In his first day in office, Defense Secretary James Mattis called NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, assuring him of America’s unshakable “commitment” to the NATO alliance, which he called the most successful military alliance in modern world history.”
President Trump’s comments over the campaign, complaining the US was spending too much money defending other NATO nations, and suggesting the alliance was “obsolete,” had fueled outspoken criticism from NATO officials, as well as much of Europe.
Mattis appears to be trying to play peacemaker with NATO leadership, insisting that when the US needs support they “always start with Europe.” Tensions between Trump and Europe, however, are expected to endure for the time being, irrespective of such assurances.
The real test of US-NATO relations is likely to be the question of rapprochement with Russia, as any improvement in US-Russia ties will necessarily fuel complaints from European NATO members that they are being insufficiently pro-NATO by not continuing on with the new Cold War.
So far Trump looks like the new Obama. Who looked like the new Bush.
Not to me
Excellent comeback. You’re a wit and an intellect obviously.
Meet the new boss same as the old boss!
The most successful military alliance in modern history .Accept it is alliance for the NWO , the U.N., or the one world government . all of which I ‘am against . And I kind of thought Trump wanted to get rid of NATO . I call NATO the north American terrorist organization Now Russia and China have formed a Alliance to confront NATO when they attack countries . NATO attacked Yugoslavia , Iraq ,and Libya all for no good reason , did a lot of damage , and used a lot of propaganda and fake news to justify the destruction of these countries . I sure would like to see any beneficial thing NATO has done for anybody since 1990 . NATO is obsolete It is worse than obsolete it is a gang of criminals that should be put on trail for terrorism same as ISIS .
The causes for the foundation of NATO’s military aspects were more complex that merely the fear that Stalin’s T34 tanks would move Westward out of East Germany.
One of the major wars of the 19th century was between France and Germany/Prussia. Our nation was not involved. The two largest wars of the 20th century were triggered by the lingering effects of that 19th century war. This time many thousands of US soldiers were killed and maimed. NATO was definitely set up also to prevent yet another German-French revenge war.
After WW2 there was a clear signal in our nation of “not again”.
There is no evidence that Presidents Truman or Eisenhower intended NATO to get involved against the Chinese revolution, or the Hungarian uprising, or more recently Afghanistan and Syria that is to say worldwide. We could take care of that.The change probably began under JFK and accelerated under Reagan and Clinton.
Today there is no chance of another German-French war, Russia is not going to attack Westward, and NATO has been involved in mostly failed political and military actions elsewhere.
If Secretary Mattis cannot clearly define what today’s rational tasks of NATO are then it is indeed antiquated and ready for history’s garbage can. “A most successful military alliance” is not a rational justification for keeping NATO. It is a slogan.
Here we go with the backstabbing. Hopefully Trump will be able to get his agenda through so Mattis will end up looking like the fool he apparently is.
Rick, you’re the perfect Trumper!
Yep, NOVEMBER 16, 2016 Donald Trump Cabinet: Establishment Insiders and Neocons
Picking up where Bush and Obama left off? On Sunday The New York Times published a list of potential Trump administration cabinet picks. All of the candidates are establishment insiders and neocons left over from the Bush administration.
http://www.newsbud.com/2016/11/16/donald-trump-cabinet-establishment-insiders-neocons/
There just doesn’t seem to be any progress being made in convincing Americans that Nato is their legitimizing org which it uses to legitimize it’s wars. Probably because Americans are sticking to the lame idea that sprouted from Trump’s cakehole during his campaign speeches.
Now, it’s pretty obvious that Trump has been advised that he misspoke and he’ll have to reverse himself on that. By having Mattis do it for him is fine but it seems to be generating some confusion. As witnessed here in some of these comments in which an attempt is being made to separate Trump from Mattis.
Which at least serves to muddy the bigger picture in which all of Trump’s suggestions of better relations with Russia are quickly disappearing.
How long before Raimondo himself gives up on trying to keep the illusions afloat?