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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday February 18 2017, @09:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the open-yer-wallets dept.

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


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @10:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @10:09AM (#468909)

    "but by GDP the biggest spenders on the relevant Wikipedia page are Oman (16.2%) and Saudia Arabia (13.7%)."

    I'm not sure what point you are trying to make but by every metric you list, there is no NATO member spending more (GDP or per-capita) than the US which is Mattis' point.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Sunday February 19 2017, @03:18PM

    by zocalo (302) on Sunday February 19 2017, @03:18PM (#468947)
    My point was that while the US is consistently one of the largest spenders by any metric, they are not actually the largest spender in any other metric than total spend which, given the US has the largest GDP by far, perhaps isn't the best metric. I was basically furthering Frojack's point; a vast sum of money like the US defense budget needs some perspective, and with the right perspective it's not actually as much as it first seems. It's kind of like the parable about donations to a church - a billionaire might be able to shrug off a $100,000 gesture without missing a beat, but someone on the breadline who gives up a mere $10 might have to skip a meal and thus can be argued to have made the greater sacrifice.

    You've also missed Mattis' point. It's not that the US spends more than any other country in NATO (no one disputes that), it's that some of the other countries in NATO are not meeting their obligations to spend a minimum of 2% of their GDP on defence. That the US is out in front at 3.3% of GDP is beside the point since that extra 1.3% is entirely down the US's budget allocations - there's nothing stopping the US from reducing its spend to 2% of GDP, and even if they did, they'd still be able to complain about those not doing so. The US has every right to complain about other nations not meeting their commitments, but unless they are claiming their extra 1.3% of their GDP is to make up a shortfall in NATO's budget (which they're not), then they can't really use that extra voluntary spend to help make their point.
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!