Posted on 07/03/2018 10:27:26 AM PDT by Olog-hai
2 % of ALL NATO countries is a lot.
It means we can finally withdraw from the NATO treaty. And, bring all persons and assets/costs home.
2ACR has been doing regular training exercises in Poland for several years now.
They'd just laugh at it, or worse, agree and then not perform as they have up to now. Our spending is 3.57% of GDP. But even at the 2% they pledged only five nations have lived up to it: the U.S, Greece, the UK, Estonia, and Poland.
The problem is that your 5% might not actually be a bad number - defense investment won't happen in a single year, and it will take several above that target to make up for the neglect of years past. Short of an extant external threat I don't see it happening. I do see an increase in the U.S. withdrawal that's been going on for years now. Bitburg closed down last year and Ramstein can't be far off. And moving assets to Poland from Germany turns out to be the easiest and cheapest move to make.
We simply have a fundamental disagreement with our erstwhile allies as to the proper and necessary rate of defense spending, and that's fine - perhaps they won't need defense against external threats (that has, historically, been a disastrous bet to make) and stubbornly refuse to recognize the internal threat they're merrily importing. So they learn the hard way. Not our problem anymore.
[We don’t need to import anything, when it comes down to it.]
Leave NATO.
Leave western Europe.
“As to “provoking” the Russians, I can’t think of a worse policy than allowing seizure of territory from Ukraine and tearing up the arms control treaties in Europe (INF and Conventional Forces treaties) without consequences.”
We pulled out of the ABMD treaty first. So the Russkies were well within their rights to follow suit.
As far as the Ukraine - their actions appear outrageous in light of 20th century history. But in reality those sections of the Ukraine are (unfortunately) majority Russian culture and they didn’t want any part of a newly elected but painfully far left central government. Taken in that light I can understand Russia taking the action they did.
I can live with the treaties and the Ukraine. The big issue for me is Iran.
NATO is worthless and has no mission that is directly a priority for the United States when it comes to Western Europe. We need alliances with Eastern Europe. Western Europe can keep bending the knee to Islam and Multiculturalism while poking Russia.
I’ll give you that, but that can be dealt with. We don’t have to import natural gas, coal, food or pretty much any goods. What do the countries of the EU export that we need, that we can’t live without? Especially now, with their embrace of the savages from the ME and Africa, all their money is going to them.
“Set up partnerships with the Eastern European bloc: Poland, Hungary, etc. Let the man-bun liberals of Western Europe have their intervention force. They’ll be swallowed up by Russia in no time.”
Also, I question whether the Russians have the ability, even if Germany was right on their border...they cannot even finish off Ukraine or a bunch of ragheads in Syria.
Actually, internal moral weakness killed Rome more than its empire, whereas it was superior moral fortitude that aided in building the empire.
Also, it’s erroneous to infer that we have an empire per se. Remember that George Washington said “[i]f we desire to secure peace … it must be known that we are at all times ready for war”, so if we shrink our footprint now, that means peace slips away, as was proven during Obama’s eight years.
That gives the EU what it wants most. And they will get more belligerent.
We Canadians have been calling for increases for decades now. The Chretien liberals decimated our military, and Harper barely brought it up to snuff - too little and too late. And now the shiny pony has no plans to restore us to military credibility. Thanks Trump for outlying what a joke our military commitment is in this country.
Definitely need to help Eastern Europe. They are smashed between the expansionist policies of Putin and the globalist agenda of Western Europe. Nix NATO and create a alliance of the willing - USA, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, possible Austria.
Good points, but I’m thinking, in your scenario, they’ll just loop North, Finland-Sweden-Norway-Western Europe. All those countries are dealing with the muslim and african scourge and have allowed themselves to be overwhelmed. Hell, the Germans were training wooden sticks a while back.
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