[Lower Deck]

Perfectly true. We pay billions and billions to our “allies” and our enemies, and we get practically nothing in return.

How much does the U.S. pay for NATO?

[Cicero]

How much does the U.S. pay NATO? Well, nobody talks about it now, but here's something from a few years ago: ====================== Gates criticizes NATO; How much does U.S. pay? (from 2011) CBS news ^ | June 10, 2011, 2:02 PM | David Morgan Posted on ‎3‎/‎23‎/‎2016‎ ‎7‎:‎01‎:‎58‎ ‎PM by RC one In a speech in Brussels, outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that America's military alliance with Europe faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, owing to what he characterized as the United States' disproportionate funding of NATO operations, and of allies "willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets." In decrying the inability of all NATO members to contribute to operations, such as enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya, Gates said, "Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they can't. The military capabilities simply aren't there." The United States contributes between one-fifth and one-quarter of NATO's budget. In FY2010 that contribution totaled $711.8 million. But that factors in only direct payments, not deployments of personnel which - outside of special operations, such as in Afghanistan or Libya - may be used to train European forces (for example, in anti-terrorism skills) that benefit U.S. security. In February NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that over the past two years, "defense spending by NATO's European member nations has shrunk by some 45 billion dollars" - the equivalent of Germany's entire annual defense budget. Gates' argument that by slashing their defense budgets European countries are allowing the U.S. to pick up the slack comes when the United States is already spending more on defense than all other nations on the planet combined, according to Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich. ====================== Of course, we pay much more. At least until Obama destroyed much of our military, we contributed huge numbers of ships, tanks, troops, planes, etc. We have troops defending Europe. Do they send troops over here to defend us? And there's all the other countries we fund, including huge amounts to place like Turkey and Iran. Not to mention India and "Pockistan." And China.

[zek157]

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% of the cost of NATO.

We do get to maintain a number of bases in Europe.