We were talking about Europe so I apparently wasn’t specific enough. Most countries in NATO let any capacity they had for large scale land wars wither after the cold war ended since they only saw conflict in small “police actions” in far away lands as being in their future. Things like Kosovo. And, to be fair, even the Russians (Putin aside) were confident that Europe was past large land wars too.
You asserted “decades of peace” when Libya was fucking bombed. Libya presented zero threat to Europe or Europeans.
That’s not peace.
Also, is Libya better off today than it was under Qaddafi?
We were talking about Europe so I apparently wasn’t specific enough. Most countries in NATO let any capacity they had for large scale land wars wither after the cold war ended since they only saw conflict in small “police actions” in far away lands as being in their future. Things like Kosovo. And, to be fair, even the Russians (Putin aside) were confident that Europe was past large land wars too.