Trump, Russia, NATO and Frenemies: Let’s Challenge the Purpose and Funding of NATO Your Money is being wasted in an Anachronism

If you know me, and mostly you don’t, you know that I hate Trump and almost all that he stands for but I don’t think he is the idiot that liberals would like to portray him.

The one thing I like about Trump is his iconoclastic approach to expensive paradigms that most politicians and we the public just let ride along. NATO is a perfect example of this though my attack on it would be different from his.

He loves everything military and I think it is mostly a grossly inefficient waste of a country’s resources and NATO is a way of wasting it on a multi-country basis. That last sentence is in spades for the US economy but that is a diatribe of a different color.

Turning back to NATO: It is an expensive anachronism. Its first secretary general was born in the 1880’s in colonial India. It itself was brought into existence in 1949 to fight a cold war that had a fear of a physical invasion by Russia. its relationship with Russia still smells of the cold war and movement of armory on both sides of an Iron curtain that has not existed for 30 years sends NATO and the Warsaw Pact into a fit of heebie-jeebies. Get over it.

Of course, he is right to point out that while vilifying Russia, NATO and EU members and Germany get a substantial amount of oil and gas from Russia. You can argue about how much as much as you like but the sale of gas and oil is pretty much all that stops Russia going bankrupt and the source of relatively cheap energy is a boon to the German Economy. Remember the Soviet Union eventuall went bankrupt before it failed . Is he right to say Germany is “captive” to Russia. Yes I think it is at least a partially valid statement. His rhetoric and the establishment knee jerk reaction to the statement missed the key point. What we have a is a friendly commercial relationship with Russia at the same time as we don’t really like its politics. we don’t like the politics of many countries, but we don’t call them enemies. If we think Russia is an enemy, then cut commercial ties and move to cold war status. If we want the commercial ties and don’t fancy the idea of a new cold war, then Russia cannot be an enemy. Maybe we should invent a new word. Frenemy is defined as “someone with whom one has friendly relations despite a fundamental dislike and or rivalry” . The Urban Dictionary points out that such a person is not be wholly trusted . It sounds like Russia to me.

If you don’t think it is expensive, think back to Trump’s last visit where they opened their new Head Quarters. Is that how you want to spend your money? Not Me. Why do we put up with it ?