Yesterday the White House tweeted: “In today’s Cabinet meeting, President @realDonaldTrump directed each member of his Cabinet to streamline their agency’s budget by 5 percent this fiscal year.”
In a similar vein, Donald Trump finds outrageous the amounts of money the American government spends for defense while other countries, our supposed allies, persist in not contributing their fair share. The most obvious example of this is NATO, whose 29 members promised in 2014 to contribute 2% of their GDP to defense spending by 2024 at the latest, but four years later, only five of NATO’s 29 members have in fact done so — the U.S., U.K., Greece, Estonia, and Poland — and many are far from that 2% goal by 2024 that is fast approaching. In mid-July at a NATO meeting in Brussels, Trump read his fellow members the riot act — after all, the United States spends close to 3.5% of its GDP on defense, much more than twice the NATO average, and he wanted NATO members to get closer to meeting their promised 2% commitment. As a result of his demands, those fellow NATO members came up with $33 billion in new pledges for defense spending, and promised to make sure that hundreds of billions more would soon be committed, as they hastened to meet that 2% goal for 2024. Trump warned them that the United States would not forever endure being seen as NATO’s funder of last resort. Trump’s anger in Brussels concentrated NATO minds wonderfully; the result was a triumph for Trump, and for American taxpayers.
In the same spirit, of saving money and calling on others to do their share, Trump has said the United States will stop making annual payments to support Syria’s stabilization program. This money — $230 million — was to have been spent in cleaning up war-ravaged areas so that Syrian refugees could return home.
In a tweet, Trump wrote: “The United States has ended the ridiculous 230 Million Dollar yearly development payment to Syria.”
“Saudi Arabia and other rich countries in the Middle East will start making payments instead of the U.S. I want to develop the U.S., our military and countries that help us!” he continued.
Who, after all, has the greatest stake in preventing the return of ISIS to Syria, by helping restore the country physically, which would then allow refugees to return home? It is above all the rich countries of the Gulf — especially Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, both fabulously wealthy — for whom ISIS is a worrisome threat wherever it establishes itself. For ISIS appeals to fanatical Believers living the Arab Gulf states, who come to share the view that the ruling families among the Gulf Arabs, though they may go through the outward motions at home of being devout Muslims, are fantastically corrupt and worldly. The news gets out about the behavior of Saudi and other princes on their yachts, or in their European pleasure palaces, drinking and gambling (both forbidden in Islam) — and for the True Believers of ISIS, such behavior is un-Islamic and, therefore, intolerable.
Trump takes the view that if anyone should be helping the Syrians to rebuild the large areas of their country that have been devastated by war, and thereby to entice back refugees whose return to Syria will lessen the economic pressure millions of them have placed on Lebanon and Jordan, it ought to be the Saudis and their deep-pocketed friends. The Saudis and Emiratis may despise Assad, but they recognize that he is no threat to them, while ISIS remains an ideological threat to every Arab regime, for they all fail to meet its strict definition of what a true Muslim state should look like.
There are also fears among the Gulf Arabs of any Iranian involvement in the rebuilding of Syria. The Saudis and their allies want Iranian forces removed from Syria. Their offer of financial aid to Assad, with the promise of more to come if he keeps Iranian military forces out of Syria, is one way to prevent Iran from establishing a new threat to the Arab Gulf states from the northwest.
Trump does not understand why the American government should be expected to help pay for the reconstruction both of a country, and of a regime, that have been consistently hostile to the United States for decades.
When Muslims fight among themselves, the ensuing destruction is, in Trump’s straightforward view, entirely their own affair. It’s not our business, not our responsibility to physically rebuild these countries. Those regional powers who, like the Saudis, have a stake in preventing the resurgence of ISIS, or who want to keep their enemy Iran from establishing permanent bases in Syria, also happen to have huge amounts of oil revenues, and can well afford to make up the sums — $230 million for now — that Trump has decided, as a first step, to withhold.
One hopes that Trump sticks to his guns on not giving any reconstruction aid to Syria. And when other Muslim Arab states come calling in Washington — representatives of Yemen, for example, can be expected if and when the war there comes to an end — seeking American aid to rebuild the country, let’s hope that they are politely shown the door, and given a printout of a Google map displaying the best route from the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The United States has spent — wasted, rather — more than $6 trillion dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is back, as menacing as it ever was. In Iraq, the country remains unsettled, with endless jockeying among Shi’as and Sunnis for political and economic power, and the only certain winner in that country — thanks to the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein — turns out to be our mortal enemy, Iran.
When Trump withheld American military aid to Pakistan, because that country continues to support, rather than fight, both the Taliban and the Haqqani network, he did not mince words: he declared in a tweet that the U.S. “foolishly” gave the country more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years and got “nothing but lies and deceit” in return. Now the $1 billion in aid Pakistan did manage to get this year is to be slashed to $150 million in 2019. Then he made deep cuts in American aid to the “Palestinians” because of their “pay for slay” stipends to terrorists and their families. And now he has refused to supply Syria with aid for reconstruction, even though the money had previously been approved.
Donald Trump has shown himself to be exactly what the United States needs, after our expensive misadventures in Dar al-Islam. May he keep up the cutting of such aid, in the case of the “Palestinians” ideally all the way down to zero, keep exposing the malevolence of those Muslims who pocket our billions and “smile at us while they curse us in their hearts,” and start directing the Muslim mendicants away from our door to those of their brothers in the umma, in the well-heeled states of the Arab Gulf.
