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> Trump was the first but won’t be the last US president pushing for disengagement from the Old World[...] It was Obama who started pushing for the 2% policy a
by avar 6y ago
> Trump was the first but won’t be the last US president pushing for disengagement from the Old World[...]
It was Obama who started pushing for the 2% policy and got NATO countries to agree to ramp spending up to that before 2024[1].
Before that there's been decades of the US trying to push Europe to take defense spending more seriously.
Trump's had more juvenile rhetoric on the issue, but he fundamentally wasn't saying anything to NATO or enacting any policies that Obama pursuing before him.
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/world/europe/europe-begins-to-rethink-cuts.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/world/europe/europe-begin...
- toyg 6y agoYeah but with Obama and his predecessors it was just about money, everyone knew the score. This could be bargained at diplomatic level with other stuff. Trump looked willing and able to actually do the unthinkable and redeploy away, irrespective of strategic considerations, and his closeness with Putin and Erdogan was unsettling. Biden will likely mark a return to the old haggling, but in 4 years' time the US might get another strongman and we'd be at risk again. Democracy will always need an arsenal, and it's not a given anymore that the US really want to be that arsenal.