No More Free Ride

Writing for Fox News, J. D. Gordon argues Trump is correct about Europe not paying its own way when it comes to defense. COTTonLINE readers know we've made the same point. See what Gordon writes:

NATO is an alliance of 28 nations with a population of more than 910 million. America makes up over 1/3 the population, yet pays nearly three quarters of the defense expenditures. Each country is supposed to pay 2 percent of their GDP on defense. Yet only America, the U.K., Greece, Estonia and Poland are currently meeting their obligations.

According to World Bank figures, during 2011-2015 America spent about 3.5 percent of GDP on military expenditures. Meanwhile, our wealthy NATO allies aren’t even coming close. Italy: 1.4%; Germany: 1.2%; Canada: 1%; Spain: 0.9%. Over in Asia, Japan has spent 1.0 percent and South Korea 2.6%.

Bottom line, our allies must get serious about defense. If they can’t pull their own weight, why should we go broke carrying them on our backs?

Time for a fresh approach.

Gordon echoes what we wrote on March 29; it's high time Europe carried its own share of NATO costs. If they won't, perhaps NATO has past its sell-by date.