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This is a good example of why life is too short to read anything from Cato.
Americas military budget is roughly 4 % of GDP. Most of Europe runs 1 -2,5 % of GDP depending.
There seems to be a lot of worry about Russia here. The combined budgets of just the UK, France, and Germany outstrip the total of China and Russia (2009 numbers). Russia itself is dwarfed by the combined military budgets of Europe. SIPRI estimated EU military expenditures are more than 400 % of the Russian budget. Europe obviously spends far more than neccessary to fend off any threat. If more military power was neccessary, Europe also has far more to gain by coordinating and integrating its militaries than in spending more money.
If America evaporated tomorrow, the remaining EU/NATO countries would have roughly 30 % of the remaining military budget of the world. Thats how over the top European military spending is.
Now what does this have to do with CATO? Well, CATO obviously knows this. It doesn't take more than 30 seconds on google to look it up. Unless they wrote an entire article on utter hearsay and never checked a single figure, this is basic. So why do they write this? To sell more military hardware.
It is basically a begging letter to Europe to subsidize a military industry that is grossly oversized for the threat environment. And they know there will be someone with no knowledge base and no urge to check anything that agrees with their own hearsay, who will deliver the letter.
An excellent post and you summed up CATO perfectly. Yet our right wing friends get duped by the same nonsense over and over without ever learning.
In a casual perusal of this thread ive watched the brain trust here at CD cut several hundred thousand good paying jobs. Bases overseas im down with but be careful what you wish for you may get it
Who is going to invade Europe? Hint: Nobody. These bases should be minimally staffed, namely maintenance and the office side of things. The only countries that need "protection" are South Korea and Japan. That's where the real threat lies, not in Europe or Africa.
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