elpolacodesplegado, 4 months ago

@elCelio
"Buuuht dey ain't payin' nuff for American influence and American NATO Commanders." Also, the only ones paying in blood for America were European NATO allies in Afghanistan.

elCelio, 4 months ago

@elpolacodesplegado a lot US soldiers died too, along with Canadians and non-NATO allied soldiers from Australia, Georgia, New Zealand, and others.

my point is: the Allies of the USA came to help when the USA were attacked.

elpolacodesplegado, 4 months ago

@elCelio
My point is that the relationship has always had a transactional element, where US influence was bought by the provision of security. Of course, US personnel died in a war where America was attacked. But Trump's 2% argument overlooks that NATO was designed in a way where US influence was bought with security guarantees. Everytime I or my friends deployed, we were just there to be legitimizing token foreigners to a US war.

elCelio, 4 months ago

@elpolacodesplegado

of course I agree.

it's no coincidence that the NATO Supreme Military Commander is also the US Military Commander in Europe.

The 2% argument is stupid for two reasons: the 2% is not for NATO but for national militaries, and NATO depends on US leadership: it cannot and won't do anything without US political and military leadership. It's the seventh branch of the US military.

Even the EU mission in Bosnia uses NATO HQ (even if the EU commander is not from a NATO country).