Don’t know if you around when NATO was formed, but its more or less a buffer zone used to keep anything less than global conflagration away from our shores and let Europe soak up the punches. We probably pay the lion’s share, but we also are for the most part the controlling authority.
Do you know the US budget for NATO? I do not and unless its way up there its still a bargain.
We would do better and save more by cutting foreign aid to countries that are not our friends or do not enable us to increase our security.
NATO was formed at the height of the Cold War and now for the most part is a anachronism that is outdated.
Whoever thought that after 70 years we would still have troops in Europe, especially after the Wall fell and the Cold War was over.
What has happened is that Europe was perfectly happy to have U.S. Troops and technology protect them while they got extremely complacent and let their own military capabilities go soft and almost non-existent. Of course the money they saved on Defense they spent lavishly on their Socialism, which has now failed.
So I agree with Trump, we need to bring the troops home, close the bases and let Europe deal with their own problems as we need to deal ours. These actions will force the Europeans to either stand up and fight for the culture’s or die a slow death from their unrestricted immigration policies they promulgated.
I wasn’t around in 1949, but I learned about it. It was formed to stop communism from advancing from the USSR. That’s hardly a concern now. Communism is a concern - but from within, sadly.
Looks like in 2010 we paid $712M.