Mattis warns NATO allies to pay for their own defense
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned our fellow NATO members that they need to pay a more proportionate amount for their own defense, according to the Military Times;
Echoing a demand made repeatedly by President Donald Trump, Mattis said NATO must adopt a plan this year that sets milestone dates for governments to meet a military funding goal of 2 percent of gross domestic product.
The Pentagon chief called it a “fair demand” based on the “political reality” in Washington.
“No longer can the American taxpayer carry a disproportionate share of the defense of Western values,” Mattis told the alliance’s 27 other defense ministers, according to a text of his remarks. “Americans cannot care more for your children’s future security than you do.”
It’s a sentiment that is coming to the public decades late.
Category: Big Pentagon, Reality Check
Good! Make them spend more on their own defense, and less on their welfare society, and it will probably do wonders to lessen the appeal of so many people flooding over their borders for benefits and freebies too!
That’s how the Eurotrash got to the nanny states they are now. They spend it on useless shit, knowing full well we’d pick up the tab.
Free ride over? One can only hope.
Investing in infrastructure, education, and public health is not useless shit.
If anything most consumption spending on military arms and munitions is useless shit.
If they were investing in any of those three that’d be one thing. But they’re not. At least not in a meaningful way. Meaning infrastructure.
Oh, look! It’s Piuperdink the POodle popping in to pontificate!
Didn’t you tell us you had 22 years in the Army, or something? And aren’t YOU getting a retirement check from the USGOV, Piuperdink?
So you’re contradicting yourself in that regard, and biting the very hand that feeds you.
Once again, you’ve proved yourself to be the biggest marone on the planet.
Bite Me, he didn’t write the comments made by the SecDef, he just copied them into the article. It’s obvious your command of the English language is severely lacking.
Spending on your “education” was most definitely useless shit. Useless shit that begat useless shit. Is it so hard to comprehend the fact that the US cannot afford to carry the defense tab for countries that should be picking up their own tab? Again I recommend http://www.rif.org/
I have a question for you. If this is what you truly believe why don’t you donate every extra penny you make to the government? You know, put your $ where your mouth is. There is no law against it and the Feds will accept it.
And I mean every red cent of what you make beyond just the basics to live, No internet, no phone, no car (take public transportation), minimum heat, no A/C, you get the idea.
Thanks, I am sure you’ll have an excuse of why you can’t, but in reality it is you won’t.
Commissar won’t do that because socialism is all about spending *other* people’s money.
Infrastructure, public health and education begets strong bridges that the invading armies may cross, modern airports that will accommodate enemy transports, well educated children who will adapt to the new language to be spoken, and a healthy citizenry that will serve the new rulers well and long.
I am not a socialist. You just have no damn clue what socialism is.
The market economy I support is more capitalist than we have now.
He’s a commie, not a socialist. Used to be he said he was a socialist, not a commie. He be confoozed.
There’s nothing to fear from communism.
Everyone knows that.
Did someone say “Don’t Fear the Commie”?
By the way, Poodle – does 2 plus 2 still equal 5, like it did in that early-1930s Soviet propaganda poster?
EVEN MONGO THINK YOU DUMB COMMIE
I know he’s a dumb kommie!
Lars, I can and do read. So yes, I know what socialism is, and what’s wrong with it. I know you think you’re smarter than everyone else, but that’s been proven false numerous times.
Lars is using his Doublespeak and Doublethink again:
Socialism is capitalism.
Slavery is freedom.
Wrong is right.
Evil is good.
Ignorance is intelligence.
Supporting the government spending wisely on things that have been empirically PROVEN using a century of data to INCREASE the prosperity of a society and INCREASE the competitive advantage of a country in the global marketplace is not the same things as thinking the government should have all the money.
Trying to frame it that way is literally a straw man of my position and complete bullshit.
Speaking of bullshit. That’s a load right there. Changing up late in the game, aren’t you? What are you changing the record for, going after a job with an employer who frowns on commie bastards? You’re a chameleon.
Now THAT’S a wad of bullshit one would expect to hear from a politician or bureaucrat.
Watch out… he used the word “empirically”… he’s gonna spank our little beeehinds, ’cause Commissar knows what’s best for all of us workers!
Two words echo in your posting..”Complete bullshit”
When mommy and daddy are letting you live in the basement rent free you can afford to spend your own money on clothes, partying and your freeloading friends
When they start making you pay rent your freeloading friends start being a hindrance
But they get around to infrastructure do they?
