From: ScottW48@hotmail.com   
      
   As of the last alliance summit in July 2023, 11 of NATO's 31 nations had   
   surpassed the 2 percent target: Poland (3.9 percent), the U.S. (3.49 percent),   
   Greece (3.01 percent), Estonia (2.73 percent), Lithuania (2.54 percent),   
   Finland (2.45 percent),    
   Romania (2.44 percent), Hungary (2.43 percent), Latvia (2.27 percent), the   
   United Kingdom (2.07 percent), and Slovakia (2.03 percent).   
      
   And the story is really worse for Europe as their largest economies are not   
   meeting commitment and magnitude of the total shortfall is greater than the   
   average.   
      
   "More concerning for the alliance is the performance of major powers like   
   Spain (1.26 percent), Turkey (1.31 percent), Italy (1.46 percent), Germany   
   (1.57 percent) and France (1.9 percent)."   
      
   "Some matter much more than others," Pothier said. "Obviously, it's great to   
   have Baltic countries meeting and even going beyond 2 percent. But in the end,   
   mass matters, especially in the high-intensity warfare that is now part of the   
   mainstream    
   scenarios that NATO defense planners have to take into account."   
      
   "You do need those with substantial enough GDPs so that the spending can   
   really buy mass and make a difference in terms of our stockpiles and in terms   
   of our strategic depth."   
      
   "That's why Germany—which was always the 'swing state' of European defense   
   spending—is even more important now because of its defense industrial   
   weight," Pothier added.   
      
   and Biden is silent on the subject.   
      
   ScottW   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)