Greetings Kiddos:

Before diving into the rationale to support my flat assertion that America should exit NATO, we must first delve into the rationale for getting into NATO in the first place. I can hear the groans already. Aw man dad, another history lesson? Not again!!

Sorry, folks but it’s time for more history!

NATO is short for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was formed in the aftermath of WWII.

The first time that America violated the wisdom of the founding fathers and got entangled in European affairs, we found ourselves in WWI. After WWI, the United States promptly forgot about Europe and went about its own business of splendid isolationism. Then Europe decided to destroy itself yet again with WWII. WWII represented the second time that the new world had to come to the rescue of the old world. America once again had to save Europe from itself.

At the end of WWII, Stalin made the rational decision that he needed some buffer states to provide distance between Russia and France and Germany. After all, in the previous two centuries both Napoleon and Hitler had invaded Russia. So, as WWII was winding down, Stalin’s troops didn’t stop at the Russian border. Stalin advanced his troops right into Berlin. Presidents Roosevelt and Truman both ignored the advice of General Patton who advocated stopping the Russians before they rolled into Germany. But of course, they ignored General Patton, and the British, American, and Russian armies all met at Hitler’s bunker in Berlin to toast to Hitler’s health. (Of course, by the time they got there Hitler had vacated the premises after a fatal case of lead poisoning. How ungracious!)

It took Churchill and Truman a bit of time to figure out that the Russians weren’t going to play nice. Stalin promptly blockaded Berlin and attempted to starve the city into submission. For over a year the United States and Great Britain airlifted food into Berlin, performing over 300,000 flights, or roughly 67,000 flights a day to prevent the starvation of the citizens of Berlin. (The Berlin Airlift)

Don’t forget, Stalin had some expertise in this form of submission having starved 4 million Ukrainians to death in the Holodomor of the 1930’s. But I digress.....

Stalin further doubled down by refusing to remove his troops from Eastern Europe after WWII. So, for the next 40 years those Eastern European countries fell behind the infamous “Iron Curtain“ and were puppet states of the mighty Soviet Union. The countries that got trapped behind the Iron Curtain were the eastern half of Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia.

Now I hate to appear to agree with Uncle Joe, as the progressive press referred to him at the time, but the dude had a point. In both the 18th and 19th centuries, two of the world’s most powerful and megalomaniacal personalities invaded Russia and brought their armies right up to the gates of Moscow. France’s Napoleon actually made it inside the gates of Moscow. Hitler’s troops were close enough to see the domes of Moscow with binoculars. If my country had been invaded twice in two hundred years, I might appreciate a buffer zone. Uncle Joe was indeed one of the evilest leaders to have ever lived. But given that history, he wasn’t crazy to fear France and Germany.

So, in 1945 Stalin’s troops advanced all the way into Eastern Germany. Stalin had troops in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Mongolia. Great Britain, Germany, and France lay prostrate and exhausted after WWII. Their industries were decimated by war. The British cities of London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Portsmouth, and Plymouth lay in ruins. The German cities of Cologne, Hamburg, Nuremburg, Stuttgart, Essen, Bremen, and Dusseldorf, were also in ruins. And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special call out on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden. The French cities of Le Havre, Marseille, Avignon, Orleans, Lyon, and Rouen were also bombed. European countries had no appetite for fighting another war to eject Stalin from Eastern Europe. Americans were tired of war as well. The United States was still finishing off Japan and certainly had no interest in saving Europe from itself for the third time in less than 50 years.

Truth be told, had America not dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was a very distinct possibility that Stalin would have gone on to invade all of Germany and France; not stopping his armies until he reached the Atlantic Ocean.

This is one of history’s great “what ifs”. Stalin had 5 million troops on the ground at the end of WWII. America had 3 million troops on the ground in Europe. And remember, America had to redeploy troops to finish off Japan in the Pacific theatre. Great Britain had about 3 million troops on the ground at the end of WWII. So, from a troop strength perspective you might say it would have been an even battle.

But American and British citizens would begin to ask: “Why are we fighting and dying for France and Germany? We are separated by water from mainland Europe. Great Britain could retire across the English Channel, and America could retire across the Atlantic Ocean.

If not for those atom bombs, my guess is that Stalin would have pushed his way all the way to Spain. But Stalin saw Hiroshima and Nagasaki and didn’t want Moscow to wind up radioactive. Now there’s a fascinating historical “what if” for you. Noddle on that for a while.

So, Stalin got his buffer zone. Western Europe was horrified at the prospect of America walking away and leaving them to deal with big bad Uncle Joe Stalin all alone. So, NATO was formed to assuage the Western Europeans.

Now here is the point where I have to make a very interesting observation. This just occurred to me as I was having my evening shot of scotch.

Before old Uncle Joe came along, those Eastern European countries served as buffer states for Germany, France, and Great Britain against Russia.

