It looks like General Mattis laid the smack down at a NATO meeting yesterday, telling our allies that America will no longer carry a disproportionate share of the defense and that they need to pay their fair share or else American will moderate its commitment to the alliance:
THE HILL – Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday delivered an ultimatum to NATO during his first meeting there as Pentagon chief: Pay more or the U.S. will “moderate its commitment.”
“I owe it to you all to give you clarity on the political reality in the United States, and to state the fair demand from my country’s people in concrete terms,” Mattis said during the closed-door meeting, according to the Washington Post.
“America will meet its responsibilities, but if your nations do not want to see America moderate its commitment to the alliance, each of your capitals needs to show its support for our common defense.”
Just five of 28 members meet the alliance’s goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense: the U.S., the United Kingdom, Greece, Estonia and Poland.
Mattis, though, said in the meeting that it’s now a “governmental reality” that the United States would lose patience with members being slow to meet the spending target.
“No longer can the American taxpayer carry a disproportionate share of the defense of western values,” Mattis said. “Americans cannot care more for your children’s security than you do. Disregard for military readiness demonstrates a lack of respect for ourselves, for the alliance and for the freedoms we inherited, which are now clearly threatened.”
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pushing our allies to meet their financial obligations to NATO. Flynn makes clear that America will continue to meet its responsibilities.
I understand that Trump’s language from the campaign trail of calling NATO obsolete is troublesome, but Mattis did not carry that message to our allies. So the media shouldn’t make this into something that it is not.