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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Early Morning Open Thread: NATO Is Not Mar-A-Largo, You Two-Bit Hustler

Early Morning Open Thread: NATO Is Not Mar-A-Largo, You Two-Bit Hustler

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Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO explains:


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47Comments

  1. 1.

    hellslittlestangel

    Almost 2 months in and the president still doesn’t understand that NATO isn’t a country club that collects dues

    Well, not yet. Mar-A-Nato could be a nice place once they kick out the wops and the hunkies.

  2. 2.

    jl

    I guess his advisers are afraid that once Trump understands he won’t get to play with the money himself, he’ll lose interest in national defense?

  5. 5.

    zach

    It would be nice to see ANYONE point out that NATO is in America’s interests as much or more as any other alliance member. Ditto for bilateral alliances with Japan and South Korea. Foreign basing of nuclear weapons was and is pretty essential to American military strategies. And how many American lives have been saved in medical facilities on allied soil?

    To some extent, thanks to developments in nuclear weapons, Trump’s threat to go fortress-America if other countries don’t pay up is sorta realistic if super cruel to countries such as Japan who looked the other way during the cold war while we filled their country with thousands of nuclear warheads, but actually following through on Trump’s threats would still be a logistical nightmare… probably more expensive than whatever part of the increase to 2% GDP military spending in Europe that benefits American interests.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @amk:

    This coming from a deadbeat con who swindled his own contractors.

    Yet another example of his constant projection.

  8. 8.

    hellslittlestangel

    @zach: Not to mention the UN, which basically follows the US’s lead 95% of the time.

    I guess America First means there ain’t no second.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    Comey (may he roast in hell for all eternity — ptuii!) is scheduled to humiliate Trump today by appearing before Congress to say that there was no “wiretap” of Trump Tower during the campaign. But he’ll likely soften the blow by emphasizing that he’s found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian spies. That’s the bar now — collusion. Comey’s gotta keep it all fair and balanced.

  11. 11.

    Zinsky

    @amk: Well said, amk! Trump never pays his own debts – why should the asshole think anyone or an other group would??

  12. 12.

    Joyce H

    @rikyrah:

    ove the title of this post

    And let’s not forget that Mar a Lago is the place where several sources have reported that Trump has/had a switchboard in his residence that allowed him to eavesdrop on the phone conversations of staff and guests. No wonder he’s so sure his phones were listened in on – ‘doesn’t everybody?’

    Here’s an interesting question. If Trump still has that capacity and still listens in on phone cons at Mar a Lago, is that now a federal crime? (This is hypothetical, because I’m sure removing that switchboard or at least rendering it uneavesdroppable was probably one the first things the Secret Service did once they assumed the Trump protection detail.)

  13. 13.

    Arclite

    I dunno. Fuck Europe for skating by without paying. Seriously. We picked up the slack for that shit. Even if he’s technically wrong, it’s good to put Europe on notice: “Hey, buy some more fucking tanks you morans, we’re tired of covering for you.”

    It’s one of the very few good things Trump has done.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Arclite: Trump hasn’t done anything that Obama didn’t do before him and more quietly and diplomatically. But instead of just insulting all of our allies Obama actually did something about the situation and got them to agree to a timeline to up their defense expenditures to 2% GDP.

    Don’t give Trump credit for flapping his gums in the most obnoxious and ignorant way possible when he really should just shut the fuck up.

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    he really should just shut the fuck up.

    Yeah, but that applies to every situation he has been in, or will be in, except for the one where he says …

    “I’m resigning the Presidency, as of Noon, tomorrow.”

    [Either that, or “No, I have nothing to say, Mr. Chief Justice (or Your Honor)” after the Senate (or a jury) votes to convict him. ]

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: I feel absolutely no remorse whatsoever for beating that dead horse, and will continue to for as long as I am subjected to his foul utterances..

  21. 21.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Have long speculated that the new D.C. hotel has more bugs within than a rain forest.

    Shitgibbon says “не правда!”

  24. 24.

    Gvg

    @OzarkHillbilly: Agreed. The way he is pissing off our Allies is dangerous and gives weight to concerns he is actually a foreign asset. I mean if he actually worked for the Russians, what would he do differently.
    I do think that Europe should have spent more on their own forces than they have. I mean look where they are now with a crazy person US PResident. I also thought that before, for more predictable possible futures. They don’t have enough ships, planes or helicopters to do much even for humanitarian reasons. Now Trump is going to make it harder to have a rational discussion of that by discrediting this matter, especially coming from us. Oh, and Russia on their borders is flexing muscle. It’s hard not to call Trump a traitor.

