NATO & the Trump Factor
- Thread starter Ocean Breeze
- Start date
Spanky claims the NATO members who are below 2% GDP spending have agreed to get up to 2% before 2024, which he claims is a big victory.
Here's the relevant text from the Brussels Summit Declaration:
"All Allies have started to increase the amount they spend on defence in real terms and some two-thirds of Allies have national plans in place to spend 2% of their Gross Domestic Product on defence by 2024."
So the question becomes, is Spanky a liar or a fool?
Not that he can't be both, mind.
Here's the relevant text from the Brussels Summit Declaration:
"All Allies have started to increase the amount they spend on defence in real terms and some two-thirds of Allies have national plans in place to spend 2% of their Gross Domestic Product on defence by 2024."
So the question becomes, is Spanky a liar or a fool?
Not that he can't be both, mind.
He's deranged. He should be proud of how an economic powerhouse like Greece is already meeting the target.
I kind of doubt he can simply announce a commitment such as that.
I believe that has to go through parliament.
Definitely BOTH No question about thatg one.
(the only other explanation is SENILITY or some kind of brain disorder )
I do believe that is when we will find out whether he was or was not lying to Canadians, he will not to loose face in the fall session
That's a good one!
The Greeks are reaching their target with bail-out monies from those dead-beat Germans.
Under-performing? I would say given our higher than average casualty rate in Afghanistan that it was completely the opposite. The military is more than just a percent of GNP; it is also how that military is used.
ROD LIDDLE Donald Trump is dead right… it’s up to us, and not the US, to pay for our defence
The US President is right to call out Europe and Canada for not paying their fair share for their military but expecting to be looked after
Comment
By Rod Liddle
12th July 2018
SOMETIMES, in foreign relations, you need to act with tact and diplomacy.
Then on other occasions, you need someone to wade in with a huge sledgehammer and smash everything up. Sometimes that’s the only way to sort stuff out.
Donald Trump gave Nato chiefs a dressing down during talks
That’s what the US President Donald Trump is doing right now with his Nato allies. And it’s a mighty big sledgehammer.
In the firing line is Angela Merkel, of Germany. And the other countries that are backsliding on their commitment to the civilised world’s safety and security.
Trump thinks — and he’s right — that for far too long Europe and Canada have not been paying their share for our military defence.
The Germans pay nowhere near enough. But even worse are the Belgians.
Incredibly, Canada, led by that simpering idiot Justin Trudeau, spends scarcely more than one per cent of its GDP on defence. One of the richest countries on the world. The Spanish, as you might expect, pay four fifths of sod all. LESS than one per cent.
Trump seemed to be getting along well with Croatia's President
Trump is telling them all they cannot depend on America any more. The US spends 3.5 per cent of its enormous GDP on the military. Much more than any other country in Nato.
And as a consequence, Western Europe (and Canada) has been safe for decades. It was US military spending which led to the end of the Cold War and ultimately the break up of the “evil empire”, the Soviet Union.
So where do we stand in all this? We spend more per head than our European partners, Estonia and Greece excepted. But still just the bare minimum of two per cent of GDP.
And for years now we’ve been reducing our defence budgets. Cutting our armed services to the bone. Take the Royal Navy. In the 36 years since the Falklands War the number of warships we possess has reduced by a staggering 74 per cent.
The US President claimed May's government was in 'turmoil'
We now have a Navy which is 25 per cent smaller than it was in 1650 — when we had only a tenth of our current population. We were once a great maritime power. Today we’d do well to win a naval battle against Luxembourg — and that’s landlocked.
Military spending does not create wars. It does the opposite. It makes them much, much less likely.
The Falklands War against Argentina occurred because we had cut our spending on the Navy to the point where we no longer defended the far-flung islands. The Argies saw their chance and invaded.
Luckily we still had a big enough Navy to respond and win back the freedom for the Falklanders. We couldn’t even dream of doing the same thing now.
Mr Trump will leave the Nato summit to visit the UK today
Meanwhile, the RAF has seen its number of combat aircraft cut by more than one third in less than ten years. We now have just 149.
You probably saw them during the flypast on Tuesday, if you live in London. That was the lot. That’s it.
The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens. The US does that and we should do so, too — never mind the backsliding Europeans.
