Quote:
Originally Posted by dyna mo
relying on music videos on youtube isn't reliable.
?Europe?s decision to abdicate on defense spending increasingly means it can?t take care of itself...?
"Increasingly, without United States assistance, military experts said, Europe?s armed forces have trouble carrying out basic operations as its dwindling financial and political commitment has derailed multiple initiatives intended to make the continent more self-reliant.
The United States finances nearly three-quarters of NATO?s military spending, up from 63 percent in 2001. And yet among the alliance?s 28 nations, experts note, only the United States, Britain and Greece are meeting NATO?s own spending guidelines of 2 percent of gross domestic product. Even Britain and France ? the two leading European nations willing to project military might ? are slipping further. France says that by 2014 it may cut deeper still ? to just 1.3 percent of G.D.P., down from 1.9 percent this year. By comparison, the United States spent 4.8 percent of its G.D.P. on the military in 2011."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/wo...tiny.html?_r=0 |
Greece?!?!
I have said for a long time, and your article above further explored it, that our allies are more free to spend on social programs because we foot the bill on the military programs. People may like to think that they don't need military backing, but if that backing is gone, it's going to be a pretty scary outlook. Does not matter how peaceful your foreign policies are.
I read that article you posted yesterday about the guy running for PM in Britain. One of his keystones was nuclear disarmament. It's only lip service, but something like that would have an impact on our commitments as well.