"Which country is the largest threat to world peace?"

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Lol at all the countries freeloading on the US military who think the US is the largest threat to world peace. Especially countries like Germany (which spend only 1.2% of GDP on defense compared to 3.3% of GDP in the US) really should be more grateful.

They don't view it as freeloading. They view it is being part of an alliance they don't care for and being forced to host weapons they dislike on their soil.

Wouldn't the preferable option for Germany be to leave NATO, then?

Would not be surprised if this happens to be honest, if this TWO PERCENT arbitrariness is kept up. Germans don't want to go it alone, but they are uncomfortable with the military in general (even now, Germans routinely disapprove of NATO exercises in the Baltics) and the idea of their military being the most powerful in Europe kind of worries and disgusts the populace.

Basically both countries are at odds because America thinks Germany is gleefully freeloading, while Germany thinks America are asking for money for military adventures that they don't care about.

I was unaware of avowed anti-militarism in Germany (though I don't know much about the country in general). Is this leftover embarrassment from the Nazi years, or something else entirely?

[ApatheticAustrian]

in the past, it was just left-sided "love instead of war"-thinking, now it's funded by russian influence.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I think it's kind of similar to the situation in Japan (and, for that matter Austria's status as a neutral nation) in that the foreign-imposed neutrality basically became accepted as the status quo - whether through parochialism (what's it gotta do with me?) or idealism (make love not war), Germans oppose almost all military jaunts unless it is framed in almost extreme humanitarian terms. Germans are suspicious of their military, which they view as largely incompetent dolts (the Bundeswehr has been a national joke for most of postwar Germany, being essentially viewed as cannon fodder for any large conflict) that nobody with any real ambition or intelligence would seek to be make a career in.

Another factor is probably a lack of lingering paternalistic connections to developing states. Like if a Francophone country erupts in conflict, France will step in; Russia keeps tabs on all its old affiliates; America has dibs on the entire Western Hemisphere; even relative minnows like Australia and New Zealand will intervene in the Pacific Islands from time to time. Germany has none of that.

But like Japan, the drums of war largely match on anyway, and the populace will grumble but get on with it. But the pro-military people know that they have to be subtle about it - the US is quite able to terrify countries like the Baltics into reaching the magic two percent, but if Trump comes in all tubthumping then the Germans will probably lose all patience, take their ball and go home.

[BuckeyeNut]

It's interesting Japan thinks it's China and not North Korea; also that Pakistan thinks it's the US and not India when India think it's Pakistan.

Here are the top 3 in each:

India:
Pakistan 25%
USA 19%
India 12%

Japan:
China 38%
North Korea 22%
USA 7%

Pakistan:
USA 44%
India 15%
Israel 13%

India listed itself? Very interesting.

[Tintrlvr]

It's interesting Japan thinks it's China and not North Korea; also that Pakistan thinks it's the US and not India when India think it's Pakistan.

Here are the top 3 in each:

India:
Pakistan 25%
USA 19%
India 12%

Japan:
China 38%
North Korea 22%
USA 7%

Pakistan:
USA 44%
India 15%
Israel 13%

India listed itself? Very interesting.

Probably a fair number of Muslim Indians would consider India itself pretty threatening to them (and it's clear that most people answered this question as "which country is most threatening to you personally" regardless of what the actual question was).

in the past, it was just left-sided "love instead of war"-thinking, now it's funded by russian influence.

That sort of thing was often funded by Russian (or rather, Soviet) influence in the past, too, at least in Europe, albeit more subtly than Putin manages today.