It's time the Europeans pay their fair share (salary, soldiers, retirement)
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Protection from who? The days of worrying about an invading army are long gone.
Even when those days existed the need for U.S. "protection" was a little dubious. After one European country (Germany) fought Russia, England, France, and the U.S. for years and was finally defeated, it would have been prudent for the other Allies to quickly declare war on Russia to prevent the partitioning of Germany, but oh well. At this point there is no realistic military threat they couldn't handle on their own. It's a U.S. strategic decision to pour money into those bases. Whether the decision is good or not...
Or, maybe the bases weren't 100% for 'protection' from Soviets, but to help ensure that other European countries didn't spend too much on their militaries? Up until that point none of them had a very good track record of pursuing peaceful endeavors...
It is not for us to tell others how much other countries should spend, but it is for us to decide to spend less on defence of Europe. I think we should reduce it drastically.
I agree. If they don't want to spend money for their defense, so be it. But we should not be spending US dollars to defend other countries, especially rich countries.
Sure, you could try to reduce the US military footprint in Europe or anywhere else overseas, but be prepared for a wall of bipartisan opposition from lawmakers.
I agree and it will never happen without a groundswell of protest from voters.
The US spends between 1.0 and 1.4 trillion dollars per year for defense and military. That's close to HALF of our tax revenue. Meanwhile, Europe spends a small fraction of this amount since they can rely on our huge military bases overseas.
Isn't it time the rich European states pay their fair share? Isn't it time to convert our overseas bases into profit centers? or just close them?
This is a good article but understates the spending since it only includes the Dept of Defense budget.
The US chooses to be stupid and spend that much on "defense" - why should the world pay for our stupidity?
The US spends more on defense than the next 20 countries combined.
The US spends between 1.0 and 1.4 trillion dollars per year for defense and military. That's close to HALF of our tax revenue. Meanwhile, Europe spends a small fraction of this amount since they can rely on our huge military bases overseas.
Isn't it time the rich European states pay their fair share? Isn't it time to convert our overseas bases into profit centers? or just close them?
This is a good article but understates the spending since it only includes the Dept of Defense budget.
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