[9YearLurker]

Sadly the tail’s been wagging the dog for far too long. Europe has long looked at us as the ally who provides the cheap and ready military bodies for their shared neocon/globalist interests.

[Equine1952]

Trump is demanding they pay their share for our boots on the ground. If he peels of some perks for the troops that’s nice too. How many wet blanket assholes on here or that read that rag have stuck their ass out there. I’ve been part of three generations defending the US. We have interest in places and this ain’t checkers. We help them they owe us and the troops.

[nathanbedford]

Trumps demands on Europe were long overdue. I suppose there is a difference, and perhaps a critical difference, in that we are asking the Europeans to spend their own money to themselves whereas we are asking the Saudis to pay us.

A difference might also be that in Europe we are defending allies with democratic values as opposed to the Saudis with medieval values. Will we overlook those values because the Saudis pay us or because of geographical, petroleum and geopolitical realities?