although you may not believe it, im an atlanticist. NATO is a crucial part of our collective security, and i do concede it is dissapointing seeing some alliance members unwilling to pull their share.
I believe you are, I'm just finding it harder to believe that I am.
It seems obvious to me why Europe would want to keep the United States in NATO, but it is becoming less and less clear what the advantage is for the United States. If the U.S pulled out, Europe would no doubt increase its military spending and take a more aggressive approach to foreign policy with the bad guys. Both of which would appear to be to our benefit.
I’m curious to hear from a European why they think the U.S. should continue to worry about the rest of the world, when all we get for our efforts is grief.
We could start selling our UN influence like France and Russia. We could have worked out a sweet deal with Saddam for Kuwaiti oil, the Chinese would love us if we would just wink at them taking Taiwan, and I don’t think we’d have any trouble with Islam if we cut Israel loose and pointed out that Europe is much easier to convert than us. And as soon as we write off South Korea, North Korean will cease to be a problem for us as well.
In short, there is a lot of money to be made going our own way. That's what we get accused of anyway. It seems that most of Europe regards the U.S. like an insolent teenager badmouthing their parent, never considering for a second that the parent might just cut them loose to fend for themselves.