Not to mention avoiding spending more on national defense because of massive US military presence (this mainly applies to France and, especially, Germany). I believe we do spend too much on our military, but the figures cannot be taken at face value. The UN, NATO, and many European governments have become overly reliant on US troops and military funding.And what does your country as well as France, Germany, Japan, ad-nausea do with the profits generated from selling us the ingredients or supplying the bases?
This really is the crux of the issue. Our allies know that we will defend them if they require defending and as a result have massively reduced the sizes of their militaries since WWII.RageSk8 said:Not to mention avoiding spending more on national defense because of massive US military presence (this mainly applies to France and, especially, Germany). .... The UN, NATO, and many European governments have become overly reliant on US troops and military funding.
This hurts our allies, us, and the international community. If the US would decrease its military presence in Europe and Europe would build its respective armed forces than both the UN and NATO would be stronger because of it. People complain about the US dominance of NATO - fine, complain, but if you want NATO to be stronger and more multilateral countries like France and Germany need to support it with more money and troops. The US is currently in a very bad situation in the UN - we still constitute most of its power but no longer have same type of sway (this is do to ideological fallout of course, nothing structural).This really is the crux of the issue. Our allies know that we will defend them if they require defending and as a result have massively reduced the sizes of their militaries since WWII.
I actually think this is a bad idea. The EU wants to, in part, counter American dominance. It would be better if Europe balanced American power in NATO. Not only would this lead to a much stronger force than the current NATO (and the hypothetical EU army for that matter), but it would promote better international relations. Besides, everyone knows that France and Germany are to the EU as the US is to NATO (and used to be to the UN). Too much politics in Europe are reactionary against the US.Actually most in Europe want NATO gone. That's why the EU is working toward creating its own army.