[Goose]

All fair. Maybe we should be looking closer at European defense spending. They are starting at lower levels and are closer to the problem. We may see more willingness there to add to defense budgets and troop numbers.  Countries about which we’ve had qualms — like Turkey, Hungary, and Poland — may be key to making this work. The challenge of a more aggressive Russia may force the West to be more realist in its foreign policy. The idealism of the Arab Spring didn’t work so well; let’s see if this works out better.

Poland has been pretty much at their 2% of GDP requirement. They are increasing it to 3%, at least in theory. They are doing all they can IMHO. Turkey is also pretty well armed. The question there is political reliability. Hungary is a zero and will remain there. They don't have the money and their internal politics are not going toward more NATO participation. That won't change unless the internal political situation radically changes. Italy is already doing a lot but they just don't have the money to do more. Spain is in the same situation. The real keys are Germany, France, and the Netherlands. They can and should do much more. Making that happen won't be easy. The populations of these countries that are under 40 or so have no memory of the times they spent more money on the military and had UMT. They simply don't think it should be done. Changing that is the problem, and the politicians aren't really motivated to do it.

[Goose]

All fair. Maybe we should be looking closer at European defense spending. They are starting at lower levels and are closer to the problem. We may see more willingness there to add to defense budgets and troop numbers.  Countries about which we’ve had qualms — like Turkey, Hungary, and Poland — may be key to making this work. The challenge of a more aggressive Russia may force the West to be more realist in its foreign policy. The idealism of the Arab Spring didn’t work so well; let’s see if this works out better.

Poland has been pretty much at their 2% of GDP requirement. They are increasing it to 3%, at least in theory. They are doing all they can IMHO. Turkey is also pretty well armed. The question there is political reliability. Hungary is a zero and will remain there. They don't have the money and their internal politics are not going toward more NATO participation. That won't change unless the internal political situation radically changes. Italy is already doing a lot but they just don't have the money to do more. Spain is in the same situation. The real keys are Germany, France, and the Netherlands. They can and should do much more. Making that happen won't be easy. The populations of these countries that are under 40 or so have no memory of the times they spent more money on the military and had UMT. They simply don't think it should be done. Changing that is the problem, and the politicians aren't really motivated to do it.