Posted on 03/16/2024 4:07:07 PM PDT by hardspunned
An American withdrawal from the defense of Europe is undesirable for any involved nation – unless, of course, their capital city is Moscow – but it is obvious that the current incarnation of the US-Nato relationship cannot continue.
The debate over military spending in Europe and in the US shows no sign of resolution, in spite of very recent spending increases from a few European countries. A wide gap persists between the 3.5 per cent of GDP commitment of the US and the below 2 per cent average in Europe. While this disparity has long been an irritant, now there is a serious political challenge of a growing number of Congressional members who seek to force Europe to do her part by reducing US funding.
However, military spending is a very poor measure of each country’s actual contribution to the military strength of the alliance. One major distortion is the almost universal practice of purchasing weapons from local manufacturers regardless of their merits or their unit costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If everyone watched The Duran, I wouldn’t have to post half the stuff I do.
It should be disbanded
Don’t count them out. The Eastern Europeans could take over the initiative in the organization, and drag Germany, France, etc., along with them. And they know damned well to be very afraid of Russia. If the fossils won’t get dragged, they’ll form their own regional alliance. They have to. Poland is wide awake. So is Moldova, which has its own “little green men” movement stirring. Moldova isn’t even in NATO, but don’t be surprised if Poland, Lithuania and Estonia suddenly become great friends of both Moldova and Ukraine.
My take is that NATO was obsolete even before the Warsaw Pact dissolved. I picked the year 1960 because by then Western Europe had pretty much rebuilt itself from WW2.
They had the money and the industry to stand on their own two feet.
It’s the castrated leadership
“If everyone watched The Duran, I wouldn’t have to post half the stuff I do.”
Plus, we could send our spammers back to Foggy Bottom to go spam other sites with their “Ukraine is Winning” garbage.
we can’t again. We are more broke than ever now.
The article is a mish mash. Starts out with its big criticism being that each NATO country produces its own weapons. Ok.
And then he lays out the obvious reasons why his criticism is absolutely right. Ok.
Eisenhower foresaw this. He said America needs to be out of Europe ten years after WW II. America allowed Europe to take advantage of our defense shield like spoiled children. Now Dad is broke.
From the article “However, military spending is a very poor measure of each country’s actual contribution to the military strength of the alliance.”
What weasel words. As far as I am concerned, as an American, if an American ally refuses to defend itself then it is not an ally and whatever happens to it is none of our concern.
They just now figured this out?
The French have some top notch special forces and the Legion. The problem is the political leadership.
The hard reality is that our MIC is worse! Since we spend double what the Europeans do, our shortcomings are somewhat masked. Our littoral ships are a prime example. When the US MIC is making its decisions about weapons systems, the main consideration is the MIC profit margin. We spent $13 billion on the aircraft carrier Ford. Even though drones and missiles have meant the end of gunboat diplomacy, 10 more Ford class carriers will be built. The Eisenhower was useless against the Houthis! In a shooting war against China or Iran those targets are sitting ducks. That being said, we will still build them. Why? How much MIC profits are wrapped in the entire carrier battle group? Do you think the ineffectiveness of the world’s most expensive tank on the Uke modern battlefield will cause second thoughts about building more highly profitable Abrams?
Turkey has the best troops in NATO now that the anti patriotic woke purge of our military is complete.
I concluded this in the early 90s when I first started living in Europe.
Its not just that they don’t spend the money. Its that they have no spine at all for the most part.
When it comes to protecting traditional Christianity from the Globohomo hordes, Putin is as close to a modern day Charles Martel that you’ll find.
What really pi$$ed Macron off was the double tapping of those French special forces at that Uke hotel a few months back.
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