brownman wrote:Sadly, today again illustrates how ill-prepared Belgium is against a decades-long proliferation of radical enclaves.
So happy that my remaining family and friends there, one of which works out of that airport, are safe and sound.
Ironically, much of my family connection in Bruxxelles has been involved for many years with the Up with People program.
Europe is a powder keg and the Donald is advocating defunding NATO. Yeah ... further erosion of coalitions ... that's the ticket.
Paix !
that's not exactly what he said...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... gton-post/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
the gist of his gripe was that other countries don't put up the blood and treasure the way the US does... both figuratively and literally ....
in reality the actual NATO "expenses" are pretty much evenly split according to atleast one study, but if you read the wapo article you'll see he isn't exactly advocating for defunding it...
He questioned the United States’ continued involvement in NATO and, on the subject of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, said America’s allies are "not doing anything."
"Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we’re doing all of the lifting," Trump said. "They’re not doing anything. And I say: 'Why is it that Germany’s not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of Ukraine, why aren’t they dealing? Why are we always the one that’s leading, potentially the third world war with Russia.' "
Trump said that U.S. involvement in NATO may need to be significantly diminished in the coming years ,*breaking with nearly seven decades of consensus in Washington. "We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore," Trump said, adding later, "NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we’re protecting Europe with NATO, but we’re spending a lot of money."
later...
Trump sounded a similar note in discussing the U.S. presence in the Pacific. He questioned the value of massive military investments in Asia and wondered aloud whether the United States still was capable of being an effective peacekeeping force there.
“South Korea is very rich, great industrial country, and yet we’re not reimbursed fairly for what we do," Trump said. "We’re constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games — we’re reimbursed a fraction of what this is all costing."
regardless of whether one likes trump or not, he's not entirely wrong in his assertions...
*that's about the closet thing I saw that could be construed as defunding....and he did say "may"...
at the end of the day we can probably all agree there needs to be a conversation and some new/modified definition of " alliance" agreed to...
I'm ok w that...