Robert Gates on NATO

[OneFootInTheGrave]

it's a win-win, for US and the world

[Tupac Shakur]

Probably not for the world, but definitely for the US.

[Heraclitus]

I agree I mean what's the point of having troops in places like Germany its not like Zombie Hitler is coming back to try and take Poland...


Also am I the only one here who thinks the bombing of Libya is profound stupidity that will cost Europe and America a lot and improve nothing? What is it with this Western obsession to bomb brown people in every ****hole there is until they start voting or giving women rights or whatever it is we are trying to achieve there this week? I think its time we put the White man's burden where it belongs, on the dustbin of history.

[Dauphin]

Probably not for the world, but definitely for the US.

Friendly fire deaths would go down for your allies. So there is a win for them too.

[giblets]

I agree I mean what's the point of having troops in places like Germany its not like Zombie Hitler is coming back to try and take Poland...


Also am I the only one here who thinks the bombing of Libya is profound stupidity that will cost Europe and America a lot and improve nothing? What is it with this Western obsession to bomb brown people in every ****hole there is until they start voting or giving women rights or whatever it is we are trying to achieve there this week? I think its time we put the White man's burden where it belongs, on the dustbin of history.

Obviously there must be a bombing brown people gene.

[Tupac Shakur]

Friendly fire deaths would go down for your allies. So there is a win for them too.

Free-riding on US defense expenditures is far more valuable.

[giblets]

The benefits from US defense expenditures are negligible for Europe.

[Tupac Shakur]

Only if you assume that Europe could have maintained the same low levels of defense spending without the security guarantee provided for decades by the United States.

[giblets]

Only if you assume that Europe could have maintained the same low levels of defense spending without the security guarantee provided for decades by the United States.

Did I say it was negligible during the cold war?

[Tupac Shakur]

You didn't specify.

[giblets]

I did use the present tense, though.

[Tupac Shakur]

Well, in the present, the benefits to Europe aren't negligible since the US is largely funding and carrying out operations in Libya.

[giblets]

I don't see how the operations in Libya benefit Europeans much.

[Dauphin]

US makes a lot of defence procurement orders from Europe. And vice versa. Those would probably have more impact if they stopped.

[Tupac Shakur]

I don't see how the operations in Libya benefit Europeans much.

Neither do I, but that doesn't change the fact that the UK and France pushed for it.