Subject: Re: More EU views on the trade deal
As we've discussed before, this is entirely false. The Texas Guard has about 23,000 service members in all branches. Just the army of just France has about 120,000 service members during peacetime. They'd never get off the beaches.

They'd never get on the beaches. The French have a navy and an air force. TX has neither. But if they somehow managed to get there, they'd be slaughtered.

Plus, France has some really good special ops people.

But that's not where Europe's "domestic" military resources have been allocated. They've concentrated mostly on infantry and ground units. Because things like fighter jets and military ships are very mobile, so they can be moved into and around the Continental theater very easily. So because European military strategy is oriented towards working with the U.S. (which would be expected to dominate the air and the seas in response to any invasion), the European military is mostly ground forces.

Correct again. Air forces and navies are mobile. But also not really as relevant to a ground war in Europe. They need tanks and infantry, and all the associated toys. As we're seeing in Ukraine, having an air force within "striking distance" is a good way to not have an air force for very long. The Ukrainians have done enormous damage, and most of it wasn't their air force doing it. They don't even have a navy, and have wreaked havoc with the Russian navy.

Any war in Europe will be a land war. Unless you have devastating superiority (which the US has wherever they go), air forces probably won't come into play that much. You'll need infantry, including "drone units" after what we've witnessed in Ukraine. For all the new tech, Ukraine is largely being fought WWI style...trenches, bunkers, minefields and obstacles. Only occasionally is there much motion in either direction.