You made my point...Japan pays 55% of us being there. Why not 100%? Yes was aware of them re-working their constitution for offensive operations, but that was based way more on North Koreas actions then Russia's.
We are going to continue to diverge on the usefulness of NATO. There is no doubt in my mind that NATO's resolve will be tested, in the very near future. I'm going to guess with the Baltic States, but it could be other areas including more of the Ukraine etc. Actually if it came down to the US being forced to do most of anything alone then I think we should pass, NATO or not.
When the crap hits the fan I think you will be able to trust and count on five or six countries max (US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan & South Korea). The French seem to take care of their own issues now, especially in Africa, and am sure they aren't too worried about ROE's in accomplishing their goal. What I've read about the German military doesn't exactly fill me with hope even though they have contributed to Afghanistan. If I remember German had something like 7,500 troops in Afghanistan, originally and it's down to less than 2,000 now, and has had maybe 50 or 60 casualties the whole time. Their troops have been called out as being over weight and not very efficient.
www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/26/german-soldiers-can-t-shoot.html is a nice article on what I'm talking about.
How could one of the foremost members of NATO have such issues????? Well that's because they don't have to pay a legitimate amount to maintain, train or equip a modern army, why is that? US bases and NATO umbrella. Realize this is a bit older article, but still.
We are going to continue to diverge on the usefulness of NATO. There is no doubt in my mind that NATO's resolve will be tested, in the very near future. I'm going to guess with the Baltic States, but it could be other areas including more of the Ukraine etc. Actually if it came down to the US being forced to do most of anything alone then I think we should pass, NATO or not.
When the crap hits the fan I think you will be able to trust and count on five or six countries max (US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan & South Korea). The French seem to take care of their own issues now, especially in Africa, and am sure they aren't too worried about ROE's in accomplishing their goal. What I've read about the German military doesn't exactly fill me with hope even though they have contributed to Afghanistan. If I remember German had something like 7,500 troops in Afghanistan, originally and it's down to less than 2,000 now, and has had maybe 50 or 60 casualties the whole time. Their troops have been called out as being over weight and not very efficient.
www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/26/german-soldiers-can-t-shoot.html is a nice article on what I'm talking about.
How could one of the foremost members of NATO have such issues????? Well that's because they don't have to pay a legitimate amount to maintain, train or equip a modern army, why is that? US bases and NATO umbrella. Realize this is a bit older article, but still.
