The head of the NATO military alliance has urged member countries to stop cutting their defense budgets in response to tough economic times, claiming reductions in military spending will undermine security, reports The Associated Press.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the fact that several countries in the alliance that are making cuts is “a matter of concern.”
“My appeal to governments is, firstly, hold the line, stop the cuts,” Fogh Rasmussen said.
While the comments were aimed at all member countries, the NATO chief was almost certainly referring to the United States, with looming sequestration cuts of $500 billion over ten years set to be imposed.
Europe has benefitted greatly from US membership in NATO, as Washington disproportionately subsidizes their defense. The US contributes about a quarter of NATO’s entire budget, for all of 28 member states.
“In reality, NATO could not pay its bills without the United States, much less conduct serious military operations,” writes Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. “American alliance policy has become a form of foreign aid.”
While the alliance is a drain on US taxpayers, the power centers in Washington benefit from the geo-political heft NATO affords.
Starve them. Only crippling sanctions could bring NATO to-the-table.
Disband it totally. It is just a front for profiteering war mongers.
Starve your people.., but don't make any defense cuts…, starve your people because this man knows that there is more war for NATO yet to be conducted, starve your people because this man knows that he is the Neo fascism ruling a military regime from Denmark and in north is his brothers and sisters governing the modernized version of the Swedish Neo fascism.
I would remind this joker who currently heads NATO that "NATO" is an acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was not created for and has no business waging war on the other side of the planet from the North Atlantic. If NATO could just confine itself to its treaty obligations of mutual defense of North Atlantic nations, there would be ample funding for that function. Norway is not under attack from Afghanistan; never has been and never will be. Get an honest job, punk.
Who are NATO defending against? A nearly bankrupt Russia with it's declining population crumbling infrastructure and shrinking industrial base?
I think what these generals have figured out is: If we make peace and nobody dies they become irrelevant, whereas if we have a war where 150 million are killed, they become even more important than they are now.
He was fired as a tax minister because he lied to Parliament and was "creative" with his costs. Later he became PM and lied us into Iraq. Now he is telling even more and worse lies: The US missiles in Eastern Europe are to defend us from Iran ! The Russians aren´t stupid. They´ll install Launch On Warning by 2017 and we´ll commit Suicide soon. AFR is a bloody fool.