?
If you combine all European countries, we actually have around 1.5 million active-duty soldiers. That sounds huge, but it is a logistical nightmare.
While the US military operates with 32 weapon systems, we have 172. That means mismatched spare parts, manuals and ammunition that simply do not work together.
And moving a tank from Lisbon to Warsaw can currently take months of paperwork. That is why Brussels is rushing to fix the so-called “Military Schengen.”
The new goal is to cut that travel permission time down to just three days in peacetime, and only six hours in an emergency.
So the goal isn’t a single “superarmy,” but making our 27 existing armies actually compatible.
But fixing the systems is the easy part. Finding the soldiers is harder. While Latvia and Croatia are bringing back the draft, the wider public isn’t ready.
Only a third of Europeans say they would be willing to fight, according to a 2024 Gallup poll.
That is why we are not replacing NATO. We’re just ensuring that if the phone rings at 3 am, we can actually pick it up.
Watch the Euronews video in the player above for the full story.
