Germany is swimming in tax revenues, but won't spend enough on defense to keep more than one out of four of its fighter aircraft in service at any given moment. I'm for a strong NATO, but we don't have one and can't get one whether we want it or not.At World War II's end, the U.S. made a decision to defend Western Europe to forestall World War III. Like anybody offered something for nothing, the Europeans took the sweet deal. Then like anybody on the dole, they became drones, unwilling to exert themselves in their own defense. Perhaps Trump will call their bluff.
Analogy: my best students always hated group projects. Because they cared more about their grades they ended up doing most of the work, while the slackers had a free ride and shared the grade. In today's NATO, the Germanys and Italys and Belgiums are the slackers, we're the good student who makes the effort to succeed while they coast along on our coattails.
I have a radical policy suggestion: what if the U.S. indicated that, beginning in 24 months, we'd only defend those nations which were actually meeting their current year NATO obligation of spending 2% of GDP on defense? Nations unwilling/unable to meet their obligations would be publicly declared "associate" NATO members, not "members in good standing" entitled to defense.
