Posted on 08/05/2022 8:43:27 AM PDT by qaz123
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) is bucking critics and calling for Europe’s NATO members scale back reliance on America — including by increasing their defense spending and growing their militaries — following his lone vote Wednesday opposing growing the alliance to include Finland and Sweden.
Hawley, in an interview with Breitbart News, said America’s current NATO arrangement is spreading resources too thin and in a region that is not of primary national security concern — calling the European theatre a “big distraction from what our principle overseas challenge is, which is China.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Roosevelt died and met Wilson; who said “I
blundered into it
Through honest error, and conscience cut me so deep that
I died
In the vain effort to prevent future wars. But you
Blew on the coal-bed, and when it kindled you deliberately
Sabotaged every fire-wall that even the men who denied
My hope had built. You have too much murder on your
hands. I will not
Speak of the lies and connivings. I cannot understand the
Mercy
That permits us to meet in the same heaven.—Or is this
my hell?”
- Robinson Jeffers
That’s a keeper!
NATO's primary purpose is deterrence. The stronger the alliance is militarily, the greater the deterrent, and the less chance U.S. troops would ever have to be committed. Realistically, if Russia were to initiate hostilities with NATO, Finland and especially Sweden are very unlikely to be the target, so the chances of adding them being the cause if a war is negligible. The most likely target is one of the Baltic states, so having two more countries with stronger militaries -Sweden - and advantageous geography Finland - is much more likely to deter a war than to cause one.
NATO: Did they or did they not engage in offensive hostilities in say, Iraq? Any other place?
They were involved in Afghanistan, fulfilling Article 5 obligations after we were attacked in 9/11. Not sure how that's a negative from our perspective....
If Hawley’s not just trolling and wants the European countries to contribute more he would support adding Finland and Sweden. Both are relatively rich and motivated to strengthen NATO’s military capability.
His current position is incoherent.
Hawley voted to admit North Macedonia to NATO. Now he’s just a pathetic and posing minority party contrarian.
Duda’s Poland is willing to spend 5% of GDP on their military. That is the European anchor that NATO needs. They just placed an order for 1000 tanks from Korea. All they need is naval support (from Britain) and air (from US, etc.) to have a fully credible defensive alliance.
As a first generation American (arr. 12/25/56) I have come to realize Europe’s dependence on America for its protection. I still remember the Marshall Plan and Berlin Airlift and America’s greatest delicacy — SPAM.(My Mom performed miracles with it in the kitchen). The Soviet Union was busy tearing off huge pieces of Eastern Europe real estate and adding it to their sphere of influence. Life was rough, while in America the streets were lined with money trees (so we assumed) and life went from Glenn Miller to Count Basie to Stan Kenton. Boat loads and plane loads of immigrants crossed the Atlantic in a westerly direction. Years later I returned to my point of origin and I noticed the many societal improvements that had taken place during my absence — fewer potholes than there were noticeable in the US, public transportation was cleaner and safer than it was in the US and even my American-born wife asked me: “Why in hell did you ever leave this place?” Everything we had in America was available in Europe and more. Family members laughed at us for our measly two week vacations while they enjoyed a month per year. If you had a job, it was more secure than what you had in America, we hardly saw any slums and homes were neatly kept, one could walk the street at night and be fairly safe. I had to convince my wife that we had to go back to America for my job. Adult males served in the military for one year while I served in the USAF for four. But then it dawned on us how Europe was totally dependent on America’s protective umbrella with relative few obligations. Drive past the huge Ramstein AFB and you know what I mean. See the long columns of American military rolling stock on the autobahn and you know that it was all paid for by the American Taxpayer. All tanks, vehicles and planes were American made. No wonder life in Europe is so stress-free and enjoyable. Europe is being cuddled and spoiled by America and Trump was the first POTUS who realized it and did something about it. Look at France — they are not in NATO. Why should they be? They are surrounded by NATO countries and feel themselves to be safe. Belgium and the Netherlands could adopt the same philosophy and Biden will let them get away with it. Not so Trump.
I absolutely agree with Hawley. Kleptocracy Russia is not the monolithic threat the old USSR was. They are essentially Europe’s regional problem, not ours. China, on the other hand, is the new USSR when it comes to monolithic threats.
Can’t blame Poland for doing the right thing. They’ve always been dominated by someone. The should go nuke. They’ll be left alone.
It is time for the EU to pay their own way, fight their own battles, invest in freedom.
In any year a NATO country does not meet it’s defense budget as delineated in the NATO agreement, they are suspended from benefits that year.
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The issue of burden sharing is secondary. The real issue — is most of Europe still worth defending? I’d say not because most Europen governments are copycat Biden regimes, with leftist controlled media, socialist economies that are even lesss free than ours, and goverment bans on free speech by conservatives.
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