seems a bit simplistic to me . Agreed , but I thought it related well to the post . Weakness and strength of all forms have been present throughout history . <| sep |> One day I just stumbled upon Crass ' The Feeding of the 5000 , and was hooked ! <| sep |> It ' s not seen as a problem for the majority of the Americans , the problem isn ' t that we spend that much it ' s why we spend that much . I love europe so do most Americans , but we always get a lot of crap for having the military presence in the world that we do the second Donald trump takes office and says he won ' t fund NATO suddenly everyone realizes without us there is no Europe , no liberty the lives you lead and get to live with open voices . There ' s Russia it seems like you guys aren ' t to fond of the idea of America not being there to protect you from them anymore . It ' s simple our spending is a huge amount , but it ' s necessary wether you like us or not they can tax me as hard as they do if that means Europe other locations in the world don ' t have to endure Russian , Chinese etc aggression . I and many others welcome the idea of a europe that can stand up for them selves and be a force to reckon with , along the lines of what John F Kennedy said we don ' t always align in ideals or thoughts with our allies but we will defend their right to liberty regardless of how gracious or not they might be . Here ' s a graph from 13 ' 14 '