The 'Warmongers' had a field-day when Trump reconfirmed that he feels strongly that NATO-countries need to contribute their fair share in order to receive NATO protection. Nothing new, really, because he came out publicly with the same general idea when he was president. This time he 'framed' it as a question posed to him by a moron, the leader of an anonymous big NATO country, asking him what would happen if his country was invaded by Russia, while they were behind on their contributions. Would the US protect his sorry ass? And Trump said that he'd told this fool that, no, he wouldn't. That he would allow Russia to do as it saw fit to do. None of his business.
Now, mind you, this was before 2020, obviously, so nothing new. The 'Shocker' seems to have been that he 'revealed' this position to Evil Putin, at this moment in time. As if Putin hadn't been paying attention to what Trump said and did previously. One after the other 'commentator' and 'analyst' came out to say that Trump invited Putin to invade Europe. No he didn't. That is clear 'disinformation', coming from people who consider themselves to be the guardian angels of the internet, 'Fact Checking' everything, merely to erase anything that doesn't fit into their narrative, and spinning words out of context to serve their purpose, which is finding ways to fan the flames of war with Russia. As if we could afford that!
Are these people stupid, or merely reckless? I cannot see Russia invading any country unprovoked. And yes, the 2014 coup was a coup, and a deliberate provocation, and ignoring the Minsk Treaty, as well as the Istanbul accord, brought us where we are today. It is highly unlikely that any of this would have happened if Trump had been allowed to serve a second term. In line with his apparent thinking, judging from his remarks about honouring your contract, I feel he would have encouraged Zelensky to make 'Minsk' work, and buy more American stuff, if he could afford it. You will remember that Zelensky before 2020 was a different president, since he did not get any 'hard ass' support from the US. He sure did appear to be more 'accommodating', in line with his campaign promises. Although we now know that was never genuine.
Europe, with the UK, is already spending five times as much on the military than Russia, which is a country at war. But if this present war tells us anything, it is that no budget will buy you victory. More money is not the answer. Less so if you spread your assets thin by going to war around the globe, a very long way from home, using a hodgepodge of complex, maintenance heavy 'gadgets' rather than functioning weapons systems and standardised ammunition which you can easily produce in large quantities, and do not need to ship across the Atlantic. In fact, when I was in the military, many decades ago, this was already obvious. Whenever we were allowed to 'play' with the Americans, they side-tracked us, so we wouldn't embarrass ourselves with equipment that was no match to theirs. It was a total waste. And I'm sure that there were very capable, well equipped units which carried their own weight, but those were few and far between.
Back in those days I kept asking why we bought American stuff, if we were preparing for war with the Soviets. It made us vulnerable, and plenty of strategies called for the Dutch to get out of the way, and leave it to the Americans to save our ass, while we were sent on suicide missions, or digging in in some other country, miles from the place we called 'home', and where we left the spare parts, maintenance facilities and people who spoke our language. And as the Soviet Union collapsed, and the potential enemy retreated from the 'Fulda Gap' to somewhere behind Belarus, we bought JSF's. Why?!? They couldn't even reach the border with Russia from any base in Holland. WTF? Fighter bombers? To bomb Belgium? Germany? What? If we went to war with Russia, we should be worried about protecting Rotterdam, and Den Helder, the oversized Navy-port for a tiny country like Holland, but probably useful if we had a fleet which was tailored towards defending oil rigs and production platforms. But no! We built ships to 'project' our power in the approaches to Taiwan, and provoke Russia in the Black Sea…….
You must be kidding if you honestly feel that we stand any chance defending ourselves without the US. Not now, and not anytime soon. To start with, we need to dump all these hugely expensive American 'gadgets' and 'play-things', switching to stuff the French and other European countries are producing, France being the only country in Europe with a decent arms industry, as well as nukes. Forget the British. A few leaking bath-tubs, and even the brand new carrier needs a pair of tugs to go anywhere, since they can't produce a proper drive shaft anymore, and the rest has already been shipped to Ukraine. Moreover, the country is broke. Within Europe, there is a wide array of various equipment, most of it from the US, and if Trump favours a 'hands-off' approach, Europe would share the same fate as Ukraine is facing, and that country invested well above its pay-grade in the years since 2014, only to find out what 'for as long as it takes' means, if the country which delivered all these goodies cannot support it. Ammunition? Oh, wow! You need ammunition? Just wait a few years…..
Before we start throwing money at NATO to please Trump, or convince ourselves that we bought ourselves a guardian angel, I'd say we sit down, and take a deep breath, as we first think things over. I'm convinced that if we do that, and we allow smart people to consider our options, we'll reach the conclusion that we need to go and have a chat with Putin, negotiate some kind of security treaty, as he proposed in 2007, and stick to it for a change. While designing a strategy that will discourage any country from crossing our sovereign borders uninvited, and without proper cause, because doing so would be too costly. That doesn't require a huge standing army, and truckloads of money spent on complex, 'state of the art' weapon systems.
If you ask me, Trump was merely urging us to buy more junk from the US-led weapons manufacturers, bleeding Europe white since we are already tanking because of this ridiculous 'sanctions war', and a collapsing industry after the US blew up 'Northstream', according to all serious observers, with Sweden now returning the investigation to Germany, since they cannot construct a 'Russia did it!'-angle, without embarrassing themselves. But if we do that, in response to this threat, we are utterly stupid. Beyond repair. Don't trust the US! They are not our enemy. That is not what I'm saying. But they don't do 'contracts', 'words of honour', 'honouring treaties' or 'win-win'. Not these days. They do 'I win, you lose!' Sucker! Look at you! Dumb f.ck!