NATO: TRUMP RIGHT AGAIN

TRUMP RAISES ISSUE OF NATO. UNFAIR TO US TAXPAYER, NEEDS RESTRUCTURING. KUDOS TO TRUMP!

Our homeland is in trouble. We have been on a wrong-way course now for decades. Our nation is today a land of big debts, faltering economy, lost good paying jobs, massive inequalities in wealth and income, porous borders, unfettered immigration, trade deficits which favor our foreign partners, as well as losses on the battlefield, and deep seated corruption in Washington. I envision our homeland in a foxhole, like those the doughboys dug in basic training. I see all the other candidates, the "presidential hopefuls" busily digging themselves down deeper and deeper in the bottom of that hole, while proclaiming they are "going to solve our problems"...but applying the same shovel to the same dirt and going down, down, down.

The sole exception is Donald Trump, who seems to be able to rise up to look over the rubble-piled edge. While the others are busy digging deeper, he peers outward and views another option, a possible solution. He raised issues the other candidates have ignored..our waves of immigrants, our porous borders, our illegals, our unequal trade balances, our loss of jobs overseas, and now our relationship with NATO.

My career happily gave me a wonderful opportunity to travel widely in Europe. Coming home after a long stay abroad, I always marveled at the Europe I left, and their up-scale life style. They had then and still have some of the best highways, most advanced infrastructure, fastest broadband, longest vacations, best services, abundant social safety net and world class healthcare. Yes, we have to admit it, we may make more money here, but our life style is only second rate. Those Japanese, the French and Germans live pretty nice lives. How could that be?

The ready answer is that, here in the USA, we as taxpayers are saddled with the costs of a massive military establishment, which at over $600 billion dollars annually, 900 bases around the world, and millions in uniform, is designed and projected to protect the entire free world...not just our shores. Yes, we are paying not simply for our own "defense", but to defend them too! The abused American taxpayer pays through the nose to make life safe for the Japanese, the Koreans, the French, and Germans and the rest of the so-called "free world". These people, unburdened from their own defense costs, get to spend their energies on beating us at trade and to live it up, while, we have to shell out our meager earnings to keep them safe. NATO is one of our biggest foreign military expenses. We foot the major part of that bill.

Looking over the edge of the foxhole...the Donald saw the stupidity of our NATO position and called it right again. Let's restructure NATO to reflect the modern reality. Make our so-called allies pay their fair share of legitimate defense costs. Let's refocus NATO on terrorism rather than a land war with the now extinct Soviets.

Let us use those freed-up funds to rebuild our infrastructure, our highways and our nation. Kudos to Trump who again sees the world as it really is and is not afraid to say what he thinks.