The End of NATO?

President Trump openly and undiplomatically hammered NATO members for failing to pay the portion of GDP toward defense that the treaty specified.  The US has shouldered the majority of European defense since the end of World War II.  Of course, NATO was formed as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, which collapsed over a quarter of a century ago.  Why not declare victory and go home?

 

With Russia supposedly a rising power, the US needs to stay in Europe to protect the West from Putin.  Failure to do so just proves that Trump is Putin's stooge!  Really?  It might come as a surprise that the German economy is more than 2 1/2 times the size of Russia's.  The UK is 2.1 times as large.  France's economy is double.  Italy is 1.5 times the Russian economy.  As a whole, the European Union has a Gross Domestic Product that is 13 times the size of the Russian economy.  The EU can easily dominate Russia but has instead mostly disarmed to maintain generous nanny states, outsourcing defense to the US taxpayer.  To top it off, we have trade deficits with most of them.  With allies like these...

 

27 years after the Cold War ended, there is no reason for the United States to still be defending Europeans from an economic backwater.  Worse, Europe is funding Russia by getting 40% of its energy from Putin.  Germany's dependence on Russian oil and gas is higher still.  Russia is a vital trade partner to modern Europe but NATO was formed to be anti-Russian.

 

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.  Government programs, once launched, never disappear.  Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

Ronald Reagan

 

NATO is an expensive ($946 billion in 2017) relic of the Cold War, a governmental bureaucracy that completed its purpose but failed to close up shop.  Let's stick around for the 'attack on one is an attack on all' but nix the shared funding bit.  It's one thing to agree to come to your neighbor's aid if he is attacked and another to be unpaid security while he has a party.  The EU is a nuclear power (UK and France) and can afford to pay for its defense.  We'll be there if needed but it's time for them to pay the day to day costs.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
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