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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 1/18/19

US exit from NATO

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Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States. over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump several times privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

D.Trump repeatedly accused Europe of exploiting the United States, because most NATO members spend less than 2 percent of GDP on defence. He especially annoyed with Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and her country's military spending of 1 percent of its gross domestic product.

Eventually he called for a significant increase in defence budgets to 4 percent of GDP, otherwise the US will leave NATO. Most likely, Trump was bluffing.

"Even discussing the idea of leaving NATO let alone actually doing so would be the gift of the century for Putin," retired Adm. James G. Stavridis said.

Moreover, at the present time NATO provides practical support and legitimacy to US supremacy. It is a good deal for Washington.

Despite this, Americans call for more even distribution of funds, and are sure that US is doing Europe a favour, but it is not so"

Today European security policy is made strictly on US terms. US bases in Europe serve as logistics hubs to spread power to the East. Of course, the US military would not want to lose these positions.

The US defence budget does not depend on Europe's military spending. No one has the right to say that Europe must spend more so that the United States can spend less. Europe could save almost a third of what it spends on military equipment if governments club together to coordinate investment.

The Pentagon's budget is determined by Washington's assessment of the capabilities necessary to maintain US strategic dominance, but not through Alliance.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, US spending on NATO is about $ 30 billion (5 percent of the US defence budget). European countries spend about 240 billion dollars, the imbalance does not seem so big. It should be noted here that the US defence budget is about 600 billion dollars.

The United States strives for world domination and that it needs additional funding from outside.

Europe's militarily strongest nations are keen to show Washington they are investing in their own defence rather than, as Trump has put it, paying the US to defend them.

More spending isn't the answer. Instead, Europeans realize they need more cooperation in procurement to bring down costs and introduce more uniformity. If that's not what the US wants from them, they will attempt to do it outside NATO's existing Defence Planning Process. The US should encourage it in the hope it will work better than NATO in achieving efficiency.

Merkel said it is imperative that the EU pursues military integration, echoing Macron's view that Europe could no longer count on the United States.

"The times when we could rely on others are over," Merkel said. "This means nothing less than for us Europeans to take our destiny in our own hands if we want to survive as a Union."

And finally, why do the European countries have to spend more, if Russia's expenses were reduced by 20 percent?

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Jonas Dringelis Editor of "balticword.eu"
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