NATO Spending: Buildings Yes, Troops No

            NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for those of you in college) opened its vast and lavish new headquarters last year, a building that was being constructed even as countries such as England slashed their defense budgets. The immense and showy edifice, located in Brussels, Belgium, cost $1.23 billion to erect. Upon completion, NATO proudly published photographs of the structure, noting that it would facilitate bureaucratic endeavors.

President Trump’s attendance at the recent NATO Summit raised the visibility of the ostentatious building, especially as he was trying to convince other member nations to spend less time suckling on the American teat-- by increasing the amount they spend on their own defense, which is, in many cases, almost nothing. Of course, the reason most of the member nations pay out only 1 or 2 percent of their GDP to defend themselves is that the politicians in these socialist-lite welfare states channel the vast majority of their country’s tax revenues into “entitlement” spending, thereby paying off the least productive members of society and buying their votes. And because they are used to the United States paying for everything, and are startled when informed this may not go on unquestioned in perpetuity. And possibly because they no longer believe in themselves, no longer believe in their heritage, no longer consider themselves worth fighting for.

Most NATO nation’s leaders are not big Trump fans, but it’s just possible that the Very Stable Genius is attempting to breathe new life into a moribund West.

The simple fact is that most NATO countries have not been meeting their commitments for military spending. So, to witness the staggering amount of money these nations have spent on a building for bureaucrats to play in is disheartening.

Germany, for example, is arguably the wealthiest of the European nations, yet, in recent years, its troops have trained with broom handles in lieu of guns, and reports state that only four of its Eurofighter jets—out of a fleet of 128—are combat-ready. No one wants a return to the Third Reich, but Germany should do what is right. And in its best interest.

Screwing the troops, who risk it all on the front line, in favor of lavishing spending on bureaucrats scurrying around a cavernous safe-space shuffling their feet and their papers is an affront to logic and decency. In neutron-bomb-like fashion, our long-time European allies appear intent on making sure their buildings will stand, but their troops will fall.

The Deep State will not protect us. Our militaries will.

If we let them.