"Mike Lindo" wrote:

(snip) The European countries and also
Japan do not spend a large percentage
on defense because they are depending
on the U.S. to pull their, "chestnuts out
of the fire", if anything comes up. (snip)


It angers me to see people in this country trashing Germany, Italy, and
Japan for not spending enough on defense. These countries have little choice
in the matter. The United States, with allies, set limits on the size and
character of their militaries following WWII. As such, it would take
significant changes to their laws to increase the size and capabilities of
their militaries (changes that would not likely be accepted by the USA, past
allies, or neighboring countries).

As for the other countries, both the UK and France have nuclear weapons
and can defend themselves, Switzerland and Sweden are long time neutrals,
Norway is a quasi-neutral, Spain is a quasi-neutral, Portugal is a
quasi-neutral, Austria is a quasi-neutral, and Russia still has one of the
largest militaries in the world. In the end, only the Netherlands, Denmark,
and Belgium are weak on defense, and that only because their populations are
too small to support a larger military.

So, if you want to see Germany, Italy, and Japan rearm, the people you
should be talking to are sitting in Washington. However, these are
independent countries with world views very different than our own. As such,
don't expect any more support for our global ambitions after these countries
rearm. Indeed, those renewed militaries may turn out to be a threat to those
ambitions.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/