In other words, when Russia was a relatively weak world power, France, Great Britain, and Germany were happy to use Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and Yugoslavia as their buffer states. They could invade Russia “at will” in the 18th and 19th centuries. And the Russian frontier was thousands of miles away.

But after WWII Russia morphed into the Soviet Union, and suddenly Russia was stronger than the traditionally powerful European states of Great Britain, France, and Germany. And the Russian frontier morphed into the Eastern Bloc frontier. And that border was East Germany. Literally a stone’s throw away. And now the aforementioned Eastern Bloc countries were Russia’s border states. The western European countries felt rather uncomfortable with this new arrangement.

Now here is where it really gets interesting. Stay with me kiddos. I’m about to shed light on the greatest international con job ever performed by one set of nations on another. THAT con job has two names: “NATO” and “The Marshall Plan”.

Let’s start with con job #1, the Marshall Plan. The stated objective of The Marshall Plan was for the United States to provide economic assistance to help Europe rebuild and get back on its feet. At least that’s how it was sold to the American taxpayer. In today’s dollars the United States spent $130B dollars helping Europe to rebuild. And these dollars were in the form of grants. (That’s government speak for “free money”, not loans.) What America was supposed to get in return is countries that would be a bulwark against communism, future allies, and honest trading partners. That my friends was con #1. (More on the “honest trading partners” later.)

NATO is con job #2. The purpose of the NATO agreement was to form an alliance to prevent a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. The original 12 members of NATO were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Great Britain, and the United States. An attack on one would be regarded as an attack on all.

Now here is the con: each country was to commit 2% of its GDP to defense. The European countries almost never paid their portion of the bill for their own defense. At the 2014 NATO summit, all NATO countries agreed to commit to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. In 2017, only four countries met that miniscule threshold. (Only the USA, UK, Greece, and Poland)

So, the American taxpayer has been covering the costs for the defense of Europe for over 80 years. It’s all talk about historical alliances and mugging for the camera at the summits. But the European countries have underspent so badly for defense that they are now incapable of defending themselves. They don’t have the defense technology, and they don’t have the troops. Canada’s army has 31,000 soldiers. Great Britain’s army has 73,000 soldiers. Germany’s army has 180,000 soldiers. France’s army has 264,000 soldiers. By comparison, The Texas national guard has 22,000 soldiers, the Florida National Guard has 12,000 soldiers, and the California National Guard has 24,000 soldiers. Those three states combined have more soldiers in the national guard than Canada has in its entire army. They almost match Great Britain.

By comparison, Russia’s army has 1.3M soldiers. Germany, France, and Great Britain combined don’t even have half the troop strength of Russia.

And remember, Russia is at their back door. Not our back door. Their back door. We have the entire Pacific Ocean between us and them. Is America supposed to care more for the defense of Europe than Europe cares for the defense of Europe?

Imagine what this type of behavior would look like in your personal life. Imagine if you purchased auto insurance. The premium is $50/month. You send the insurance company $25/month because you preferred to spend the other $25/month at Starbucks. Then you get in an accident, and you call the auto insurance company and demand that they pay for your car repair. What do you think they would say?

Of course they would tell you politely to “bugger off”. No pay, no insurance. Why isn’t America saying the same thing to Europe regarding NATO?

And then you might ask yourself the completely reasonable question: “What have they been doing with the money that should have been spent on defense?”

Well, they’ve been spending it on windmills, solar panels, green energy, 30-day vacations, excessive social programs, “free” healthcare, and migrant assistance programs to invite the citizens of countries that historically hate them into their homelands. They’ve even been spending it buying oil from Russia, their avowed enemy, and not buying oil from America, their alleged ally. (You can’t make this up!)

And if that isn’t enough to make you want to choke your congressman, there is more to the story.

Originally there were only 12 countries suckling at the American taxpayer teat until the fall of the Soviet Union. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, that’s when the rest of Europe decided to get a piece of the action. How could they resist having their defense paid for by the American tax sucker, er, umm, taxpayer?

So, after the Soviet Union collapsed, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Finland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic all joined in on the con, uh, I mean “alliance”.

Time for a brief digression: Now I hate to break it to you Europe, but I can’t think of a single American father that I know who would send their son to fight and die for North Macedonia or Montenegro not to mention France or Germany. I’m just sayin..........

So, now instead of 12 European moochers, we have 32 European moochers. Many of whom have been freeloading on the American taxpayer dime for over 80 years.

As they say on the daytime TV commercials, “But wait, there’s more!”

If that’s not enough, these Euro-moochers “invited” Ukraine to get in on the American tax-sucker scam. But the big Russian bear had finally awakened from his 20-year hibernation after the collapse of the Soviet Union and said “Nyet”. And they ignored the bear and invited Ukraine to the party anyway. And then they were shocked to learn that Russia wanted a buffer state against a now 32 nation alliance at its western gate. Even the most witless student of history could see that Russia wasn’t going to stand for Ukraine in NATO. (Just like JFK wouldn’t stand for the USSR in Cuba back in ‘62.)

