G7 minus 1

[TreeFrogTrader]

The UN should be moved to Saudi Arabia, where it could actually do some good. But, don’t get OptionPro mixed up. NATO a defensive pact (hint, hint OP) and the cornerstone of peace in modern western civilization while the UN is useless outside of the Middle East and Africa.

It has all become goofy and is long overdue for a re-think. Both the UN and NATO.

There is also a lot of "double-squeezing" - made-up word- of the U.S. Clearly we fund the lion's share of all the World Health and emergency food type operations of the UN - yet when there is any type of problem anywhere in the world involving food or health or migrant conditions the U.S is hammered in the public arena for not contributing more and more and more or else we are portrayed has heartless, capitalist pigs- even though we have "already given at the office" bigly. And it is just part of the global culture that we do not even bother to ask china- who crows about their strong world economy everyday- to take more refugees or contribute more to the UN. They dont do that and we are supposed to respect that I guess.

And yes, the UN is sort of an africa/mid-east thing now and yes NATO is a defense operation and not the UN and so on. As I said though, it gets goofy and they both need a re-think. We recently had an offensive operation conducted in the overthrow of Libya. Not sure where the "defense" was in that offensive operation, nor am I sure when exactly the Mediterranean became part of the North Atlantic.

 

[UsualName]

If there is anything blatantly inaccurate then the MSM will pick it up and will be splashing their front pages with it. But it would most likely be by design.

Trump is the master MSM troll, and MSM keeps covering him exactly like he wants to be covered. He gives them so much to 'cover', MSM cannot keep up.

Where is the 'inaccuracy'? And please advice the MSM of it as soon as you can....

Lawdy,Germany pays less than 2% GDP toward its defense spending, not NATO funding. Trump has a fundamental misunderstanding of NATO, itself. It’s fine and common among everyday citizens but when you’re the president those types of statements make you look stupid. And besides, we already took a ride on this carousel when Trump was first elected to office. NATO has an operating budget of about $1.5 billion or so, what is at its heart is the common defense the pact assures.

I know this is going to most likely breeze right by you but it shows Trump isn’t speaking at the same level as the rest of the western countries leaders. It’s embarrassing.

He has a point about spending on defense, though. If the Europeans were meeting their goals then Putin would most likely not be hopscotching around the globe fucking everything up. He would have to stay home to concentrate more on protecting his power.

 

[UsualName]

It has all become goofy and is long overdue for a re-think. Both the UN and NATO.

There is also a lot of "double-squeezing" - made-up word- of the U.S. Clearly we fund the lion's share of all the World Health and emergency food type operations of the UN - yet when there is any type of problem anywhere in the world involving food or health or migrant conditions the U.S is hammered in the public arena for not contributing more and more and more or else we are portrayed has heartless, capitalist pigs- even though we have "already given at the office" bigly. And it is just part of the global culture that we do not even bother to ask china- who crows about their strong world economy everyday- to take more refugees or contribute more to the UN. They dont do that and we are supposed to respect that I guess.

And yes, the UN is sort of an africa/mid-east thing now and yes NATO is a defense operation and not the UN and so on. As I said though, it gets goofy and they both need a re-think. We recently had an offensive operation conducted in the overthrow of Libya. Not sure where the "defense" was in that offensive operation, nor am I sure when exactly the Mediterranean became part of the North Atlantic.

You and I aren’t that far apart on this stuff.

But the idea that we should go around undermining NATO allies and NATO itself for petty squabbles is foolish, though. NATO is directly important to our way of life.

 

[AAAintheBeltway]

The UN should be moved to Saudi Arabia, where it could actually do some good.

This kind of occasional burst of sanity, and humor, is what keeps you off ignore.

 

[AAAintheBeltway]

But the idea that we should go around undermining NATO allies and NATO itself for petty squabbles is foolish, though. NATO is directly important to our way of life.

NATO was formed as a defense alliance during the Cold War. It's raison d'etre vanished after Reagan won the Cold War and the Soviet Union disappeared. A lot of cushy jobs and prestigious posts were threatened however, not to mention bloated defense spending, so pols on both sides of the Atlantic desperately tried to maintain the illusion that NATO remained essential. Our eagerness to retain it exceeded the Europeans by a good margin, giving them leverage to use it against us in trade negotiations. After all, we wouldn't want to do anything to undermine our NATO allies, even as they ripped us off for 30 years and increasingly did not share our fundamental values.

