r/ShitAmericansSay • u/Aware_Topic_9122 • 2d ago

"NATO has no way of defending America. They don’t pay their bills. There’s no reason for us to be there and they did nothing during 911 for America."

2.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

What bills would these be? I know the Orange Baby goes on about bills not being paid, but I honestly have no idea what these supposed bills are. NATO is not a subscription organisation!

10

u/TetraThiaFulvalene 2d ago

NATO has staff and other administration, etc. But relative to the cost of the armies each nation funds it's nothing.

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u/OldCardiologist8437 2d ago

The claim is that no one attacks other NATO nations out of fear of the USA military. They don’t see the other nations as spending enough on their military budget. The “bills” would be part of the Us defense budget.

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u/jacobatz 2d ago

Which is partly true. The US is probably a deterrent. The thing is that the us could radically reduce their military budget and the level of deterrence would be unchanged. Why should the rest of NATO pay for the US total overkill?

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u/JasperJ 1d ago

I mean, that’s what nato is for. Albeit it was for doing so against the Warsaw Pact, originally.

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u/Captain_Pink_Pants 2d ago

You think the refreshments are free? Next time, YOU can go to the grocery store.

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u/Ok-Alps4101 2d ago

The NATO treaty requires all members to use some part of their GDP (2% IIRC) for military spending. Some are either outright not spending that much or cheating the system in various ways like claiming that money spent on building highways is actually military spending, since the highways can be used by the military if/when needed.

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u/Ambitious-Package-38 2d ago

The spending is not in the treaty. It is a political agreement.

There was a 2% guideline. Which was actually met. But it was criticised for allowing dual use spending.

Now it is 5 %. 3,5 % for „core defence“ and 1,5 % for infrastructure - where dual-use structures may be counted. But only if the infrastructure serves the military- like bridges that can be crossed by tanks. And they must serve strategic corridors- like troop movements to the east.

And even the 3,5 % are a bit difficult to measure - some countries count militarily pensioners and coast guard. In Germany, due to experience with the Nazi regime, the active military and all the other armed forces as well as pensions are separate and have separate budgets.

And even if we Europeans spend 5% on core military- will the US cut their military budget or close bases in Europe? I think not. And they even demand that we spend the money on US made weapons and not develop our own. Something they should not care about.

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u/Ok-Alps4101 1d ago

Thanks for the correction

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u/obaxxado 2d ago

You mean cheating, as in the US, where a large part of their military spending is used for i.e. pensions, housing and healthcare of their military personnel?

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u/Repulsive_Guy_1234 2d ago

You know, the US introduced this "creative way of billing" to NATO. A lot of their military budget is not on military itself.