Obama Wants to Quadruple Military Spending in Europe
Panicking to contain Putin after the reset button didn’t work.
Only a year ago, Obama was berating Russian president Vladimir Putin for his “KGB mentality” and “old expansionist ideas.” Now, however, Obama wants to quadruple military spending in Europe.
President Barack Obama’s administration said Tuesday it was seeking to expand U.S. military spending in Europe four-fold in a bid to reassure allies still unsettled by Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.
The new spending would increase to $3.4 billion under the new plan, which is set to be formally unveiled next week as part of Obama’s final presidential budget.
. . . . In a statement, the President said Tuesday’s announcement “should make clear that America will stand firm with its allies in defending not just NATO territory but also shared principles of international law and order.”
He said at an upcoming meeting of NATO leaders in Poland the discussion would center on bolstering military commitments among the nations.
“It is clear that the United States and our allies must do more to advance our common defense in support of a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace,” Obama said.
Obama’s naive and fawning approach to Russia has had the opposite of its intended effect. Remember his promise of greater “flexibility“?
Obama and Hillary’s disastrous 2009 “reset” with Russia and the related move to scrap the missile defense system in Europe—a move about which Poland and the Czech Republic were less than thrilled, while Russia of course, was ecstatic—was a mistake.
At the time, the Washington Post wrote of Obama’s decision to abandon Poland and our European allies:
The abrupt reversal of U.S. defense policy immediately brought plaudits from Russian officials, who had viewed the prospect of an American missile shield system on their country’s western border as an affront. The shift raised the possibility of greater cooperation between the two powers on containing the Iranian threat and in negotiating an extension of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires in early December.
Obama’s weak and feckless foreign policy regarding Russia in general and Putin particular has done nothing but emboldened Putin and undermine our allies’ trust in the U.S.
Was it really only a few short years ago that Obama was mocking Mitt Romney for noting, quite rightly, that Russia was a top geopolitical threat?
It’s probably too much to hope that this announcement about strengthening our military presence in Europe is rooted in Obama suddenly seeing the world as it is rather than as he imagines it should be.
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Comments
the #FirstFailure strikes again…
so much for your peace dividend, jug ears.
Let Europe spill its own blood for once.
Agree. The Euro folk need to stop bolstering Islam and start gearing up for survival in an uncertain world.
We’re going to be paying for this excursion into delusional thinking for years.
If we’re fortunate enough to have the time…
We may not have much time. Erdogan in Turkey has his eyes on Syria, Russian forces be damned.
Oh.
NOW he wants to strengthen our presence in Europe.
Seven years in front of a mirror, ecstatic at his own reflection, and now suddenly he wants to look strong. Too late, wussy.
Obama Wants to Quadruple Military Spending in Europe
Hey, wait a minute. Obama was corrosively sarcastic about American military spending overseas. And his speeches made him the darling, the leader of the ‘free world’ internationally, at the Brandenburg Gate and elsewhere.
Come on, Europeans. ‘Obama’s gonna lead us’, right?
Obama, it’s too late for you to promise American taxpayer dollars to shield the Europeans from their own social-democratic naivete. You’re on the way out. But you could spend your remaining political capital for once in a constructive way.
Go back to the Brandenburg Gate, assemble the fawning multitudes, and convince them – you’re the most eloquent man on the planet – that they’d better ramp up their own military spending and training to the point they can defend themselves. You’re the only man who can do that job, and you owe your bamboozled constituents this one final act of humility and compassion.
waitaminnit! Putin knows his economy is collapsing around his ears so he needs to divert people’s attention. The same is true for us, in that al-Chicagi knows our economy can’t keep printing money. So he needs to deflect attention away from his next goal (US General Secretary). this move is perfectly in line with his need to show strength against the West while simultaneously giving Putin and Co. a dodge into Levant.
Our military leaders are preparing for Climate Wars. That’s where the money will be spent.
“Shoot down those CO2s, men! Obama’s legacy depends on it!”
‘to reassure allies still unsettled by Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.” ummm… what? They took Crimea and created a “frozen war” in Donbass.
Putin, for all his complaining about “color revolutions” is an expert at exploiting Europe’s ethnic tensions. They recently had their own “color revolution” in Moldova.
Why should the USA threaten war with Russia over Islam?
This is now Obama campaigning for the UN President of the World position. His personality cult demands it.
Obama’s foreign negligence-y has produced a net result of what normal people would expect: a world of Insecurity and Uncertainty just about everywhere one looks, wherever the Obama virus has spread.
Obama could have reinforced Europe years ago. But that would have been the wise thing to do.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/07/30/how-obama-lost-poland/
Where are the details? Is this to support or to fight the “refugee” army that has invaded the eu?
Obama requesting military funds? I smell a rat. I smell eastern European abortion clinics and climate change indoctrination efforts as a large part of this ‘military’ expenditure. I smell a whole herd of rats.
The approved words for a group of rats is given as
“Colony, Pack, Plague, Swarm”
Another source says:
horde, mischief, rabble
so I am beginning to smell a rat…perhaps not everything on the Internet can be trusted….
We can add a ‘party’ of rats now.
tmiker–My first thought too: European governments are no doubt anticipating that they might need serious military help defending their “guest refugees” and wimpy officials from the “civil unrest” of truly angry native Europeans.
I have a better idea: how about asking Europeans to defend their own damned continent?
Germany. France. UK. Italy. Spain. Not one of them is anywhere close to the NATO target on defense spending (2% of GDP). The German military was in the news recently for a variety of ailments related to low spending, with aircraft that can’t fly, tanks that can’t move, etc.
There are a few small countries such as Estonia that are spending more recently — I wonder why? But the big powers there won’t do it; their money is going into their NHS, environmental ablation, and immigrant welcome-wagons.
As an American I’ll spend with people for democracy and freedom. But I resent being taken advantage of. If the Y’urp-peons want our help they have to start helping themselves. Not one dime from us until they get their own defense spending up.
Sorry people. You are all thinking of the “old” Europe whereas Obama is thinking of the rising Islamic Europe. Get it?
Obama fooled you all again. The Islamist army is already in Europe. They just don’t have any weapons. What better way for Obama to supply them with needed weapons. Tons of small arms, tow missiles, manpads, M1 tanks and troop carriers will be shipped and stored throughout Europe, just like was done in Iraq. Then, when those guarding the storage depots are out for climate change indocrination, the Islamist army will make it’s move.
The Europeans don’t seem to care about being invaded by Muslims from, well, anywhere, why would they care about being invaded by their fraternal socialist comrade Russians from Eastern Europe?
Unless Germany, France and the UK, at a minimum, are willing to step up and do the same, we shouldn’t even consider it.
If they aren’t willing to defend themselves, why should we?
The whole continent would be better off under Putin’s rule anyway – at least Russia would never have allowed the Muslim invasion to occur and even now its clear that only Russia, Poland and maybe a few other Eastern European countries have the stones to actually deport as needed.
“We all hate Obama because he doesn’t do XXX.”
He does XXX.
“We all hate Obama because he didn’t do XXX soon enough and, anyway, he isn’t doing it for the ‘right’ reason!”
Such lazy writing. WHERE IS THE PRIDE?