Trump is the innocent pointing out the emperor has no clothes. The globalists' only response is to mock him as a crude ignoramus. How dare the US do what the Europeans routinely do and put its own interests first? How churlish of him.

 

[Tom B]

The Only 5 Countries That Meet NATO's Defense Spending Requirements

http://time.com/4680885/nato-defense-spending-budget-trump/


https://www.nato.int/cps/ic/natohq/topics_49198.htm

 

[UsualName]

NATO was formed as a defense alliance during the Cold War. It's raison d'etre vanished after Reagan won the Cold War and the Soviet Union disappeared. A lot of cushy jobs and prestigious posts were threatened however, not to mention bloated defense spending, so pols on both sides of the Atlantic desperately tried to maintain the illusion that NATO remained essential. Our eagerness to retain it exceeded the Europeans by a good margin, giving them leverage to use it against us in trade negotiations. After all, we wouldn't want to do anything to undermine our NATO allies, even as they ripped us off for 30 years and increasingly did not share our fundamental values.

Trump is the innocent pointing out the emperor has no clothes. The globalists' only response is to mock him as a crude ignoramus. How dare the US do what the Europeans routinely do and put its own interests first? How churlish of him.

I think the idea that NATO is no longer needed is common, even among the people that truly understand what NATO is. But, I think it’s like that time I went on vacation in the outer banks and I said I never needed the hurricane insurance on the rental before, why should I pay for it this time. Then sure as you would know, we were forced to evacuate 3 days in and I’m out about $7k.

My point is talking about reorganizing NATO is fine but at the core is something we, in the free world, need. Protection of our way of life.

Lastly, the only time article 5 was activated was September 11, 2001. If the western world fails to respond to an attack like 9/11 then we are surely doomed to suffer those types of attacks more frequently.

 

[Optionpro007]

Lawdy,Germany pays less than 2% GDP toward its defense spending, not NATO funding. Trump has a fundamental misunderstanding of NATO, itself. It’s fine and common among everyday citizens but when you’re the president those types of statements make you look stupid. And besides, we already took a ride on this carousel when Trump was first elected to office. NATO has an operating budget of about $1.5 billion or so, what is at its heart is the common defense the pact assures.

I know this is going to most likely breeze right by you but it shows Trump isn’t speaking at the same level as the rest of the western countries leaders. It’s embarrassing.

He has a point about spending on defense, though. If the Europeans were meeting their goals then Putin would most likely not be hopscotching around the globe fucking everything up. He would have to stay home to concentrate more on protecting his power.

My sincere apologies Mr UsualName. I didn't catch the 'inaccuracy' because I was very busy reading up on the meeting between Obama and Kim Jong-un on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula without firing one single bullet.
Oops , sorry I meant to say Hillary and KimJong-un..

Oops, again, so sorry, I meant Trump and Kim Jong-un....

 

[TreeFrogTrader]

Lastly, the only time article 5 was activated was September 11, 2001..

That may be but not invoking Article 5 is not a barrier to NATO action, as previously discussed in my reference to the NATO led invasion of Libya.

 

[UsualName]

My sincere apologies Mr UsualName. I didn't catch the 'inaccuracy' because I was very busy reading up on the meeting between Obama and Kim Jong-un on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula without firing one single bullet.
Oops , sorry I meant to say Hillary and KimJong-un..

Oops, again, so sorry, I meant Trump and Kim Jong-un....

It would be nice if North Korea denuclearized but we have seen these types shows by the North Koreans before. I’m hoping Trump can get it done but China, Russia and a lot of other bad actors benefit from that peninsula being unstable and is throwing money at it.

I’m sure we will have pay several pounds of flesh for true denuclearization. Trump has bonded himself up pretty tight with his Iran deal antics too. There are a lot of moving parts and most of them are not moving in our favor but “dum spiro spero.”

We can move on from the NATO thing...