Thursday, July 12, 2018

"do his own thing"

If he is not threatening to pull out from NATO what is he threatening?
In the closed-door session, Trump told his counterparts that if they did not meet their defense spending targets of 2 percent of gross domestic product by January, the United States would go it alone, according to two officials briefed on the meeting. The officials said Trump threatened to “do his own thing.” The comments appeared open to interpretation, and some officials said they never felt Trump was threatening a full pullout from NATO.
I am sure that President Trump has never thought about this, but if the U.S. pulls out of NATO and leaves its bases in Europe (especially Germany), the U.S. would have a lot less ability to project its military might into Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. While the President doesn't know this stuff, I bet John Bolton does. And he and other hawkish people in the administration are going to fight hard to not give up their dreams of slaughtering Persians.