Posted on 06/11/2018 1:29:29 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Like most NATO member states, Germany does not keep its alliance pledge to put 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) toward defense spending, and Berlin does not intend to change that any time soon.
At $521 per capita, Germany is remarkable mainly for its comparative wealth and import: Germany failing to meet the 2 percent target will have a greater impact than, say, Iceland or Bulgaria. A few states do hit 2 percent, though with the exception of the United Kingdom, they are generally small or poorer countries such as Estonia and Greece that can offer little real mutual defense to the United States.
President Trump is right to complain about European NATO members’ infidelity to their military spending goals — other presidents before him shared the same concerns. But as with his predecessors, rhetoric alone will not change Europe’s behavior. A better approach would entail modernizing the United States’ relationship to NATO on a broader scale, increasing Europe’s involvement and shifting more responsibility onto those wealthy allies to patrol their own region.
“Collectively, the Europeans don’t need U.S. troops or dollars, both of which are in short supply anyway and needed elsewhere,” wrote military historian and veteran Andrew Bacevich in 2009 in an analysis that remains tellingly relevant almost a decade later. “Yet as long as the United States sustains the pretense that Europe cannot manage its own affairs, the Europeans will endorse that proposition, letting Americans foot most of the bill. Only if Washington makes it clear that the era of free-riding has ended will Europe grow up.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
The USA would do well to link our tariff structure to the amount that we have to spend to subsidize the defense of the European Union and Canada.
After we restore general import tariffs, add 2% to NATO members that don’t meet their obligations.
The tariff will be good for our industries even as it provides a source of funds to our government to help pay for NATO.
The EU *yawns” in palpable anger!
I read that today Germany has no working U-boats in their navy. Sad, really sad. They built some great boats in the past.
Free college and health care on the backs of American suckers. Trump is so great pushing back on these free loaders.
We need to leave NATO now.
Do we still need 30-40000 troops in Germany? Should bases be established in Easter Europe?
Poland has offered to pay for one.
Yes, those of you who noted the German equipment readiness rats are spot on. I was simply gob-smacked when Frau Merkel had the temerity to start running smack about how Europe would have to looking out for itself if it could not count on the U.S. What a f***ing joke. Vlad the Invader has got to be laughing his Chekist ass off.
The Germans don’t even pretend to meet their NATO goals. They spent 1.13% of their GDP last year which is jusy over half of their NATO obligations. They plan to raise that to 1.5% by 2025, they’re not even trying.
I worry, sort of, about this. European countries have waged wars against each other for millenia, haven’t they? England vs France. England vs Spain. France vs. England. spain vs everyone. Germany against the world and vice versa. Italy into Aftica. Greek and Turkey at it over Cyprus. In other words, everyone in turn against everyone else.
The longest “peaceful” time in Europe has been when a devastated Europe was “occupied” by American troops staged to keep out the “real bad guys” after WWII.
With an absence of American troops, how long could it be before long standing ill-feelings again explode? People do indeed have very long memories.
jusy=just
Yup. America disrespected and underestimated by European elites as usual.
If you closely examine the geopolitical dynamics at work with Germany’s economic ties with Russia right NOW (esp with regard to oil/gas and NordStream 2 pipeline) they are more or less resembling pre-WWII pacts like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement...and that did not go well...
NordStream II: Old Solution. New Problems.
https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/nord-stream-ii-project-old-solution-new-problems-17572
Certain facilities would be logical to retain; Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the nearby Ramstein Air Base in SW Germany come first to mind. Centrally located in Western Europe, it was the principal stop-off & stabilization point for medical cases from Iraq & Afghanistan before returning to USofA.
A while back when Trump first raised this they claimed that their spending on welfare services for their 2 million illegal alien muslims counted towards their NATO obligation. And that they therefore are meeting the target.
They consider it to be “cleaning up” some imaginary mess “created” by America.
I don’t think we need 30-40,000 troops there. We should still man the hospitals,communications centers and probably spec-ops. As far as regular military, they can be realigned into central America and the middle east.
Just for $hits and giggles, move an army division along with supporting air and naval units to Israel. Really drive the left up a wall.
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