NATO Is a Farce | Justin Logan | Cato Institute: Commentary

NATO Is a Farce | Justin Logan | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'NATO's recent travails in Libya illustrate the trouble with permanent alliances. That alliance now constitutes a transfer payment from U.S. taxpayers (and their Chinese creditors) to bloated European welfare states.'

'The post-Cold War NATO rationale is that we agree to spend and fight and the Europeans agree to support us — sometimes.'

'As NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen observed, "The fact is that Europe couldn't have [mounted the Libya campaign] on its own." Consider that for a moment: Europe, with an economy and population greater than those of the United States, could not beat up on a third-rate military just across the Mediterranean Sea on its own.'