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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump slamming NATO allies for not paying their share
Only 4 of 19 are paid. This speech may create waves internationally because he is the favorite to be the nominee.
David__77
(23,479 posts)...
Renew Deal
(81,869 posts)David__77
(23,479 posts)I think it reinforces a narrative that Trump is authentic. Also, I think that Trump has a narrative that he will negotiate a better deal for the US than there is at present.
polly7
(20,582 posts)By Pete Dolack
Source: Systemic Disorder
April 21, 2016
Asking others to pay more is endorsing imperialism
Is there some sort of altruism in the U.S. setting itself up as the gendarme of the world? Well, thats a rhetorical question, obviously, but such self-deception is widespread, and not just among the foreign-policy establishment.
One line of critique sometimes heard, especially during this years presidential campaign, is that the U.S. should demand its allies pay their fair share. Its not only from Right-wing quarters that phrase is heard, but even from Left populist Bernie Sanders, who insisted during this months Brooklyn debate with Hillary Clinton that other members of Nato ought to pay more so the Pentagon budget can be cut. Senator Sanders said this in the context of pointing out the superior social benefits across Europe as compared to the U.S., but what it really implies is that militarism is justified.
A partial list of U.S. interventions from 1890, as compiled by Zoltán Grossman, a professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington state, lists more than 130 foreign military interventions (not including the use of troops to put down strikes within U.S.). Consistently, these were used to impose U.S. dictates on smaller countries.
At the beginning of the 20th century, U.S. President William Howard Taft declared that his foreign policy was to include active intervention to secure our merchandise and our capitalists opportunity for profitable investment abroad. Taft overthrew the government of Nicaragua to punish it for taking a loan from a British bank rather than a U.S. bank, and then put Nicaraguas customs collections under U.S. control and handed two U.S. banks control of Nicaraguas national bank and railroad. Little has changed since, including the overthrows of the governments of Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964) and Chile (1973), and more recently the invasion of Iraq and the attempted overthrow of the Venezuelan government.
Muscle men for big business
We need only recall the statement of Marine Corps general Smedley Butler, who summarized his highly decorated career in 1935, in this manner:
I spent thirty three years and four months [in] the Marine Corps. [D]uring that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/military-spending-is-the-capitalist-worlds-fuel/
Fuck Trump. Pay for your own empire.
malaise
(269,157 posts)Precisely - he is telling the world that the US will be the only military might and then telling people in their own countries to pay for the US to remain that military might. Fuck Trump and the neo-cons
polly7
(20,582 posts)I have no interest in one red cent of my taxes going towards these atrocities - my money that provides health-care and other human rights - to maintain that overwhelming need for empire around the world? - nah ..... leave us the fuck alone. NATO being used in lying ways to destroy sovereign nations for greed and profit absolutely sickens me.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Tanzania.
Renew Deal
(81,869 posts)malaise
(269,157 posts)people's countries