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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, echoing his boss in Washington, warned on Wednesday that the amount of American support for NATO could depend on whether other countries meet their own spending commitments.
"Americans cannot care more for your children's future security than you do," Mr. Mattis said in his first speech to NATO allies since becoming defense secretary. "I owe it to you to give you clarity on the political reality in the United States and to state the fair demand from my country's people in concrete terms."
"America will meet its responsibilities," he said, but he made clear that American support had its limits.
In his speech to NATO defense ministers, Mr. Mattis repeated a call made by previous American secretaries of defense, for European allies to spend more on their militaries. His comments on Wednesday give teeth to President Trump's expressed skepticism about the alliance.
What's more, Mr. Mattis went further than his predecessors in apparently linking American contributions to the alliance to what other countries spend.
"If your nations do not want to see America moderate its commitment to this alliance, each of your capitals needs to show support for our common defense," he said.
Source: The New York Times
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:48AM
Its not ridiculously large. Defense the major Constitutional mandated responsibility of the US Government.
Its only about 3.6% of GDP [wikipedia.org].
If the US wasn't pulling the largest share in NATO [quoracdn.net] the defense budget wouldn't have to be so large.
No NATO country even even spends enough to defend its own territory from even a small attack except the US, Germany, and maybe the UK.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.