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https://theconversation.com/why-the-united-states-needs-nato-3-things-to-know-223417>
"Former President Donald Trump has long made it clear that he deeply resents
NATO, a 75-year-old military alliance that is composed of the United States and
30 other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
Trump escalated his criticism of NATO on Feb. 10, 2024, when he said that, if
he is elected president again in November 2024, the U.S. would not defend any
member country that had not “paid up.”
Trump also said that he would encourage Russia and its president, Vladimir
Putin, “to do whatever the hell they want” with a NATO member that was
“delinquent” in paying for its defense.
NATO is the Western world’s foremost defense organization. It is headquartered
in Brussels. The central idea behind NATO’s existence, as explained in Article
5 of NATO’s 1949 treaty, is that all NATO countries agree to defend any other
NATO country in case of an attack.
NATO has no standing army and relies on member countries to volunteer their
military forces to carry out any operation. So all NATO countries agree to
spend 2% of their annual gross domestic product on military defense in order to
support NATO.
Some countries, like the U.S., the U.K., Poland, Finland, Greece and the Baltic
states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, devote more than 2% of their GDP to
military defense. About half of NATO’s members, including Germany, France,
Norway, Spain and Turkey, spend less.
NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg said in a written statement on Feb. 11 that
Trump’s suggestion “undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S.,
and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.” Other political
leaders also criticized Trump’s comments as highly dangerous.
As a scholar of history and international affairs, it is clear to me that Trump
does not seem to understand the many advantages the U.S. gets from being part
of NATO. Here are three major benefits for the U.S. that come with NATO
membership"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
