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: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 19 2017, @07:27AM
Letting aside NATO is a military alliance (would you really want a military organization interfere in commerce? What's next? NATO banning marijuana?), here are some facts:
- Germany's arms export to EU7.5B [dw.com]
- France's arms exports to EU16.9B [iiss.org]
- Britain now the second largest arm dealer [independent.co.uk] - selling arms to «39 of the 51 countries ranked “not free” on the Freedom House "Freedom in the world" report, and 22 of the 30 countries on the UK Government’s own human rights watch list.»
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 19 2017, @02:50PM
They could interfere in military commerce, sure.
If they can't stop the selling of arms, how can they possibly stop war? Warring countries want to buy, selfish countries want to sell: NATO steps in and says no, warring countries have to resort to clubs, NATO stops the war.
But this won't happen because of the money selfish countries (read corrupted governments) can make.
Too bad: Earth could be such a nice place to live, except for the money you can make from people dying.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---