Pulling The Weight
By Mitch Berg
Another campaign, another flap about Trump vs. NATO:
On the one hand, Trump’s rhetoric about NATO is…not “reckless”, so much as annoying.
On the other hand? At a policy level, Trump strenghened NATO – and his rhetorical, er, “unpredictability” seems to have caused America’s would-be enemies to sit out the aggression and wait for the US to change leadership to someone like, well, Obama and Biden.
But now, as in 2016, the NATO members complaining the hardest are the ones – like Germany – that didn’t get the actual message; hold up you end of the damn deal.
To be fair, Gemany’s spending has risen by something like 30% – although the Bundeswehr has thirty years of sloth to work off; the Luftwaffe’s fighter force at one point was 8% action-ready, the Army is a glorified Boy Scout troop that’s 1/6 of its 1992 size,
(And don’t think we’re not looking at you, Canada, whose Navy is about as old and decrepit as, well, the US’s current leader).
And then on the other hand there are the countries that didn’t need to get the message: Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the other former “Warsaw Pact” nations.
February 13th, 2024 at 12:46 pm
Tragedy of the commons, no? It strikes me that the most effective defense model out there seems to be that of the Swiss,where every able-bodied and non-criminal male is part of the militia. At least we know that for a couple of centuries, the most aggressive countries of history haven’t dared to attack the Swiss.
And as I look at our military budget–what is it, closing in on $800 billion annually for close to $3000 per person–it strikes me that the $2000 or so for each able bodied male to have a good rifle and body armor would be rather cheap in comparison. Replace city festivals with annual training…
February 13th, 2024 at 1:22 pm
It is a vital national security priority for the US to spend a trillion dollars a year to defend the borders of Latvia because…
Wait, what?
February 13th, 2024 at 3:53 pm
Anne Applebaum is a typical libidiot that doesn’t “understand how NATO works”. They are a bunch of grifters that get all expenses paid trips to New York, steal our tax money for their personal benefit, yet still refuse to contribute their country’s portion of defense spending, that some authorized representative of their country agreed to when NATO was formed. 99% of those countries have been in default since then.
February 13th, 2024 at 3:56 pm
Because in 1938, the world learned that history is a game of Pac-Man. Sooner or later, you have to stop the gobbling critter from eating the dots.
February 13th, 2024 at 5:55 pm
Greg FTW. If you know history, you know that sometimes the little nations have to get together to avoid being gobbled up by the big ones. Isolation worked very well prior to the steamship and supply chains going across oceans, but not since.
There are ways one can improve engagement and reduce the overall cost, but as long as we need trading partners and open sea lanes, we cannot ignore it altogether.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:09 am
[…] the hospital Shark Tank: Lee Introduces FISA Reforms To Prevent Politicization Shot In The Dark: Pulling The Weight, also, Mostly Legal STUMP: Taxing Tuesday – Getting SALTy The Political Hat: Legalizing […]
February 14th, 2024 at 6:18 am
A few years ago I overheard a guy at the range and started to chat with him. He was a sales rep in the firearms and accessories industry.
He says that the former Soviet countries are becoming the most equipped nations in the world. Both the individual and government units are buying arms, ammo, and equipment at a record pace. Much of the product that was supposed to end up in US markets but went to eastern Europe.
February 14th, 2024 at 8:43 am
I’m old enough to remember when the Vietnam War was justified using the same Domino Theory. What I’ve never understood is where it ends?
The Domino Theory says Russia conquers Latvia and when that first domino falls, Russia combines its forces with those conquered men and arms to attack Lithuania, and when that second domino falls, Russia combines its forces with those of Latvia and Lithuania to attack the next domino eventually ending in New York City. Okay, say that’s true. Logically, we must defend the border of Latvia. And Estonia. Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Kzakistan, Mongolia . . . anyplace that touches the border of The Great Evil Russia so they can’t topple the first domino.
And that assumes Russia is the only country that hates us and wants to destroy us. What about China? Or Iran?
I understand the theory but it’s like playing Risk. Can the United States defend every possible attack route through every possible combination of countries? Can we afford it?
February 14th, 2024 at 8:47 am
^ Ironic then that Vietnam, ruled by communists for 40 years, is now a fully integrated member of the globalised capitalist economy. The country approved the sale of its state-owned companies, struck a trade deal with the US, and finally hit a peak in 2006 when it was given membership of the World Trade Organisation, which meant it could reap yet more foreign investment and aid.
February 14th, 2024 at 9:35 am
Bigman, it’s worth noting that when Vietnam fell to the communists, Cambodia and Laos also fell. Thankfully, we’d strengthened Thailand and Malaysia enough so the cancer of Communism did not continue further.
If you look elsewhere around the world, the fall of Cuba to Communism led to Communist insurgencies in El Salvador, Nicaragua (successful for a time), Angola, Grenada, Columbia, and other countries. In Europe, the fall of Eastern Europe to Communism led to insurgencies in Greece, West Germany, and other places.
Elsewhere in the world, Communists and the new “revanchists” are heavily involved in Islamic insurgencies around the world, and Vladimir Putin characterizes the end of the USSR as a “catastrophe.” China is putting “bases” in the South China Sea and is relentlessly infronging on the sovereignty of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and other nations.
Lesson to learn for those who will learn it; There are some people out there who lead countries and don’t really care if their ambitions impoverish or kill people. Part of their strategy is to take regions that belong to others and to use the resources there to further the process, just like empires have done from time immemorial. Part of the strategy of freedom loving nations is to strategically resist these efforts.
February 14th, 2024 at 11:15 am
“Part of the strategy of freedom loving nations is to strategically resist these efforts.”
Sure, but do the residents of those nations under our protection have any obligation to step up and contribute to their own defense? That’s all Trump was asking them to do. Or once Uncle Sugar takes over national defense, are they free to spend the savings on perqs for elected officials?
Does the phrase “moral hazard” ever come into this discussion?
February 14th, 2024 at 12:07 pm
There are some people out there who lead countries and don’t really care if their ambitions impoverish or kill people.
Sounds like the DemoCommies here in MM and the US.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:08 pm
^ here in MN… dumbass.
February 14th, 2024 at 3:15 pm
McConnell knows he could have all the Ukraine funding he could ever want if he also funds America’s border and agrees to deport most illegals. But he doesn’t want […] to secure the American border in exchange for securing Ukraine’s.