The world is no less of a dangerous place than it was 30 or 60 years ago. Trump has got this absolutely right.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6757300/nato-cant-depend-on-us-anymore/
The US President is right to call out Europe and Canada for not paying their fair share for their military but expecting to be looked after
Comment
By Rod Liddle
12th July 2018
SOMETIMES, in foreign relations, you need to act with tact and diplomacy.
Then on other occasions, you need someone to wade in with a huge sledgehammer and smash everything up. Sometimes that’s the only way to sort stuff out.
Donald Trump gave Nato chiefs a dressing down during talks
That’s what the US President Donald Trump is doing right now with his Nato allies. And it’s a mighty big sledgehammer.
In the firing line is Angela Merkel, of Germany. And the other countries that are backsliding on their commitment to the civilised world’s safety and security.
Trump thinks — and he’s right — that for far too long Europe and Canada have not been paying their share for our military defence.
The Germans pay nowhere near enough. But even worse are the Belgians.
Incredibly, Canada, led by that simpering idiot Justin Trudeau, spends scarcely more than one per cent of its GDP on defence. One of the richest countries on the world. The Spanish, as you might expect, pay four fifths of sod all. LESS than one per cent.
Trump seemed to be getting along well with Croatia's President
Trump is telling them all they cannot depend on America any more. The US spends 3.5 per cent of its enormous GDP on the military. Much more than any other country in Nato.
And as a consequence, Western Europe (and Canada) has been safe for decades. It was US military spending which led to the end of the Cold War and ultimately the break up of the “evil empire”, the Soviet Union.
So where do we stand in all this? We spend more per head than our European partners, Estonia and Greece excepted. But still just the bare minimum of two per cent of GDP.
And for years now we’ve been reducing our defence budgets. Cutting our armed services to the bone. Take the Royal Navy. In the 36 years since the Falklands War the number of warships we possess has reduced by a staggering 74 per cent.
The US President claimed May's government was in 'turmoil'
We now have a Navy which is 25 per cent smaller than it was in 1650 — when we had only a tenth of our current population. We were once a great maritime power. Today we’d do well to win a naval battle against Luxembourg — and that’s landlocked.
Military spending does not create wars. It does the opposite. It makes them much, much less likely.
The Falklands War against Argentina occurred because we had cut our spending on the Navy to the point where we no longer defended the far-flung islands. The Argies saw their chance and invaded.
Luckily we still had a big enough Navy to respond and win back the freedom for the Falklanders. We couldn’t even dream of doing the same thing now.
Mr Trump will leave the Nato summit to visit the UK today
Meanwhile, the RAF has seen its number of combat aircraft cut by more than one third in less than ten years. We now have just 149.
You probably saw them during the flypast on Tuesday, if you live in London. That was the lot. That’s it.
The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens. The US does that and we should do so, too — never mind the backsliding Europeans.
The world is no less of a dangerous place than it was 30 or 60 years ago. Trump has got this absolutely right.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6757300/nato-cant-depend-on-us-anymore/
Meanwhile, the RAF has seen its number of combat aircraft cut by more than one third in less than ten years. We now have just 149.
You probably saw them during the flypast on Tuesday, if you live in London. That was the lot. That’s it.
That, unfortunately, is what will happen to any country that purchases the budget-busting F-35. You purchase that weapons stystem and there is nothing left in the kitty for anything else. What a potential strategic disaster, that plane is.
For what Harper was willing to pony up for the new gene fighters Canada could have world leading fire fighting and sar aircraft that would save Canadian lives and be of actual value to Canadians for decades to come.
The U.S. will never leave or abandon NATO. They intend to leave the United Nations and police the world through NATO.
It was only after America formed NATO that they could begin to call America "The Leader Of The Free World".
America just wants NATO members to purchase more American made military equipment.
It was only after America formed NATO that they could begin to call America "The Leader Of The Free World".
America just wants NATO members to purchase more American made military equipment.
That too. But I was thinking more the fact that the Greek government lacks the wherewithal to understand that it should have more important priorities right now than to spend that much money on its military. Notice how most of the states that aren't meeting the target are economically far better off than Greece or even the US for that matter?
The US may have a strong military, but at what economic cost?