Quote Originally Posted by VictorCharlie View Post
Tito,

I couldn't agree more we should have told France to go it alone but basically the called in their favor. We pulled the NATO mutual defense card for Afghanistan and they basically said you owe us on this one. The really glaring part about the whole thing is US military strength has basically allowed our NATO partners to become practically useless for any real combined effort. I'm not saying a British Para is a watered down version of our 82nd or Rangers but the fact that NATO couldn't handle Libya w/o us (our technology) is very telling. If it were up to me I'd pack up our shit and bring it home then tell the world they can go it alone for a while.


I think we're homing in on the root cause, Victor. The smart thing for the U.S. to do would be to address the NATO in the following manner:



"Look guys, for whatever reason, we're always seen as the meddling bad guys in conflicts across the globe. The whole purpose of NATO is to have a unified global power precisely for the resolution of conflicts in different parts of the world that could potentially spill over and affect other nations. Right now, you're (NATO) a bunch of wimps, basically depending on us, big bad U.S.A., to come running over and put out whatever fires flare up across the world. And for our troubles, we're hated by most of the Arab world, and a few other countries. This, in turn, helps fuel the acts of terrorism against our citizens, both in our own country and abroad.

We can't go back and undo the past. But we ask... no... we demand that NATO implements an action plan to strengthen its forces sooner rather than later, so we can go back to concentrating on our own affairs, and take a break from this bad guy image we've gotten. We're tired of getting shit all over us every time we're asked (or not) to come to the rescue. That is not our job exclusively. All other allied nations have to stop leaning on us, knowing we'll do the dirty work and get shit on in return."

Regards,
Uncle Sam