There are few good excuses for Europe's failure to live up to NATO commitment on defense spending

Washington Post:
Trump wants all of NATO to honor 2 percent spending commitments on defense. But is it so simple?

Few policymakers would disagree that Europe needs to spend radically more on its own security. But some question whether President Trump's singular focus on the bottom line is doing more to hurt the alliance than to help it.
When you consider that countries like Germany are running a huge trade surplus and have allowed their defense readiness to slip to dangerous levels it is a simple question.  What Trump is doing is showing leadership rather than the go along to git along policies of the past.  What is hurting the alliance is that Europe is not doing it part.

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