Next week’s NATO summit in Brussels in going to be another round of pushes by US officials, led by President Trump, for other members to increase military spending. President Trump has been writing threatening letters making the rounds to those nations.
The long and short of the narrative is that the US cannot, and will not, be “the world’s piggy bank” in providing defense for all these other NATO nations who aren’t spending at the same level as the US.
Those other nations have long resisted US demands to get spending up to 2% of GDP annually. The resistance is likely to continue, with some nations already pushing back ahead of the summit, saying they are already spending at levels they feel comfortable with.
President Trump’s options are limited in pressing most of these NATO nations, who don’t have any real enemies on their frontiers, and don’t have the ability to increase their military spending substantially without breaking their budgets.
Belgian PM Charles Michel, one of the leaders who will be pressed to raise spending, downplayed Trump’s letter, saying it was “typical” of what happens ahead of NATO summits. That’s likely the case, and neither Belgium nor the others are likely to agree to such increases.
Can we just get out of NATO already?
It would be nice if Trump wanted to get out of NATO because it’s obsolete and not because the other members won’t pay their fair share. It’s the same with him being against the second Iraq war as though he was some kind of anti-war crusader when in fact he told Howard Stern that we should have done it right the first time. But hey, that just might be my TDS that’s influencing my thinking.
He could be using this issue as a pretence to bring the reputation of NATO down. The elites don’t want to see it go as it chips away at their power and finances. There’s always hope.
I wish I could agree but everything seems to be about the bottom line with him. Bragging about arms sales to wretched Saudis comes to mind.
The bottom line is all that matters.
The unfortunate Marxist legacy is the deliberate economic lobotomization of the Left and shearing of socialist thought from its classic liberal roots.
They are left with a limited understanding of how the bottom line can be weaponized and doomed to long-term defeat trying to implement their agenda.
The Left will always run out of other people’s money before the other guy does.
“Yeah, I guess so. I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
“I wish the first time it was done correctly.” translates to “I don’t like it one bit.” That’s either opposition or at best unwilling support. (“Unwilling support” is what “patriots” feel compelled to do when they don’t really like what’s going on.) But no one wants to look that closely at his comments from the Howard Stern show. They just want to spin it — “Yeah, I guess so.” — according to their own agenda.
Assess for yourself Trump’s level of support/enthusiasm for the Iraq war. But take into consideration that this was the one and only time he did not voice his unequivocal opposition.
Get over it.
I don’t translate “I wish the first time it was done correctly” into “I don’t like it one bit”. I translate that into “The first war wasn’t done right”. Period. Maybe if he would have said that the first invasion was just as bad as the second and neither was necessary I would have taken that to mean he didn’t “like it one bit”. You are the one trying to spin it into something that fits your distorted view of Trump. Same with NATO. Come right out and say that NATO lost it’s relevance when the Soviet Union imploded instead of constantly bit**ing about others not paying their fair share.
I wouldn’t even bring it up if wasn’t continuously brought up by his supporters as “unequivocal” proof that he is a non- interventionist. In the meantime he’s trying to destroy Iran’s economy which I’m sure will be spun into some kind of Trumpian brilliance.
If the USA did not make so many enemies it would not need the excessive “defense” spending which ensures that real needs in the USA are not funded-health, environment, infrastructure,education cast aside for wars of choice.
To pretend the USA is helping the rest of us by its belligerence and that we must pay more for the obsolete NATO which allegedly protected us from the commies in the USSR which is no longer there is monstrous.
Disbanding NATO makes a lot more sense than trying to kill the WTO.
NATO-WTO-IMF, they are all WTF interconnected.
Destroy IMF, cancel all onerous debts, and let countries decide by themselves how to run their economies. That would arrest migrations Out of Africa and return their economies to sustainable levels. Today’s finance driven models of “de-development” have caused already enormous damage.
Yes, Trump may wish to give a boost to dollar through all these antics. But there is no more money available to economies, as most goes into debt repayments and the profits into finsncial instruments and shares buybacks.
We are in the era of tulip bulb demand. But out if US EU orbit, there is a push for production, and thise that sold to US markets are suffering. This is why South Korean exports today are higher to China then US.
Now, you’re talking, Bianca, destroy IMF, cancel all debts, and allow countries decide by themselves how to run their economies; that would certainly arrest migrations out of Africa and return their economies to sustainable levels. As you said, today’s finance driven models of “development” have already enormous damage.
We’re in the era of tulip bulb demand; but out of US EU orbit, there’s a push for production, and those that are sold to US markets are suffering, this is why S. Korean exports today are higher to China than the US.
Part of the money shortage is global depopulation; people are getting older and living longer, but not making enough new replacement producers who can be consumers for fleecing by the parasite elites.
Extreme labour exploitation and inflating currencies by debt instruments doesn’t help, but like the more real economy, financialization success was dependent on an obsolete growth model. The emergence of buybacks and debt instruments is some part a reflection of less real money creation, although the ratio of symptom to source of the problem is unclear.
Emerging markets elites are more than happy to choose to be corrupt and not entirely blameless. The West is guilty of gaming too far a natural tendency they themselves enjoy against their own working classes.
The U.S. IS the world’s piggy bank a.k.a. global tax haven. Or at least gunning hard for top spot over Switzerland and Singapore.
The U.S. stock market ain’t doing too shabby either, despite claims to the contrary and hyping of emerging markets.
“Forget Panama: it’s easier to hide your money in the US than almost anywhere” – Jana Kasperkevic, Wed. Ap. 6 2016, TheGurardian. com
“US overtakes Caymans and Singapore as haven for assets of super-rich” – Simon Bowers, Mo. Nov.2 2015m TheGuardian. com
“America’s leadership of the global stock market is ending” – Akin Oyedele, Apr. 4, 2017, BusinessInsider. com
Of course NATO countries already know this and Trump’s seemingly disconjunctive tweet is meant to be read between the lines from rose-coloured ’70s era shades.
“Enforcing Dollar Hegemony: Only Thing New About Trump’s Economic Wars Are Tweets” – F. William Engdahl, Jun. 30, 2018, GlobalResearch. ca