NATO Chief thanks President Trump

TLK Valentine said:

Yes, but you don't have a throng of cheering supporters who would believe the sun rose and set on your word if you claimed it.

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Yeah, sure, rub it in, wontcha? I am EASILY as stable and super a genius as Donald Trump. But clearly the DEEEEEP STATE has it in for me. GRRRRR, Hillary.

theQuincunx5 said:

Trump is NOT going about this in a reasonable way. He's publically airing the complaints which only serves to do the bidding of Vladimir Putin to destabilize western alliances. Yes, other presidents have rankled at the burden sharing, but remember, WE wanted NATO from the beginning if only so that WE could control the various dangers inherent in Europe after WWII (eg a resurgent military in Germany AND holding back the Russians).

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Precisely. It was built to benefit the US in a number of ways - basing, providing mainland European allies with nuclear weapons in lieu of (with the exception of the UK and France) European nations building their own nuclear weapons to limit the overall number of nuclear weapon states. To say nothing of containing Russia, a country that frankly requires containment until it has better leadership.

For Trump to act like we are somehow put upon to "defend Europe" is absurd in the extreme. Our lives are made MUCH BETTER with a safer Europe and one in which we are the dominant military.

I'd be A-OK with Europe adding more to the pot but that was never really the end goal.

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Ditto. The problem is the flat out lying. The commitment was 2% by 2024. Not to belabour the obvious, but it is not 2024 yet. The commitment was also for defence spending generally, they are not funding NATO directly. The US spends more of its GDP on defence generally because they have commitments not just in Europe but elsewhere. To insist that countries that aren’t providing defensive umbrellas have to spend the same proportion of their GDP on defence as those that are is just silly. If a nation like France spends 4% of its GDP on defence, it will be spending proportionately far more on its own defence than the, y’know, superpower underpinning the alliance (the nation that set the alliance up in the first place) is.

brinny said:

Stellar.

Looks like President Trump got their attention.

It's about time somebody did.

Enough is enough.

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What is enough? This’ll be good.

TLK Valentine said:

As I said, while NATO was already on its way to achieving that target goal, Donald may have prodded along some of its slower members into picking up the pace. Now, if Donald wishes to take sole credit for it happening so he can crow about it to his base(which he does, and he is), that's no skin off NATO's nose; everyone gets what they want.

It's simple, really:

• The US is NATO's strongest member.
• Donald thrives on praise from his base.
• The US's policy is directed in no small part on Donald's mood at any given moment.
• ergo, a happy Donald means a cooperative US.

Really, it's win-win for everyone involved; NATO meets its goals; Donald gets something to boast about.

Gotta give credit to Stoltenberg for some shrewd diplomacy... and really, so do Donald's supporters, because it's the exact same type of diplomacy they've praised Donald for using on Kim Jong Un... only better.

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It’s also the same kind of diplomacy used by Kim Jong Un on Trump.

Gadarene said:

It’s also the same kind of diplomacy used by Kim Jong Un on Trump.

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True -- Stoltenberg learned "Donald Manipulation 101" from an expert.

Incidentally - why do Trumpets whinge and cry about having to pay for NATO, when the Trump admin keeps fearmongering over EU military cooperation, such as PESCO?

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/arti...-europe-go-its-own-way?cid=int-lea&pgtype=hpg

Isn’t this what you crybabies are after? Europe taking more responsibility for its own defence?