Investing in education or healthcare just means footing the bill and not doing anything to upgrade facilities. It means a new standardized test & an extra bureaucratic layer of “oversight” a few more percentage points lopped off average grades.
If they DID invest in infrastructure it WOULD be worth something.
But.
They.
DON’T.
And once again Lars displays all the intellectual insight of a dung beetle.
I take offense to this statement, why are insulting the dung beetle? 🙂
The way I see it, Lars is not an a$$hole, because an a$$hole is a functional part of the human body, IE, it has a use.
Lars is useless and just a pain in the a$$. therefore he is a hemorrhoid on the a$$hole of life.
True, and my abject apologies to dung beetles everywhere.
Perhaps I should have used the tapeworm for comparison. A creature functionally similar to Lars.
‘Dreh’ dich nicht um;
der Kommissar geht um!’
y’know, to some extent I agree with what Lars said IN GENERAL. But when you spend those ‘military savings’ on 32 hour work weeks, “infrastructure” like soccer stadia, and paying for health care for illegal immigrants – that is useless shit. So I put his statement down to ‘good theory, bad practice.’ And why betting the come on uniform farts and Skittle shitting is inevitably doomed to failure.
YOU MEAN LIKE The People’s Republik of Kalifornia did handing shit out to illegal aliens and wasting money on the high speed rail boondoggle while ignoring warnings about the Oroville Dam?
Winnah Winnah Chicken Dinnah!
^^^^^ Likes, API ^^^^^
We were sending shit to Oroville left and right over the weekend. As for me, I thought of an ex-girlfriend (bitch) who occupies that town, who ended our relationship with “Hey, let’s still be friends while I bang this other guy” (I was not acquiescent to that idea), and couldn’t help my shit-eatin’ grin as I pondered her current troubles. I don’t believe in karma, but comeuppance is an ice-cold bitch with a vicious sense of humor, and so is the Feather River, for that matter!
And building the huge low-bid dam directly above the town was perhaps not the best of ideas in the first place. Even more so with the secondary dam right on the city limit that would essentially become a massive concrete guillotine if the big dam above it fails…
Infrastructure, education and public health are GREAT investments! No argument from me on that.
BUT, why should we pay for their defense so that they can invest in other areas? They need to pay their own way just like we have to. I don’t want my tax money paying their bill so that they can invest in other areas.
You can offer to change my mind though. You pay my power bill and I’ll invest more money into my kids college fund with the money you save me by taking some of my personal responsibility away. That’s fair,, right??
Part of the responsibilities of a sovereign nation is to provide for its own defense. But you valready knew that.
Yea man you gotta understand that the embezzlement of American dollars is much higher on their (U.N.) countries leader agenda than the three you mentioned, see you’re doing what too many americans do, and that’s wishful thinking, like I seriously wish this country would wake up, see the problem is you think everyone thinks like you, and sorry but the world is brutal, and could care less about your opinion.
Commissar,
I guess cellular technology, text messaging, email, and GPS are poor investments too? Oh wait, you can thank the US military for purchasing and providing them from R&D. If you would like for the US to save money by reverting back to dumb bombs in lieu of advanced navigation solution warheads, please let me know. I’ll send you a box of tissues so you can cry your eyes out from all the innocent killed. I wish you would think before you type. Besides, the military budget is only 10% of the actual US budget, but I’m sure you did your research and know that. I’m sure of it.
They put in in their POCKET, knowing the U.S. will fill their coffers!! Good onya General…tell them where the bear shyt in the woods!
But… but… Angela Merkel’s got all those refugees to support… and – and France might Frexit and… and… well, Spain might Spexit, and… oh, noessss! The whole Eurozone might break up and the euro will be worthless again, and… and Denmark’s decided to pay everybody a base wage, even if they work, and…. Oh, da horrors!!! And they’ll all have to pay a fair share of their own insurance bills.
I’ll be over here in the corner, breathless with anticipation, waiting for the response. 😉
Here’s a little more regarding Mattis’s view of Russia.
Mattis, who has previously accused Russia of trying to break the NATO alliance, told a closed-door session of NATO on Wednesday that it needed to be realistic about the chances of restoring a cooperative relationship with Moscow. – Reuters News Service 2/16/2017
The question that arises from this is in regard to a stalemate, especially since Flynn flubbed it, and Vlad Putin does want something from us. I think we need to talk.
