Say what you will about Donald Trump, he makes the rest of Washington say remarkably dumb things. Especially when it comes to sacred totems that Everyone Knows Are True and Good but few people actually understand. Like NATO. To clear the air up front: Trump has not possessed laser-like precision or been a model of […]
President Trump: Right on Most issues, Certainly on Defense and Trade
At The American Conservative, Pat Buchanan applauds President Trump for finally saying what needed to be said to Europe about the unfair NATO alliance, and the continent’s free riding. American taxpayers have supported Europe long enough, and Pat says “America’s situation is unsustainable economically and politically.” He writes (abridged): Of President Donald Trump’s explosion at […]
The Doctrine of “Invincible Self Defense”
Bruce Fein, the former counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran has some ideas about how President Trump should approach the NATO summit. Fein believes Trump should announce a Make America Great Again doctrine of “invincible Self-Defense,” at the summit. Fein explains at The American Conservative, writing (abridged): At the forthcoming […]
Poland Wants American Troops on the Ground
Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, says President Trump should tell Poland and other European nations to provide for their own defense, rather than come calling on the U.S. to fight their battles for them. Bandow writes at The American Conservative (abridged): Before taking […]
Why are American Taxpayers Paying to Defend Wealthy Allies?
The question of whether or not America should be spending more now on defense than it was during the height of the Cold War seems silly when asked, but then what explains America’s massive defense budget? A policy of providing security for wealthy nations that could secure themselves has left America spending more on defense […]
War Dogs Reigniting Georgia/Russia Bonfire
The neocon war dogs, led unfortunately by Vice President Pence in this endeavor, are reigniting the long-simmering tension between NATO and Georgia (the country) on one side, and Russia on the other. Writing at The American Conservative, Daniel Larison tells readers Georgia will never join NATO, and that Vice President Pence implying it might is […]
Does NATO Subvert the Constitution?
Michael Scheuer makes a great case here for the unconstitutionality of the NATO treaty. The Treaty, signed nearly seventy years ago, binds today’s Congress to going to war against unknown enemies simply because they attack another allied nation. This obligation removes Congress, the only body constitutionally allowed to declare war, from the war making decision […]
NATO Gets an Earful of Pure Trump
Writing at The American Conservative, Pat Buchanan praises President Donald Trump for scolding NATO’s other leaders on their countries’ failure to adequately support the alliance with increased defense spending. In Brussels, Trump praised NATO’s decision to back the U.S. war in Afghanistan after 9/11, but did not specifically recommit to Article 5, requiring all NATO […]
Trump Scolds NATO Leaders for Their Years of Underfunding
In a speech at NATO’s new headquarters, President Trump told the leaders of the allied countries, to their faces, that they needed to pay more for the alliance’s collective defense. There had been hope by some members of the alliance that Trump was going to back off on his NATO criticism, the opposite happened. Trump […]
Just What National Interest is Being Served by a Feckless Foreign Policy?
Former CIA bin laden unit chief, Michael Scheuer, rips apart the last week of feckless foreign policy maneuvers by the Trump administration. From the bombing of Syria, to the repledging of alliances to NATO and other allies, the dropping of the MOAB, and the handling of North Korea, Scheuer leaves no sacred cows unslaughtered. He […]