Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Can NATO do anything anymore?

The Ukraine crisis has put NATO on center stage.    Can NATO put together enough soldiers, air power or any other kind of "power" to fight anybody?

The answer is "doubtful" because the West has cut back its defenses, as reported today by The Wall Street Journal:

"The combined GDP of NATO's 28 member states tops $30 trillion. 

Yet with few exceptions, most notably Poland, NATO defense expenditures have declined since the end of the Cold War. 

The nearby table shows the relative defense spending in 2013 for some key NATO countries as a share of GDP. 

Only four members—the U.S., U.K., Greece and Estonia—spent at least 2% of GDP on defense.   At 1.9%, France last year fell short of the 2% that is supposed to be the technical requirement for membership. 


Mr. Rasmussen's Denmark spent 1.4% of its GDP on defense, Angela Merkel's Germany 1.3%, Italy 1.2%, and Spain 0.9%. 
This is what a country spends if it thinks its main security threat is Belgium.
And the trend is down, as a majority of NATO members reduced defense spending in 2013. 
Among the more drastic defense cutters last year were Canada (7.6%), Slovenia (8.7%), Italy (10.3%), Hungary (11.9%) and Spain (11.9%)."
This is something that President Putin knows quite well.  The West has no weapons or will to fight!  

Maybe it's time for the US to remind the Europeans that NATO was created for mutual defense NOT to have the US do it all alone.
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