Military Experts and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Positions Agree with Trump on NATO

President Obama met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office on Monday, in a photo-op meant to rebuke Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who questions whether there’s still a need for the NATO defense alliance in the format it has had since 1949. The announced purpose of the meeting was to discuss the March terrorist attacks in Brussels, home of NATO headquarters, as well as the surge of refugees driven from Syria and Iraq by ISIS. But, it oozed politics, because Trump, still the GOP front-runner despite a massive effort to dethrone him, is questioning US alliances, including NATO. Obama told the media : "NATO continues to be a linchpin, a cornerstone of our collective defense and US security policy." Stoltenberg called the alliance "as important as ever....Terrorism affects everyone from Brussels to San Bernardino." He didn't take reporters’ questions about Trump’s remarks. ~~~~~ White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the meeting, on NATO's 67th anniversary, had nothing to do with Trump : "[It] was actually organized shortly after the beginning of the year...long before Mr. Trump’s ill-advised comments." Only Earnest mentioned Trump by name, but the Obama/Stoltenberg message was clear. ~~~~~ Trump has called NATO "obsolete" and says the US pays “far too much” for the alliance, which includes former Soviet republics that want its support against Russia. Obama said the alliance would back eastern Europe, noting that NATO is helping Ukraine, a non-member, improve its defensive capabilities while the alliance negotiates with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine’s eastern provinces held by Russia-backed separatists. Obama said he and Stoltenberg also discussed "what’s been happening in the southern plane of NATO" where more than a million migrants have tried to enter Europe in the last year, driven by ISIS aggression in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Obama said NATO will work with the EU "to help prevent the tragedy we saw last summer," when thousands of migrants drowned crossing the Mediterranean. ~~~~~ Trump argues that NATO should be reconfigured for current needs, with other members, which both he and Obama call "free riders," paying more. Obama stands by the US commitment to NATO, while saying most other NATO members don’t meet the goal of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product on defense. NATO, in a report last June, estimated that five of the alliance’s 28 members -- the US, Poland, the UK, Greece and Estonia -- meet the 2% threshold. ~~~~~ Trump’s criticisms of NATO are supported by analysts who argue the military alliance should get more scrutiny by Washington. Trump calls for NATO to be more focused on counter-terrorism, which defense experts say is happening in Europe anyway, independently of NATO. However, they say there could be more focus on non-traditional threats. Others credit Trump with highlighting the need to discuss NATO. Retired Army Colonel John Bonsell, a former senior GOP aide on the Senate Armed Services Committee, says : "In watching the debates on both sides, I haven’t really seen the new world debated and how we’re going to approach [it] and what that means for defense. So if this spurs a debate, I’m happy." Job Henning, a defense analyst who advocates broad NATO reform, says : “When Trump talks about NATO being obsolete, it is dismissed as crazy rhetoric. But he is actually asking questions that are pretty similar to what a lot of people have been asking....NATO hasn’t been updated to serve our interests....It didn’t provide a current security environment...that could have helped us avoid what happened with Ukraine, and with Syria." ~~~~~ Dear readers, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also met with Stoltenberg. The Senators echoed Trump, telling Stoltenberg he must work with NATO members to reduce the US contribution of 72% of NATO total defense expenditures, or face angry American taxpayers. Most of the Senators see NATO as an indispensable alliance that is in serious need of updating. We can all agree with that. Thank you, Mr. Trump.