And so, Russia invaded Ukraine, and here we are.

So, riddle me this: “If Europe doesn’t want to pay for its own defense against an enemy at its gates, why should Americans pay for their defense when we are 5,000 miles away?”

Europe is so lame on defense that they are relying on the United States to sell ammunition to Ukraine because Europe doesn’t have sufficient munitions factories.

Folks, we’re talking bullets and artillery shells. Not the high technology stuff. Bullets and artillery shells. Europe can’t even make the most basic weapons. They don’t field a military anymore. America has been covering their defense nut for 80 years.

And remember earlier in this rant I mentioned that one of the things America hoped to get out of spending $130B on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe was honest trading partners. How exactly has that investment worked out for the American taxpayer?

Sadly, not so well. We’ve run a trade deficit with them for over 80 years. In 2023, the American trade deficit with the EU was $125B. So let me get this straight: American companies can’t sell products in Europe because European countries tariff them excessively. But America hasn’t tariffed European products in America so they can sell their products here at a discount.

As a result, in order to compete, American companies have had to move manufacturing to Europe thereby gutting the employment base of the United States and helping the employment base of Europe. So, America’s young people can’t get manufacturing jobs because American companies have had to move to Europe to provide Europeans with jobs so they can sell their products to Americans.

And Europe’s leaders have the nerves to get upset because America wants this to end? With friends like these, who needs enemies?

And now they are hot and bothered because America wants to acquire Greenland to better defend America. Really?

NATO has outlived its usefulness. The EU has no cards to play. Europe must have access to American markets. Europe must have America in NATO to defend them.

They have zero say in America’s acquisition of Greenland.

America’s ultimate leverage is this: America walks away from NATO, and the EU can deal with Russia by itself.

Here is the big giant unspoken secret: Greenland is far more important to America’s defense than NATO is to America’s defense. NATO is important to Europe. NATO is NOT very important to the United States.

Russia is primarily a European problem. Russia primarily IS NOT an American problem. We have bigger fish to fry. (Like China)

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, the purpose for NATO ended at that moment. The entire purpose of NATO was to defend Western Europe from the Soviet Union. If there is no Soviet Union, there is no NATO.

President Eisenhower stated in 1950 that if the United States was still in NATO in 1960, that would be a failure. Here we are in 2025 and we’re still dealing with NATO. Sorry about that Ike, we chose not to listen to you. (We also chose not to listen to your advice about the “military industrial complex” also, so at least we’re consistent!)

Here is a basic question that no one in the media is asking: “Why is Europe so interested in Denmark keeping Greenland?”

And don’t tell me it’s because of the “principle” of one country taking another country against its will. Now that’s rich. After all, from whom did Denmark take Greenland? And why aren’t they giving it back?

The EU’s history is nothing if not taking and colonizing other countries.

There are now 62 different countries that were formerly colonies of the British. (Including the United States!) There are now 40 countries that were former colonies of France. There are at least 10 countries that were formerly colonies of Germany. The Netherlands had 5 colonies, and tiny Denmark had/has 5 colonies.

And the Europeans took them by force. They didn’t ask them if they wanted to be a colony. They didn’t offer to buy them. There were no negotiations. THEY TOOK THEM BY FORCE. And in many cases, they didn’t just peaceably return them either. (See American Revolution for one such example)

Great Britain went so far as to purposely addict the male population of China with opium to ensure access to trade. (See Opium Wars)

So, I’m having a hard time understanding their newly found principle that the United States can’t take Greenland, or that the United States can’t buy Greenland.

The United States is offering to buy Greenland and then defend Greenland. Something Europe can’t or won’t do because they have better things to spend their money on. (You know, windmills, lattes, 30-day vacations, free childcare, putting migrants up in hotels, buying oil and gas from their enemies, and providing “free” healthcare to illegal immigrants who hate their guts.)

Kiddos, I just don’t think this one is hard. America should leave NATO, acquire Greenland, and focus on the Western Hemisphere. Let Europe take care of Europe.

And let us paraphrase the prayer that the Russian Jews had for the Czar: “May the Lord bless and keep Europe far, far, away from us!”

And let the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans do what they’ve always done; keep Europe over there.

Peace Out,

Dad

PS: America should stop funding Ukraine’s fight against Russia. It’s immoral to help those boys go die for nothing. Ukraine is lost, and Russia owns it. The best help we can provide to Ukraine is to help them become a Russian satellite and grow and prosper as such. Russia is the #1 or #2 nuclear power in the world. American’s ain’t interested in fighting and dying for Ukraine. If Europeans would like to go ahead and immolate themselves for the third time in the last 100 years, let them have at it. But do it without us.