[OT] NATO politics [Was: Re: IBM - New SUB-Nanometer STACKED Chip]

On 2026-07-09 09:35, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Jul 2026 09:16:25 +0200, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> 
>> We meet the agreed roles. We don't care about the spending targets,
>> as we (the nato) did not agree to those. The target was then
>> calculated as 2.1%, and we did a huge effort to finally achieve that
>> one.
>>
>> (most of it not purchasing things from the USA, of course)
> 
> I just realized ... when Trump makes a big noise about NATO members
> spending more on defence, he was likely expecting that a lot of that
> expenditure would go to benefit the US arms industry ...
> 
> You naughty country, you 🇪🇸, not living up to his expectations ...

Absolutely.

We did things like increasing the size of the military, increasing their 
salaries, building more ships and tanks, and many things I forget, with 
just a small bit of USA weapons ;-)

In practical terms, you have to consider that the government is a 
coalition of parties, and other parties external to it. In the coalition 
the majority are socialists, and others are communists and look alike. 
Green party too, perhaps. These want us to just leave the NATO, and stop 
military expenditure.

The government can not double the military expenditure because it 
doesn't have the support, no matter what. If Trump pressures us, there 
are parties in the government voting to leave the NATO (and stop aiding 
Ukraine to force them to negotiate). Trump can obviate his parliament, 
but that is not the case in other countries.

-- 
Cheers,
        Carlos E.R.
        ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;