Good morning! We expect that our Federal Government will spend in excess of $5.5 trillion this year on all manner of things, some of which are consistent with the U.S. Constitution, and some, like the Department of Education, in conflict with it. I’d certainly like for someone to identify the standing needed to get the DoEd in front of the Supreme Court to rule on whether its existence violates the Tenth Amendment (because the power to govern education is reserved to the States as a “power not delegated” to the Federal Government).
But I digress.
Out of that $5.5 trillion, $811 billion, or nearly 15% of every penny we spend for any purpose at all, goes to pay 69% of the total budget of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.
Now, for a long time, and certainly the duration of the Cold War, it seemed like it was distinctly in our interest that NATO be a healthy organization, given that its mission was to provide a defensive wall against the feared incursion of the Soviet Union into Europe.
But there is no Soviet Union, and it has been non-existent for over 30 years. Its various components and dominated countries have dispersed into other orbits, with many of the nations of Eastern Europe not only no longer allied with the Russians, but now actually members of NATO, including Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the Baltic nations.
Ukraine, of course, is famously not a member of NATO, though they’d like to be. But Poland, on Ukraine’s western border, famously is.
NATO’s purpose, such as it is, would be assumed to be to provide a defensive wall against a military incursion against not the now-dead Soviet Union, but against Russia.
Think on that. NATO, which costs the U.S. taxpayer $811 billion this year, serves only to defend NATO members (i.e., about all of Europe), from Russia.
Given that Russia has invaded Ukraine, one would think that a pact that provides a wall against the Russian military, might be a good thing. But let’s take a look at that invasion, shall we?
While I can’t really tell you what the detailed status of the war is as I write this, I’m pretty safe saying that Russia has failed miserably in the war. It has lost lots of manpower and armaments, and if the intent was to have Ukraine be annexed into Mother Russia, well, Mama is disappointed.
It’s not for lack of trying. Russia has sent a heavy invasion force, presumably everything it could. Whether they underestimated the capabilities of the Ukrainians to defend themselves, or the Russian military simply isn’t that good, there’s a conclusion to be had.
The Russian military is utterly incapable of attacking the NATO countries of Europe, given that they can’t even defeat Ukraine when applying all their sub-nuclear military force.
I can’t speak for Vladimir Putin, but I’m pretty sure that he’s well aware that if he can’t conquer a B-level country’s army, he’d likely lose his entire military if he tried to mess with NATO.
So why is there even a NATO?
OK, I’ll grant that the existence of the alliance solidifies the deterrent aspect, sure. But what exactly is the point of a non-European country pumping $811 billion into the defense of a different continent, when the threat requiring all that funding truly doesn’t exist?
How much would it cost to meet up with the NATO allies every once in a while to confirm what the plans are in case Russia tried to, say, attack Poland through its allied puppet nation Belarus? I don’t know, but I think a Zoom call by a bunch of four-stars from the NATO countries would cost a whole lot less.
So why doesn’t anyone yell “Wait just a darn minute!”? The $811 billion is over $2,000 from every man, woman, child, and whatever Sam Brinton is, in the United States. that is an insane amount of money.
Who is going to be the Senator, or presidential candidate, or public figure, who is going to raise this point? And if any of them is reading this, let me restate the point as clear as possible:
If Russia can’t even make much of a military dent in Ukraine, whom they’re desperate to conquer, then why should we be spending $2,000 for every American to prop up an alliance in Europe that Russia would never, never, ever attack?
Yeah, I wonder too. And I wonder why no one is asking that.
Copyright 2014-2023 by Robert Sutton
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