After Trump Calls for NATO Strength, EU Leaders Scaremonger over Alliance Breakup
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/06/29/after-trump-calls-for-nato-strength-eu-leaders-scaremonger/
Although U.S. President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly made clear that he is committed to NATO and expects members to pull their own weight within the alliance, European Union leaders have sounded the alarm, blaming the President for endangering the military treaty.
In apparently unironic comments on behalf of nations that have persistently failed to support the NATO alliance and meet their treaty obligations while the United States picked up the tab, European Council President Donald Tusk told European leaders Thursday night: "Despite our tireless efforts to keep the unity of the west, transatlantic relations are under immense pressure due to the policies of President Trump." ...
Many European leaders are exhibiting signs of panic over the forthcoming NATO summit in Belgium in July, as Trump is expected to make clear his disappointment that despite all NATO members having reaffirmed their commitment to spending two percent of their national GDP on defense at the 2014 NATO summit, almost none do.
Well over half of all NATO spending is made by the United States - the totals of the next three highest spenders the UK, France, and Germany are more than the total of the next 24 nations added today.
The pessimistic attitude from European leaders comes shortly after Trump's private comments on NATO at the G7 meeting in early June, where he again brought up the overwhelming cost of the alliance that the United States bears. He is reported to have said: "It will be an interesting summit. NATO is as bad as NAFTA. It's much too costly for the US."
Doubling down on the President's comments, a spokesman for the National Security Council said it was time for NATO allies to pay their fair share. The Guardian reports the spokesman as saying: "The president is committed to the alliance, as he has stated repeatedly. The president has also been clear we expect our allies to shoulder their fair share of our common defense burden and to do more in areas that most affect them.
"There is no better way to signal NATO's resolve than for each and every ally to allocate the resources necessary to share their burden of our collective defense." ...
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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