"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message link.net...
"Brian" wrote:

Wow. I never knew that NATO benefitted
the USA. I always assumed that it was just
another welfare agency that sucked us dry.

So please detail the benefits that the USA
receives, and don't tell me it's an unlimited
supply of blue helmuts.

You need to study up on national defense, Brian.

True, I haven't been an instrument of national policy since December
31, 1996. Things have probably changed a lot.

NATO, even today, is
critical to our strategic defense in that region of the world. Likewise,
bases in Europe play an important role in many lesser conflicts overseas
(refueling, supply, protection for ships passing through that area, area
commands, and so on). Europe could defend itself today. We benefit that
defense just as they benefit our defense. Therefore, we need those bases in
Europe just about as much as they need us.

Dwight, things haven't changed -that- much. You've somehow rolled
national defense and NATO into the United Nations. It just isn't so.

Brian