You know, in 1982 President Reagan, in conjunction with the English and NATO ministers (against the majority of their public will), introduced Pershing missiles into Europe to counter the SS-25 mobile launchers that the Soviets (Andropov) had deployed in eastern Europe. Europeans and Americans protested all over the place. But directly because of those actions, Gorbachov and Reagan signed the SALT treaties several years later and both sets of missiles were destroyed. The point is that the protests in England, Germany and other places were gigantic and warned of the nuclear holocaust that would surely come because of our 'hegemony' (remember that word?). Naturally, it didn't as the Berlin Wall came crashing down about 20 years later. Your Welcome!
The Soviets are gone. Putin is attempting to reconstitute his military, but it will be slow going for sure. The threat posed by the Russian Republic is minimal. But Russia and even China is NOT the worry here. Thanks to an amateur at the White House (Barry and his cronies), the mullahs in Iran WILL have a nuclear weapon within at least 5 years. Barry WILL withdraw US troops from Afghanistan within 24 months and both Iraq and Afghanistan will become defacto launching pads for terrorist states and the United States and it's allies WILL BE the targets.
My point is twofold. First, I don't care what the Europeans want because history has shown time and again that you are more in favor of conformance and appeasing despots than expressing or protecting your liberty. Americans do not agree. Secondly, some nations within the EU (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic for example) do not share your fantasy that everyone wants to 'just get along' or live a life based upon John Lennon's song 'Imagine.' In other words, it is apparent that the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic, having just come out of 50 years of Soviet domination, would rather fight than become slaves again or to have their foreign policy extorted by some Islamic Jihadist in the middle east. Obviously, they have more balls than others.
Currently, the United States nuclear triad, you know, the thing that Europe has been protected by for 50+ years, is reaching critical mass in age and capability. Minutemen III missiles are 60's technology. B-52's are 50's technology, the B-1 is 70's technology, and there are only 11 B-2 bombers. The Ohio class submarines are reaching the end of their service life (80's technology) and their replacements are on the drawing board. It is now time to begin, in earnest, especially since the membership of NATO has grown so large in the recent past, to look towards modernization of our mutual defense. Therefore, since the speed of technological advance is so fast and the results so massively expensive, it would be nice if those who benefited from that umbrella would contribute to its modernization.
Unfortunately cupcake, you do NOT have the luxury of bowing out. I realize that for some Europeans the first act when approached by a hostile force is to surrender immediately. However, back here in the states we don't play dodgeball that way. Deal with it sparky.
