I’ll bold the relevant parts (and capitalize the EXTRA RELEVANT ARITHMETIC part):
"At the Wales Summit in 2014, NATO leaders agreed to reverse the trend of declining defence budgets and decided:
-Allies currently meeting the 2% guideline on defence spending will aim to continue to do so;
-Allies whose current proportion of GDP spent on defence is below this level will halt any decline; aim to increase defence expenditure as GDP grows; and will move toward the 2% guideline within a DECADE."
… You have no idea how NATO functioned during the Cold War, have you ?
Thank you.
So the Europeans, in time, will meet their obligations that they agreed to in 2006.
I suppose not. Did Europe have no military in that era?
And they are currently meeting their current obligations, which were revised in 2014. Thus, Trump’s rhetoric is bullshit.
Damn. I was sure I’d left some goalposts around here. Maybe I left them in my other pants.
[The underpayment by other countries of their defense obligations] “is unfair to the American people and taxpayers.”
of course means the multi-millionaires and the taxpayers.
That will still be 18 years of underpayment for most of NATO. Just because they are correcting it, supposedly, doesn’t mean they aren’t currently underpaying.
I haven’t studied the issue of NATO countries spending the required amount on defense. But I would just like to say that if there’s one thing Donald Trump simply will not abide, it’s countries that try to renege on international agreements. I think we can applaud him for that.
It’s only a matter of time until photo ops begin looking like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&t=40s&v=Teya0rAL36Y
Way to win friends and influence people, Mr. President!
Yeesh.
ICE agents eat breakfast, compliment chef, then arrest 3 workers at Michigan restaurant.
That is some cold shit right there.
Or possibly he’d say he wasn’t willing to spend one red dime to defend a space on a Monopoly board.
Those suckers do move fast.
Quick - there they go! After them!
Seriously, if the Big Orange Russian Agent took a dump on the Resolute Desk, you’d find a way to praise him for it. What a brilliant move! It saves him the time to go to the men’s room! Brilliant!
What a fucking boor. Shoves one leader aside to mug for the camera. Insults the Germans. Calls the other nations freeloaders. What an embarrassment for humanity and indeed all carbon based life forms.
So, the headline pisses me off enough, but in the story, you also see that they arrested and handcuffed another person, until he managed to show them his permanent resident card.
Sounds less targeted enforcement, and more of a racially biased dragnet.
Arrest all those who do not look like they should be here, and then make them prove they have a right to be. How long till that makes mistakes, where permanent resident or even citizens are fast track deported because they forgot to carry their papers that day.
I can’t wait until those European moochers meet their military spending obligations so America can slash its bloated defense budget, said no one. Wait, nevermind, Russia is a decaying power with the GDP of Italy, they’re no threat at all. No, wait, Russia is a superpower posed to prey on poor, defenseless Europe and they’re hacking everybody! Don’t cross the narrative streams.
What? You’re obviously confused.
“Underpayment” based on Trump’s bullshit? Perhaps. Based on the real world and facts? I don’t think so. You can choose what to believe.
What if they didn’t like the level of protection NATO was offering? Why should they have to pay?