Originally Posted by
West Coast
Germany and many other euro nations have become accustomed to the US providing the heavy lifting for NATO. It’s been grinding on a number of US administrations that the burden for Europe’s defenses has fallen on US taxpayers so don’t make this a Trump thing, it was an Obama thing and a Bush thing prior as well.
It’s time for that to change. Europe should lead the defense from a threat from a fellow European nation, not the US.
Based on one of the Ike biographies I read, it's been a contentious issue as far back as the lata 50's and early 60's, and when I was a JO, during the 80's, it was a very public harangue on who was or was not meeting their fiscal commitments to the Alliance. (It would crop up in Aviation Week and Space Technology, of all places).
I am surprised that it has taken this long to get the footprint down, but as it's a political thing there are a variety of snags and obstacles to various key decisions to leave a particular place. Shutting down DoD facilities in Vieques and Puerto Rico happened at light speed, in comparison. (And while my memory may be hazy, once President Aquino (Philippines) said "You are invited to leave" it didn't take long to start folding the tents. The volcano (Pinatubo) merely hastened what had already begun).