[andmarios]

Makes you wonder though how despite all these collective spending, Russia with less than 10% of this budget remains a huge threat and NATO should further increase its budget to account for this. Seems more like we waste our money instead of spending wisely, doesn't it? Maybe someone should disrupt the war industry.

[dx87]

I think the two main considerations are the large number of countries that make up NATO allow it to seem very effective on paper, but in reality it'd be very difficult to coordinate the contributions of every country, especially considering the language and cultural barriers among members. It'd probably be incredibly inneffecient to try and lead the NATO members as a unified force. Another consideration is that even though NATO could easily win a war with Russia, member states probably want to present such an overwhelming military force that a war with Russia never breaks out in the first place.

[vtange]

I'm not advocating a wholesale increase in defense budget. There definitely is corruption and waste in there.

The point is that NATO members agreed in 2006 to spending 2% of their GDP equally and then didn't meet it. They agreed again in 2014 and the ball still hasn't budged.

Pledges are pledges. Whether it's a pledge to cut carbon and stop global warming or a pledge to chip in for the collective defense of everyone. Imagine if everyone decided to cut carbon and then it turned out to be all just hot air. If you don't honor your pledges it will hurt the any sort of future international effort.

[jdminhbg]

It's cheaper to cause mischief than to maintain dominance. If we wanted to destabilize Chechnya, for example, we could do so for an infinitesimal fraction of the current US military budget.

[joejerryronnie]

> Maybe someone should disrupt the war industry

Boston Dynamics is trying to.