Trump, Germany, and NATO

In about five days, a NATO meeting will start up, and Trump is expected to deliver a short blunt speech.  Some folks are now expecting him to announce the closure idea of US bases in Germany.  I tend to agree.

I think the speech will go this way.  It's just rather odd that Germany is spending tens of billions per year on oil and natural gas from Russia.  This money, the profits, is then spent on the Russian military, which the Germans and the Europeans say is a threat.  So they hype up the need for a military system, and the US to pay for an enormous chunk of the cost.

I suspect that Trump will say this makes no sense, and any idiot could see that Germany is sponsoring the Russian military.  Then he'll say something like.....you know....why make us the middle-man?  Cut us out, and just pay the Russians to protect you.

Naturally, the two public German TV networks will avoid carrying the speech, and just tell people that they interpreted the 'evil' Trump speech this way.  Sadly, the N-TV commercial news will carry the whole speech, along with the other non-public TV networks.

The little guy....sitting at home or at some pub....will sit and ask his German wife, or his drinking associates.....why are we sponsoring the Russians, if they are so evil?  At that point, Chancellor Merkel will try to hype the evil-Trump statements but I suspect a lot of Germans will begin asking about other Trump statements and if he's more right than Chancellor Merkel.

Here's the thing.  Back in 1990 when the Wall came down, President Clinton should have stood up and laid out a path by 2000 to dissolve the military requirements for Europe.  He never did that....neither did Bush, or Obama.  So the real solution is finally being carried out by President Trump.

Maybe there will be a air wing or two left around some parts of Europe, and maybe the naval facility in Italy will remain....but I think 90-percent of our US forces will be removed by 2022.  Some four-star general and his staff of a thousand folks will stay....probably in Poland.  And most German intellectuals will come to admit that things are more peaceful at that point, than in the last forty years.

The Germans?  The Berlin-crowd might even come to admit that they don't even need a real military, and just go for a 10,000-man mini-force in the next decade.