Yeh Putin wants the Arctic!
Here’s a little more regarding Mattis’s view of Russia.
Mattis, who has previously accused Russia of trying to break the NATO alliance, told a closed-door session of NATO on Wednesday that it needed to be realistic about the chances of restoring a cooperative relationship with Moscow. – Reuters News Service 2/16/2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-mattis-idUSKBN15V1N9
The question that arises from this is in regard to a stalemate, especially since Flynn flubbed it, and Vlad Putin does want something from us. I think we need to talk.
The countries of western Europe have been smugly anti-American in their sentiments for years now, having continually slashed their own defense budgets since long before the Cold War ended, a luxury afforded to the fucking ingrates by the presence of the very same US Military they like to insult and malign. They set up their Eurozone based on the touchy-feely New Europe unification hippy crap, and a few pipe dreams about Unified Europe becoming the dominant superpower some day, and all but eliminated border security, pissed away their economies on increasingly-expensive socialist programs with zero return, and pretended that they could hold hands and sing Kumbaya with the sharia-crazed jihadists produced by the slums where they keep their immigrants. They also tried to pretend that Germans, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Portagees, Italians, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Belgians, Greeks, Swiss, and Austrians aren’t culturally, ethnically, and (mostly) linguistically different from eachother, and have spent all but the last century of history making and breaking alliances, killing, raping, looting, and otherwise ratfucking eachother. That those ethnicities coexist and intermix in immigrant nations like the USA, Canada, or Australia is due to the immigrants voluntarily assimilating into a new melting-pot culture, and even then it took a hundred years for the Irish and Italians, or Norwegians and Swedes, or whomever to stop pulling knives on eachother. Simply telling the people who didn’t want to assimilate and thus stayed in their own country that they should be “European” instead of their actual nationality doesn’t change anything.
Well, now those chickens are coming home to roost.
We need to pull out of Nato and tell them their continued survival is on them. We went over there and bailed their asses out twice, and that is two more times than they deserved. In both cases it was European stupidity that caused those wars. They are dedicated to dumbassery and that is fine, but we don’t need to subsidize it. England is in there too.
This is nothing new, actually. Gates, before he left, sent a much MORE strident message to NATO allies to start making a bigger commitment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gates-rebukes-european-allies-in-farewell-speech/2011/06/10/AG9tKeOH_story.html?utm_term=.1fd45f5bdcb8
“The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress, and in the American body politic writ large, to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources … to be serious and capable partners in their own defense,” he said in an address to a think tank in Brussels.
Hmmm…this from a woman that drinks Trumps wine.
Da fuck is THAT ‘sposed to mean?
It means he is a prick.
That is the best thing anyone said about me all day. I am deeply touched by your recognition.
I blush.
You didn’t include that Dave Hardin is a closet potato chip dipper.
AND he double dips too!
I was told that by an insider source that does not wish to be named.
Nicki knows, sarcasm is just a free service I offer.
https://thelibertyzone.us/2017/02/15/destroying-the-enemy/
That is her blog. She writes some very good articles. Its always nice to check the comment section, people often can not tell the difference between sarcasm and what loons actually believe.
I am breathless in anticipation of the weeping, wailing, sneering, self-righteous pontificating that will occur when the European plutocrats realize that they don’t have money for their socialist programs and defending themselves from being cluster-mucked again by someone.
Reading the Euro-mediots slander and mocking of Americans makes me less inclined to be sympathetic to their plight.
Hopefully the European deplorables will rise up and slap their self-declared betters into sitting down and shutting up.
The bottom line is this: some of the money we send them is supporting the “immigrants” that we will one day be in pitched battle with. Might as well save for our next trip to the European theater.
Here ya go, Commissar.
Since you like sticking your fingers in your ears to avoid hearing others opinions and you seem to also enjoy stomping your feet when you don’t get your own way……here’s a perfect, useful occupation for you.
Human mine detector……..
http://www.gibbleguts.com/wp-content/uploads/minesweeperFB-370×297.jpg
Not exactly a joke. Manual minefield clearance was one of the ways the Soviets used their penal battalions (Shtrafbat) during World War II. The Nazis did the same with their penal units, the Strafbattalions.
“Americans cannot care more for your children’s future security than you do.” That’s a helluva line.