  27. 27.

    tinkletoes

    Maybe Stubby nubbins could work it out that we take over Europe’s defense and they could take over our health care system America could protect rich peoples interests around the world and the Europeans could protect the working class here in America.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    Almost 2 months in and the president still doesn’t understand that NATO isn’t a country club that collects dues.

    Great analogy. Neither the media nor the Democrats could get this across so vividly or concisely and make it stick.

    A good chunk of the American people believe Trump and applaud his taking Europe to the woodshed. They also probably believe that NATO was created to fight the Muslim horde. Because Russia has always been our ally.

  30. 30.

    NorthLeft12

    @Arclite: This “threat” a lot of Americans are pissing their pants/skirts over is not credible anymore. NATO has turned into an intervention club for US interests. As a Canadian I would just as soon drop out of NATO and have a military that is designed to serve our interests and not those of our allies.

    And for the record, I know that Canada is one of those countries that is way below its “commitment” to tithe 2% of our GDP to the arms industry.

  32. 32.

    NorthLeft12

    I think that the US needs a reality check here. You guys need to face up to the fact that you like being the world’s sheriff, in fact, you absolutely need that job for psychological reasons beyond my understanding [self esteem/ego gratification?].
    Having the rest of NATO increasing their spending on the military will normalize your behaviour and allow more opportunity for multilateral actions, which are restricted at present because of the limitations of most of the members armed forces.

    But don’t for a minute think that your country will reduce military expenditures by any significant amount. You guys are hooked. There will always be another “threat” to face…..real or imagined.

  33. 33.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Arclite:

    I dunno. Fuck Europe for skating by without paying. Seriously. We picked up the slack for that shit. Even if he’s technically wrong, it’s good to put Europe on notice: “Hey, buy some more fucking tanks you morans, we’re tired of covering for you.”

    WWII is still living memory and yet people say dumb ass crap like this.

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @liberal:

    amk: once the cold war ended, the rationale for NATO ended also.

    So how many world wars were with out the Soviet Union? Europe was having them from about 1580s.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    There’s a rational debate to be had about whether or not NATO serves its members’ interests in the post-Cold War era. That’s not the debate Trump is having.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    They keep moving the bar. Now it’s collusion with Donald Trump. Personally. That’s how Trump set it up this morning and X number of people will buy it.

    It’s fascinating to me how the interference in congressional elections has disappeared. I feel like it doesn’t serve the narrative that this is ABOUT Donald Trump specifically, rather than all the other possibilities, where Trump was just the useful idiot.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    Banner on @FoxAndFriends: “NEWS YOU CAN’T USE” / “Do U.S. families want to hear Russia reports?”

    Guffaw. The best thing I learned this year is that Fox is a sewer, a hostile work environment with gross lechers roaming the halls pressuring people for sex.

    It explains a lot- like why all of their people look like vacant-eyed, soul-selling hostages.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    Millions of educated Russians flee Putin’s Russia

    This is what I mean about “nationalism” and opposition to immigration being more about keeping people in than keeping people out.

    Immigrants are strivers. Whatever else you know about them you know that- they are people who get off their ass and get going. I could see the benefit to far Right nationalists of making it impossible to GET OUT of countries run by far Right nationalists.

  42. 42.

    Debbie1

    @amk: That person is NOT the loony left. Based on their past conservative remarks it’s clear that he/she (dare I say ‘shim’) is a Republican troll. That’s why they overcompensated by calling themselves ‘Liberal.’

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    @Zinsky:

    why should the asshole think anyone or an other group would??

    Because while he doesn’t pay his, if others did the same, he’d be the same loser but without the jet and gold painted dodads. He relies on swindling others not on being swindled. And he’d be an even more pathetic asshole, if that is even possible.

  45. 45.

    TenguPhule

    @Arclite:

    Fuck Europe for skating by without paying. Seriously. We picked up the slack for that shit.

    Remember the only nation to ever INVOKE NATO’s collective defense? Hint, it was us. And we fucked our allies over good and proper with Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet another reason Bush II needs to lose American citizenship and be turned over to the Iraqi women to be carved up like a pig (yes, I know they don’t eat pork).

  46. 46.

    Raoul

    What Rump is doing in undermining NATO and our US-European connections is like catnip to Putin.

  47. 47.

    jeff452

    @celticdragonchick: “….and NATO members should abide by their treaty obligations”

    They do
    They are NOT obligated by the NATO treaty to spend 2% of GDP
    It is a recommendation, not a requirement

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