I was wondering what the population/GDP was for NATO but came across a government blog article that was hacked in parts but the good parts are still there...
“According to a number of analysts, including the last two U.S. Secretaries of Defense, Americas relations with its partners within the NATO alliance are nearing crisis. In June 2011, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned that NATO faces a dim if not dismal future and irrelevance as Americas allies remain unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense. The following October, Gates successor, Leon Panetta, stated that we are at a critical moment for our defense partnership, and he implored Americas allies to increase their defense spending to ensure that NATO remained relevant.
While irritation by American leaders toward their European allies over free riding and related calls for Europeans to increase their share of military spending are not new, European NATO countries defense expendituresboth relative to the United States and as a percentage of GDPare at historically low proportions. For most of the Cold War, America accounted for 50 percent of total NATO military spending. That figure is 75 percent today. According to official NATO figures, only three of NATOs 28 membersBritain (2.6), Greece (2.1), and the U.S. (4.8)currently spend the agreed two percent of GDP on defense.
Low levels of defense spending are already having major effects on military effectiveness. In the 2011 campaign to topple Muammar Qaddafis government in Libya, the Europeans lacked the weaponry, as well as the reconnaissance, intelligence, heavy airlift, and refueling equipment necessary to defeat a minor power. As Gates put it, the mightiest military alliance in history is only eleven weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated countryyet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference.
http://gt2030.com/2012/08/01/population-aging-and-the-future-of-nato/
Maybe DT IS listening to someone.
Are you freakin dense?
Do you even read what you post????
While irritation by American leaders toward their European allies over free riding and related calls for Europeans to increase their share of military spending are not new, European NATO countries defense expendituresboth relative to the United States and as a percentage of GDPare at historically low proportions. For most of the Cold War, America accounted for 50 percent of total NATO military spending. That figure is 75 percent today.
Trump is saying the same freakin thing!!!!