Yeah, back to good ole, bad days of the Cold War it was darn simple, the Europeans got in line and allowed the US to drive all policy and to bear whatever costs necessary as one of the two world superpowers...with the other an immediate existential threat to Europe. And because of nuclear, an existential threat both ways, to all of the world.old salt wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:38 pmIf that is supposed to be at variance with me, you have not been following my post-Cold War critique of NATO & NATO expansion. ...I called it a Marching & Toasting society, which apparently was interpreted by some here as opposition to NATO rather than frustration over how it has deteriorated since the end of the Cold War & German unification.get it to x wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:22 pmHow about we stop admitting these border countries into NATO? That would be your buffer. Also, having a military "alliance" that is basically funded by American taxpayers where we can't reach agreement on "defense" issues with other members is pointless to begin with. It's become a "Marching and Chowder Society". I can't tell you how many friends I know that were ticked because they missed all of their NATO travel and per diem during Covid. It's a victim of it's own bloated bureaucracy.
But then we had the 'new world order', with massive reduction in risk and military spending priorities. Which was going to along just fine until 9-11 and the US decided to act unilaterally rather than how we had handled Iraq's invasion of Kuwait a decade earlier. And surprise, surprise the Europeans didn't see the issues the same way as did our leadership...we made fun of French fries...with all the arrogance of our preeminent prior role in the world. And we kept that up for 20 years, albeit with some small attempts under the Obama administration to work more collaboratively...but not really as equals...and then Trump shocked the heck out of the Europeans by tacking the other way, a threatened unilateral withdrawal of of support for NATO and all of its mutual defense obligations...so, what did Europe, especially the strongest single country do? Germany began to think and act more and more independently, made economic alliance deals, energy purchases, which make it less likely that Russia would threaten their own economic interests by threatening Germany militarily.
So, yeah, NATO is less cohesive, less confident about the commitments of one another, and certainly unwilling to simply follow the US.
A very interesting challenge that one year of a new sane Administration has certainly not solved.