After fueling a lot of tensions with his comments during the 2016 campaign that NATO is an obsolete alliance, President Trump today declared that the alliance is “no longer obsolete” following meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Though Trump presented this in part as NATO having capitulated to his demands for the alliance to be reorganized around fighting against ISIS, the comments will also be seen in the context of soaring tensions between the US and Russia.
NATO was, after all, designed to fight the Soviet Union, and Trump’s comments on obsolescence were in the context of his call for improved US-Russia relations. Now that he seems firmly on the side of further hostility toward Russia, it appears to shore up his view of NATO.
But while Trump offered “praise” to some extent in saying the alliance was obsolete, he continued to complain about a number of members who don’t “pay what they owe” and “meet their financial obligations,” continuing to press for all NATO members to spend at least 2% of their GDP.
Despite presenting this as an obligation, there is nothing within the rules of NATO to compel members to spend so much, and many nations have openly refused to spend 2% of their GDP, despite the Trump Administration continuing to hype that as a goal.
Of course the UN is more obsolete well the problem of Veto, the US cannot be sanctioned for their use of weapons in Syria, for their funding supplying materiel and training of Terrorists like Al Nusra Front (AL Qaeda in Iraq), just as the US complains that Russia uses the veto to stop actions related to Syria. America is complaining of the seven or so veto actions that Russia has put in place in relation to Syria, of course the US has put literally hundreds of vetoes in relation to Israel, Time for the stopping of the veto for every one, and an action which has one of the five permanent members of the security council dealt with exclusively by the full UN general council!
campaign speech: Nato is obsolete.
Today: Nato isn’t obsolete
campaign speech: China is a currency manipulater
Today: China isn’t a currency manipulater
Two big ones fall in one day!
Once again bringing home to the Trump supporting mutts that Trump knew about as much as a 6 year old kid on foreign policy when he was shooting his mouth off.
Or maybe he knew there was an audience for that in this election and he decided to capture it.
No doubt he did know he could capture the hearts and minds of lowlife hillbillies who would grasp the message. But I’m saying that he was saying that which he actually believed in his ignorance of the real world.
I think we’ve moved past the point of debating that now. Let’s not go back and encourage Raimondo to go back with ‘his’ audience.
There are plenty of well-educated Americans who supported and who still support Trump.
This proves that like Iran, America has it’s own “revolutionary council” which has veto power over any deal made between an elected official and the voters. Blowing away whatever was left of the illusion that electorate can have any influence on the nation’s most critical & resource consuming policy direction.
Does anyone honestly believe it would have ended differently with another candidate who proposed significant departures, say Buchanan or Paul from the Right, or Gabbard from the left?
I’m not even sure which explanation is more depressing: that Trump has been subjected to some epic arm-twisting behind the scenes, or that he was phony all along, only allowed to stay in the nomination process based on guarantees he’d do a U-turn once elected.
Either way the conclusion is the same: The democracy of our countries is little more than a reality show with the script written in the backrooms. It is only fitting that a reality show actor & producer is the President who’s election drives the point home.
Obsolete means no longer useful for its designed purpose. At the time when Trump made his “obsolete” statement NATO was in charge of fighting the Taliban. Trump never demanded that this allegedly obsolete organization recall its troops from Afghanistan. Inference: more bs from an immensely ignorant man.
NATO will be obsolete when France and Italy leave.
….And just in time for World War 3! What a convenient and total coincidence!
Repeat after Rick: ” Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down… never gonna run around, NATO, and hurt you. Never gonna say goodbye, never gonna make you cry, never gonna tell a lie or desert you”…