In a nutshell, Europe cannot afford to cut back on its entitlements without risking a continental wide riot.
You can bet that if we cut our defense budget, they’ll be the first to call us isolationists.
If the US is gong to be the standing army for Europe, then Europe should pay; if they won’t, then a periodic dose of Putin might cause an attitude adjustment - or not.
Europe is rich enough to defend itself. If they want to be a province of Russia, that’s their choice.
America is under no obligation to protect Europe from its own laziness and lack of prudence.
I would have cut Europe off from the “free defense” gravy train a LONG time ago, the socialism there would have collapsed a lot sooner...
After the soviets fell I would have left Europe.
Why are we indirectly subsiding socialism in Europe anyways?
As much as it kills me, Obama is right. They need to provide for their own defense. They had 70 years to build up their defense and military strategies. If we move to protect them, they would call us war mongers. We can’t win either way.
Any/ALL POTUS and every Congress should issue the ultimatum: Kick it up to 3% and meet strict readiness and capability criteria set by the US JCS, or we’re withdrawing from the NATO treaty in five years.
In fairness to Obama NO ONE can convince the Europeans to pay for their own defense. That wonderful free universal health care isn’t cheap.