>There is this treaty we signed in 1949 called the North Atlantic Treaty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Treaty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nort

>There is this treaty we signed in 1949 called the North Atlantic Treaty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Treaty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Treaty), in which we promised the Germans (and the other signatory nations) that we would consider an attack on them as an attack on ourselves. That promise is what underpins NATO, the alliance that is the foundation of American strategy in Europe. Which made perfect sense during the cold war. What doesn't make sense is we're still in NATO, or even that NATO exists at all. We should definitely leave the organization. >It would be a huge deal, arguably the biggest deal in European politics since the formation of the EU (and maybe even before that). Oh, absolutely. The Europeans would be really upset, since they'd have to spend more than 2% on their own defense. But... that's not really my problem, is it? How big is the Russian economy compared to the combined economy of the non-US NATO countries? If the Russians are in a position to dominate Europe from the position of relative economic weakness, who's fault is that? Of course we should give them time to build their strength, so I'd wait six or seven years before striking the flag. That's plenty of time.