I believe Canada and others that don't meet NATO obligations should be given a chance but if they don't spend 2% VERY soon, they should be kicked out. They're playing us for suckers. Pete Hegseth was talking about countries playing Uncle Sam for suckers. Europe is also on notice.
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Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime. -
NATO is losing patience with one of its own members — and it’s not who you think
Canada has been dodging its commitment to NATO for a decade. It may not be able to hold out for much longer.
Over the past several years, Ottawa has become an outlier among the 32-member alliance. It has failed to hit domestic military spending goals, has fallen short on benchmarks to fund new equipment and has no plans to get there.
It’s a stance that has frustrated allies far and wide — from the White House to the halls of Congress to capitals all over Europe.
And it’ll be on members’ minds when they gather this week in Washington for the NATO Summit, where they are expected to press Ottawa to come up with the cash while warning that things could get much worse if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
“What’s happening now that everyone is spending more, the fact that the Canadians aren’t even trying has become obvious,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department arms control official.
It’s perhaps surprising that Canada is a laggard on spending even though it’s proven to be a strong ally in other arenas, from its purchase of U.S. weapons to its close coordination with the U.S. in defending North America to its deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
But interviews with a half-dozen diplomats from NATO countries make clear that when it comes to defense spending, allies are fed up.
“They’re going to continue to be obstinate” because there is no real penalty for failing to meet the alliance goal, said one U.S. congressional staffer, who like others quoted in this story was granted anonymity to speak freely about a close ally. “Europeans are frustrated that they’re being criticized and Canada is not feeling the same pressure from Washington.”
One of the 12 founding members of NATO, Canada readily signed the 2014 pledge to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea in Ukraine. The alliance as a whole might have been slow to get there, but this year, 23 of the 32 NATO members will hit the mark as fears grow along the alliance’s eastern front over Putin’s plans.
Two of the holdouts are Canada and Belgium, both of which are not only failing to meet the 2 percent goal but also the requirement to spend 20 percent of that on new equipment.
Unlike Canada, however, Belgium says it’ll get there by 2035. When will Canada? They won’t say.
The Canadian case is particularly frustrating, the diplomats say, because of Ottawa’s seeming lack of urgency, despite significant problems with its aging military equipment and its strong economy. Its military is so underfunded that half of its equipment is considered “unavailable and unserviceable” according to a leaked internal report.
“The Canadian public doesn’t really see the need,” said Philippe Lagassé, Barton chair at Canada’s Carleton University. “If forced to choose between defense spending, social programs or reducing taxes, defense would always come last. So there’s no political gain to meeting the pledge.”
Canada’s stance prompted a bipartisan group of 23 U.S. senators to take the exceedingly rare step of sending a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in May saying they were “concerned and profoundly disappointed that Canada’s most recent projection indicated that it will not reach its 2 percent commitment this decade.”Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime. -
Hilarious
What a rhubarb
Let's start with Mississippi.
For failing to pay enough to Federal government
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