NATO thoughts

[HoosierHelen]

Reading about the NATO demonstrations in Chicago today….I have thoughts on the role the US is playing in NATO…

What if…rather than simply the renewal of our military aid to foreign nations as we determine our next budget, what about requiring each recipient nation to present their case to the US each year as to the reasons we should remain supporting their military defense? What would double the effect would be to require the recipient nations to account for how they spent last years military aid. (hopefully not lobbying our congress for next year's aid?)

Given the great need for investments in infrastructure in our own nation, our increased need for research & development, also the great need for enhanced education for our own citizens, and health care for our own citizens, it seems prudent that we pay attention to nations such as Pakistan, Israel and others with their true military agendas and the drain they take from our national budget that could be better invested in our own nation?

[ARMYMPVET]

I totally agree that the money we spend anually to prop up these countries could be better spent here at home. As for Isreal, I think we continue to support them with money and arms for the simple fact that if needed, we havea ready base of operations in which to stage military action from. Isreal is 65 years old. We need to support true allies but I think they can stand on their own two feet. Pakistan just needs contaiment.

[HoosierHelen]

Remember the huge reward the US offered for anyone leading us to finding OBL? Unfortunately, it appears that rather than this reward he got 33 yrs in a Pakistan prison. :-(
Geez...seems like we should have stood by this man a bit more solid than we apparently have?

Then Pakistan has the nerve to try to raise our transportation fees for passing through their country on the now closed supply line. Of course...they showed up to accept their US aid check. Thankfully we did reduce the amount.

Below are a couple of snippets from today's Huffington Post on this topic.


PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was sentenced to 33 years in prison on Wednesday for conspiring against the state, officials said, a verdict that is likely to further strain the country's relationship with Washington.
Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad where U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida chief last May in a unilateral raid. The operation outraged Pakistani officials, who portrayed it as an act of treachery by a supposed ally.
Senior U.S. officials have called for Afridi to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests. But many Pakistani officials, especially those working for the country's powerful spy agency, do not see it that way.
___________
Despite its disagreements with the U.S., Pakistan appeared close to reopening the supply routes last week, prompting NATO to invite President Asif Ali Zardari to a major summit earlier this week in Chicago. But negotiations have faltered on Pakistan's demand for much higher transit fees, and the U.S. made its frustration clear at the summit.
President Barack Obama refused to meet one-on-one with Zardari and did not mention Pakistan in the list of countries he thanked in his speech Monday for helping get war supplies into Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, a Senate panel approved a foreign aid budget for next year that slashes U.S. assistance to Pakistan by more than half and threatens further reductions if it fails to open the NATO supply routes.
American lawmakers are also frustrated by suspicions that Pakistan is aiding militants who use its territory to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan – allegations Islamabad has rejected. There is also lingering resentment over the fact that bin Laden was found hiding deep inside Pakistan.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1538746.html