So much more a .
Townhall.com ^ | December 4, 2019 | Austin Bay
Three years ago, Donald Trump began a rhetorical offensive targeting the governments of NATO nations that chronically failed to meet their allied defense financial commitments. With bombastic huff, Trump intimated that allies pay their share or America might walk.
It's 2019. Few NATO members currently meet the 2% GDP defense commitment. However, several once-laggard NATO nations have increased military spending, and the alliance is stronger for it. The era of blithe freeloading has ended. Cheapskates like Germany pay a price in lost prestige. America not only hasn't walked; it is modernizing its forces.
Earlier this year, President Trump began grousing about endless wars and publicly mulled removing U.S. military forces from Syria. Then, in mid-October, he abruptly ordered military advisers to leave northern Syria, a predicate to a complete U.S. skedaddle. Trump's critics cratered. Syria's civil war is a dirty, fractious bloodbath where regional and global powers collide amid homicidal tribes. With the U.S. gone, Turkish forces would slaughter Kurds.
Ah, but in late October, American commandos killed the truly evil Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was hiding in a Syrian village not far from the Turkish border. The Pentagon had spent months planning the raid. Alas, The New York Times reported Trump's withdrawal decision "disrupted the meticulous planning and forced Pentagon officials to press ahead with a risky, night raid ..."
Don't buy that. The raid was intricate and its execution meticulous. Special operations helicopter crews train to operate at night. Nighttime is commando time. Turkey knew U.S. helicopters were flying along the border and didn't mention it.
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Sorry to break up the article....MODS go on a rant at me if it gets too long....great read
It’s been 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain. There is no reason for NATO to exist anymore except for the usual one - no bureaucracy has ever willingly gone out of existence. Never mind asking the likes of Germany to pay for NATO - why is the US still participating in NATO?....Screw them and let the Islamists take them over as a Putin asset!
Townhall.com ^ | December 4, 2019 | Austin Bay
Three years ago, Donald Trump began a rhetorical offensive targeting the governments of NATO nations that chronically failed to meet their allied defense financial commitments. With bombastic huff, Trump intimated that allies pay their share or America might walk.
It's 2019. Few NATO members currently meet the 2% GDP defense commitment. However, several once-laggard NATO nations have increased military spending, and the alliance is stronger for it. The era of blithe freeloading has ended. Cheapskates like Germany pay a price in lost prestige. America not only hasn't walked; it is modernizing its forces.
Earlier this year, President Trump began grousing about endless wars and publicly mulled removing U.S. military forces from Syria. Then, in mid-October, he abruptly ordered military advisers to leave northern Syria, a predicate to a complete U.S. skedaddle. Trump's critics cratered. Syria's civil war is a dirty, fractious bloodbath where regional and global powers collide amid homicidal tribes. With the U.S. gone, Turkish forces would slaughter Kurds.
Ah, but in late October, American commandos killed the truly evil Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was hiding in a Syrian village not far from the Turkish border. The Pentagon had spent months planning the raid. Alas, The New York Times reported Trump's withdrawal decision "disrupted the meticulous planning and forced Pentagon officials to press ahead with a risky, night raid ..."
Don't buy that. The raid was intricate and its execution meticulous. Special operations helicopter crews train to operate at night. Nighttime is commando time. Turkey knew U.S. helicopters were flying along the border and didn't mention it.
---------
Sorry to break up the article....MODS go on a rant at me if it gets too long....great read
It’s been 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain. There is no reason for NATO to exist anymore except for the usual one - no bureaucracy has ever willingly gone out of existence. Never mind asking the likes of Germany to pay for NATO - why is the US still participating in NATO?....Screw them and let the Islamists take them over as a Putin asset!
