Fmr CIA Director Rages At Trump, "You Fool, You Fool"

It isn't a matter of disagreement, its a matter of facts. If you elect to believe those or not.

An article from 2019:

In 2014, following Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, all NATO members pledged to meet the 2% target by 2024. At that time only three countries – the US, Greece and the UK – met the requirement.

Those nations are now joined by Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania – with the latter three hitting the target this year. All these countries are seen as particularly concerned about Russian military aggression.

Romania is close behind at 1.92% of GDP and according to NATO the country has legal and political measures in place to ensure that it will hit the 2% target soon.​

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“They actually had a budget allocating 2% of GDP for defense but then GDP growth was stronger than expected, so they, they just slipped below the 2% target,” Stoltenberg said.

France, which participates in multiple military operations in Africa and the Middle East, spent 1.82% of its GDP, according to the report

Germany, a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, is at 1.23%, a figure largely unchanged since 2014, when all allies pledged to boost their defense spending.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/14/politics/nato-defense-spending-target/index.html​

So, way back in 2014 NATO countries pledged 2% of their budget towards military spending. 5 years later, 3 more countries met that requirement with the 3 that already had meet the goal. In 2019, only 6 countries had actually upheld the commitments made in 2014. Out of 31 member countries, 3 complied initially and 3 got to the 2% in 5 years.

According to NATO estimates, opens new tab from July last year, 11 members were expected to meet the 2% target in 2023.

https://www.reuters.com/world/what-...TO estimates , opens,, was estimated at 1.57%. ​

So... an increase of only 8 (26% of members) countries since 2014, nearly a decade ago that are meeting spending goals. A decade for a 26% compliance rate? Maybe you call that good, I absolutely do not.

 

The 2014 commitment was to reach 2% by 2024 and all were moving in that direction, although at different speeds. A 2019 article is only at the mid-point and therefore proves nothing. Trump merely jumped aboard that moving train. The Toddler-in-Chief is part of the problem, not the solution.

 

11 have met the goals, and another 11 are within 0.5%, so yes, that's pretty good in only 10 years. And we have a new member in Finland, and they are already spending over the guideline of 2% + they have mandatory military service for all males, so they have a reserve of 870,000 men, - huge addition to NATO total. NATO is absolutely stronger than ever, so Russia's escapades had the exact opposite effect then they hoped

 

.5% is 1/4 low of the 2% goal or those 11 countries are scoring 75% which is a solid "C". That isn't great.

Notice in the chart what happened in 2019/2020?




The goal is to be white. Blue is even better.

So, no, I disagree much progress is being made since 2014 though we do see a slight bump when Trump was president and had the cajones to tell them to pay their fair share.

 

Your chart shows several countries reduced their percentage spend in 2018 and the general trend from 2014 to 2024 did not change

IMO Military spend is too high anyway

 

That's not what the chart shows. Countries moving from red to white is an increase.