• March 28, 2024

VP Mike Pence Gives NATO A Deadline To Pay Up

When now President Donald Trump told the world that the nations making up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) essentially were freeloading off of American foreign policy largesse, the national security apparatus collectively clutched their pearls.  That particular alliance is a sacred cow, it was agreed.  How dare Trump point out that the US was carrying just about all of the member nations in the fight against…the Soviet Union.  (Really, the 60s, 70s and 80s called.  James Bond and the double 0s have no nationalist enemies any more.)

In yet another example of the Trump administration ignoring all previously agreed to rules of publicity and engagement, Vice President Mike Pence gave a statement in Brussels on Monday indicating that the clock is ticking for the member nations of NATO to get their act together.  Emphasized by Ed Morrissey at HotAir:

US President Donald Trump expects NATO allies to make real progress by the end of this year towards meeting the increased defence spending target agreed by the alliance, his Vice President Mike Pence said Monday.

“The president and the American people expect our allies to keep their word and to do more in our common defence … the president expects real progress by the end of 2017,” he said.

“If you have a plan to get there, our alliance needs you to accelerate it,” Pence said. “If you don’t yet have a plan, these are my words, not his — get one. It is time for actions, not words.”

That is CEO/good dad speak for GROW UP, and figure out how you are going to support the consortium or be treated like the leaches you really are.

This, of course, is not sitting well with the European Union crowd.  From Yahoo News:

Tusk, a former Polish premier, said that Europeans “truly needed” the meeting with Pence and that the 28-nation bloc counted on “wholehearted and unequivocal” US support.

“Too much has happened over the past month in your country and in the EU … for us to pretend that everything is as it used to be,” Tusk said.

That’s because it’s not.  The sooner world governments realize this, the sooner all the pearl clutching from the professional angst mongers will stop.

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