I see Lars has resorted to using a pseudo name
I guess in his second decade of graduate school he’s finally realized he’ll have to get a real job one day
I don’t think he’s capable of holding a real job in the private sector, his future job will be as a Government Bureaucrat.
Lars ain’t that good, he’ll end up as a professor at UC Berzerkley. Teaching philosophy or underwater basket weaving.
Commissar spent months posting under his full name, then decided to call himself “commissar” and started whining whenever someone addressed him by that same full name. If that’s not indicative of genius and integrity, I don’t know what is.
/sarc
That was a process. Someone nicely listed all of the tags Commissar used when he decided that he did not want his name associated with us fascists and Nazis. At least, that’s what he claimed.
I’ll have you know I am not a fascist or Nazi.
I’m a proud Deplorable.
America should pay the average that every other country in NATO is paying. That’s fair.
Likewise, America should only pay the average that every other United Nations Security Council member is paying.
Less the land, building, and whatnot attendant to maintenance of the UN building.
But…but…but we CAN’T do THAT! Why, there wouldn’t even BE a UN if that happened….Ohh, I see what you did there.
That’d be the greatest thing to happen to the UN since 1945.
The UN Building…what a joke! They turned it into low rent housing. It’s a dump.
Been at the Nyborg again, eh?
Maybe we should evict the United Nothing from US Soil, let them relocate to say, Geneva.
Relocate them to Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Switzerland is too pretty for them.
The Swiss don’t want them, either.
Nah.
Send ’em to Mogadishu.
Or, Berkley,Ca?
I understand the true purpose & reason for Diplomatic Immunity, but it’s the flagrant abuses that tick me off. Some members of the UN in New York City definitely take full advantage of it.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19591_6-most-ridiculous-abuses-diplomatic-immunity.html
Caught this yesterday on CDR Salamander’s blog; he has a couple great ideas on how to hold our NATO “allies” feet to the fire and pay their fair share. Check it out at:
https://blog.usni.org/2017/02/15/secdef-mattis-to-nato-sober-up
But, but, diversity. It’s all about the tremendous benefits of diversity as they ruin the social, educational and financial systems of Europe. Fuck em.
Money spent on infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, schools, sanitation systems, etc., is, IMO, money well spent. I resent those here ILLEGALLY who feel I am obligated to support their sorry asses. They have no right to my money or to be here illegally. Somehow the left has been able to remove the word ‘illegal’ from the equation. Now they are undocumented aliens or some such shit. No, they are here illegally. I resent spending one dime on illegals when there are so many others, including veterans, mentally ill and other true citizens who do without the care they need. I owe not a damn thing to those here illegally. I don’t owe a damn obamaphone to anyone. That’s one of my many pet peeves.
IMHO calling an ILLEGAL ALIEN an “Undocumented Immigrant” is akin to calling a street corner drug dealer an “Unlicensed Recreational Pharmacist” and the only thing we owe illegal aliens is deportation.
In my younger and hungrier (and therefore thinner) days ol’ Graybeard worked day labor doing house construction with some wetbacks. Hardworking guys, we got along fine. They’d do their job, send the money home to feed their families, and mostly stay out of trouble.
But they didn’t act like anyone owed them anything. La Raza and other commie groups changed that.
Not a fan of today’s illegal aliens, whatever Doublespeak terms the mediots use to describe them.
I also have no sympathy whatsoever for people who come here illegally and seek to just benefit from other peoples’ hard work. However, show me someone who was brought here illegally as a child, not of their own volition, but who has worked hard, contributed to society and betters his or her community? That’s an ‘illegal immigrant’ I have a lot of sympathy for, and wish we could welcome wholeheartedly.
We need to curb illegal immigration simply because it’s illegal, certainly, but if we want to thrive as a country, kicking out people who are contributing isn’t the way to go. Especially when their status was through no fault of their own. I don’t think this needs to be a black and white situation.
You’re right again, so why don’t you offer your job to one of these fine people and let them live their dream?
I’m not Lars. And I’m not sure what in my response indicates I want to give up my job? I’m saying if someone is hard-working, and going to be a net positive for our country’s economy, community, self-defense and any other criteria you can think of, why should we turn that down simply because they were unknowingly brought here as a child when they had no say in the matter?
