Mattis to NATO nations: Increase military spending

[MrWasabi]

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;51827540]If we were to abandon NATO, it'll be our s loss more than anyone. NATO gives us staging points from all over Europe.[/QUOTE]

Not really. We'd still keep our bases in Italy, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Our [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_forces_agreement"]'[B]SOFA[/B]' agreements[/URL] are brokered directly with the Government of each respective country, not thru NATO just like our bases in Japan, Korea, UK (Diego Garcia Specifically) and Australia. So we could technically dissolve NATO today and keep those staging areas. We WOULD lose any basing ability in every other country that has a multinational NATO presence or capability such as Hungary, France, Baltic sisters etc. but we don't really see those as 'strategically' important which is why we don't have a permanent presence in any of those countries. Even if we wanted to base out of those countries the agreement to do so would be done directly through the Government.

[Saturn V]

[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;51828206]What's the benefit other than Europe being able to mooch off of the US's military strength?[/QUOTE]

idk maybe to prevent putin from having fun with the baltics

[Download]

[QUOTE=Whoaly;51827593]This argument only works if you're an imperialist though.[/QUOTE]

How imperialistic of the US to spend all that money defending Europe from the Soviets and the Russians.

[editline]16th February 2017[/editline]

[QUOTE=nikomo;51828072]Countries that overspend on their armed forces typically are financial hell holes.[/QUOTE]

Unstable countries that don't pay their military suffer coups.