It’s not a philosophic question in my mind...but nonetheless it is a question for you...an American taxpayer...if you feel that if a rich Western country doesn’t want to contribute to it’s own defense because it sincerely believes that American taxpayers should pay...then fine, go ahead. But I suspect that President Trump was speaking for his base when he asked all of NATO to pay their commitment. As I said, no skin off my nose...
It truly will be amazing if Putin and his propaganda machine pulls off of the sleight of hand being parroted here, that somehow funding NATO is a waste of US taxpayer money. No American foreign spending is without strings that advance our interests, likely to some inconvenience of many recipients desirous of such aid. We always attach strings - and that's to just the "free" direct foreign aid. NATO funding has strings out the wazoo in that it commits
other dudes to fight and die for our interests - a lot of other dudes - but more fundamentally, it is blindingly obviously in our direct interests, unless one believes the post WW2 low-war, largely rules-based, largely America and Europe-led order is somehow against American interests.
This, really, is what Putin and his parrots and bots are trying to do: convince us that the world America excels in and (with NATO allies and diplomacy) keeps largely peaceful with a focus
against wars of conquest, and
for international diplomacy, commerce, and unprecedented cooperation since WWII ... is awful, and must be burnt down, and replaced with alternative they are demonstrating for us right now, in real time: dictatorship, massive lies, repeated military invasions (Ukraine ain't the first), publicly announced genocides ("Ukraine did not exist, Ukraine does not exist, Ukraine must not exist"), sham elections...
Of course, as part of accepting Putin and friends' new vision, rule of law gets in the way and must be removed ... in favor of the rule of one strong man, presumably one strongman per country (unless you live next to Russia - they will then loan you theirs!)
The question was asked, was The Former Guy speaking to his base, as quoted above, when he once again misrepresented NATO financial commitments? Absolutely - his base responds repeatedly to the "I'm a victim -
they are taking advantage of me" trope. A huge theme in his campaign last time, and continues to paint himself as the biggest victim of them all. I find it likely that they cheered and ate it up.
And of course, from the above quote, a "if a rich Western country doesn't want to contribute to its own defense" - a laughable falsehood / strawman.
Perhaps someone here can educate me on which NATO country has a 0% defense budget?
www.eurasiantimes.com