If the military needs to fill ranks and you have the choice of a lethargic, nut-scratching asshole who can’t run 5 feet let alone 5 miles,… or an illegal immigrant who was brought up here, loves the country, wants to serve, is fit, dedicated and committed to ensuring the safety of his brothers in his unit, which do you prefer to have by your side? If the latter, why doesn’t that principle also apply to economic issues?
We don’t know exactly who that illegal immigrant is because it’s highly likely he’s using false documentation and a stolen identity. Not exactly what we need in the military. It makes security clearances impossible. Swing and a miss, LC.
So at what point point should they try to change their illegal status? I have NO argument with someone like you describe, who is also working to become a US citizen. I have a shitload of heartache with the “dreamers” who are brought here as kids, KNOW they are illegal, yet 2-3 decades later are screaming about the injustice of deportation when they never even took the first step toward becoming documented legal immigrants.
And another thing while we are at it, why don’t you give your “White Privilege” spot in college to one of these dreamers. Or are you just a selfish bastard who doesn’t care about the impoverished dreamers?
Oh, my apologies, however my point still stands. If someone believes so strongly about all these fine folks here illegally and have no issues with them…
Why not focus on the problem of Illegals, uninvited intruders, instead of the relatively rare case you cited that the Left uses to avoid discussion of the problem? Less illegal immigration, many fewer kids stuck in shitty situations, eh? “But, but, the children!” Has worn out any usefulness or impact. How about agreeing that we need to stop border-lawbreaking as a way of life, as a major form of organized crime, and -then- we can discuss how to handle the relatively rare cases of the effectively stateless children that are -created- by the criminal behavior. Certain dispicable folks want to pay near slave wages to obedient folks with no recourse to the law. Start -prosecuting- these slaver wannnabees. Certain dispicable folks want a crop of secure dependent votes, damn the law and damn the consequences. Prosecute both he illicit voters and those who aid and abet it. Certain dispicable people traffic in human flesh, in the smuggling of people, the subsequent exploitation of them in general,and the de facto enslavement of the sexually useful ones. Gallows time for the latter ones. Sure. Once we have soem sort of flow control set up, and punitive measures on the exploiters, -then- I can see addressing the relative handful of folks caught in the shadows as kids. I have a big heart for anyone who genuinely wants to come here for the Liberty and work. I suspect most folks might make decent additions, if they truly understood us and actually wanted to be like us. So yeah, enlisting the shadow kids is one thing I would consider, as a path to earning what would otherwise be denied to them. But the big exploitive machine has to go. The adult, knowingly law breaking illegals -do not- get a free pass, nor a vote. Border control has to mean something. If that sounds harsh, then ducking well blame the ass-bags that created this mess by shouting “free shit!” and “we will amnesty you!” And ” the rules wont apply honest!” It was -not- the folks saying “Play by the damn rules” that created this mess.… Read more »
I’ll try to reply in more depth later, but you asked a simple question, so I’ll give you a simple answer:
Actually, maybe it’s not as simple as I thought, since I’m not sure if you mean why don’t I focus on the problems you mention, or why don’t we as a society?
The short answer to the first one is that I didn’t mention it because there’s not much discussion to be had in where we agree. I’m completely on board that there are myriad issues with illegal immigration, period. We need to address those. As I said in my first post, I don’t think the solution to this needs to be black and white, though, where we toss the baby out with the bathwater. Crack down on all the problems of illegal immigration, absolutely, but don’t toss out people who are contributing simply because they were brought here as children.
It gets into a little more of a gray area when you start talking about adults who came here willingly but that’s something to tackle later. My point was simply that a black and white policy is simple but less beneficial than one which looks at contributions to our society.
But just to reiterate, yes, I agree with you on all the many problems inherent to illegal immigration on the whole. It doesn’t mean we can’t be selective when we look at things on a case by case basis though. I have less resentment for people who come here, through all sorts of ordeals, and work their ass off to adapt, learn and contribute than I do for people who are born here and do nothing. Sure, the latter may have the right to be here codified by law, but I think the former are often more deserving.
Welfare state has been working wonders across Europe. The Ponzi scheme has resulted in natives importing antithetical Muslims in a poor attempt to make the deficit but it’s only resulted in open warfare on the streets and their loss of land and culture in their own country. Their militaries are in such a poor state they can’t do anything about it either. Look at France right now even when the military patrols the streets because their police are worthless they still cannot effectively combat the millions of Muslims they imported to fund their unsustainable welfare state programs.