Andy says
Trump with the help of our savior and redeemer
JESUS CHRIST!
Andy says
Trump presents the Medal of Honor to Sgt. Major John L. Canley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGB4glZRvhU
Andy says
Trump Admin Closes Down Jerusalem Consulate that Serviced Palestinian Authority
https://israelunwired.com/trump-admin-closes-down-jerusalem-consulate-that-serviced-palestinian-authority/
Andy says
U.S. Folding Jerusalem Consulate Into Embassy, a Blow to Palestinians
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/world/middleeast/us-palestinians-consulate-jerusalem.html
gravenimage says
+1
PRCS says
What a lovingly raucous crowd of his fellow Marines and sailors!
And how great he looks at 80.
Andy says
+1
The Marines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPg2Kf-jYeA
https://www.youtube.com/user/marines
Don McKellar says
Perhaps there is a way for Trump to leverage the pressure he can exert behind the scenes on the crown prince of Saudi over the murder of the reporter, to pay up much, much more in Syria and elsewhere instead of the United States. If not, who cares — withdraw every single penny in every moslem nation immediately. It’s all a black hole for taxpayer money. It’s all just “jizya” from their perspective.
Tim Brown says
But he’s signed off on that spending numerous times. Sort of hypocritical to rail about the spending when the buck stops at his desk.
Krishna says
Compared to all western leaders trump seems to best in realizing the threat of Islam
Doell Elmer says
That’s a fact! Wish we Canadians had a leader with backbone!!
Dawne says
He’s brilliant! I wish he was the leader of my country.
Z says
He has proven to be most conservative. Perfect, that’s exactly what we need. God bless our president
Walter Sieruk says
On the date of 9/25/ 18 President Trump during a speech declared “ISIS has been driven out of Iraq and Syria.” This is both a truth and a triumph .so far so good. This is actually very good.
Likewise, the scholar and author, Robert Spencer, in his latest book which has the title of THE HISTORY OF JIHAD FROM MUHAMMAD TO ISIS . For on page it reads “When Donald Trump replaced Barack as president of the United States, Iraqi forces and other began rolling up the Islamic State strongholds, such that within a year of the beginning of the Trump presidency , the Islamic State had lost nine-eight of its territory .”
As good as the collapse of that Islamic “state” is we must not remember that the source and inspiration for and of that vicious and murderous jihad entity, ISIS, has not collapsed .Therefore we should not let our guard down regarding such heinous dangers. The source and inspiration is Islam.
In addition, a man’s actual character is known not only by who he has as friends but also by who he has as enemies .Therefore this helps explain why the jihadists, the leftists As Hillary Clinton and also those who compose the ACLU, the Marxists, the anarchists and the jihadists all hate for President Trump with a passion . This is strong evidence that Donald Trump is the right man to be President of this nation. . In other words, those all those characters just mention terrible detest Mr. Trump not only serves as a good compliment to him but this also reveals that Donald Trump must be an all American patriot..
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Fitzgerald, you are right, VP Dick chiney made it clear that it is not the responsibility of brigand evil United States to rebuild or reconstruct nations, but destroy them. Evil United States led the destruction of Iraq, Libya and Syria, but it feels that has no moral obligation to reconstruct them. wicked scums of evils!!
gravenimage says
What crap. President Trump is just saying that we should not be expected to pour endless amounts of American taxpayer money into other nations.
This is especially true re Muslim countries–no amount of aid is ever going to turn Afghanistan or Iraq in to a civilized nation.
But Ibrahim itace muhammed believes that Muslims have the right to Infidel’s hard-earned money. He has said that Muslims have the right to rob and pirate us, as well as to kidnap us, hold us for ransom, and profit from our labor when Muslims enslave us.
God, I hate Islam.
Kepha says
If Ib is as learned and pious a Muslim as he claims to be, it is prima facie evidence that Western countries are fully justified in limiting its influence–and that it needs a serious rollback.
gravenimage says
So true, Kepha.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Liar Gravenimage, you mean your satan pagan god told you that when you destroy nations, take away their resources as mithraist christians colonialists did, there is no blame on you because Paul the liar said jesus’ blood washes away your sins? wicked scums of evils!!
gravenimage says
The foul Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
Liar Gravenimage, you mean your satan pagan god told you that when you destroy nations, take away their resources as mithraist christians colonialists did, there is no blame on you because Paul the liar said jesus’ blood washes away your sins? wicked scums of evils!!
……………………
Actually, civilized nations have poured endless resources into Muslim countries, but to no avail. We need to cut them off.
And Ibrahim itace muhammed has pulled this before–claiming that Christians will do any evil because Jesus is forgiving. This is not how Christianity works, of course.
Meanwhile, he has claimed that horrors like “marrying” children, raping women and keeping them as sex slaves, mass slaughtering those who don’t submit to Islam, and committing genocide of the Jews are *good things*. This is, indeed, what Islam teaches. *Ugh*.
blitz2b says
I wish everyone ignored this vermin Mohammed itace.
His four brain cells can’t comprehend anything more than
“… there is no god but the moon god allah, and the pedophile Mohammed is his chosen fauxpret…”
gravenimage says
He is damned unpleasant–but Ibrahim itace muhammed reveals the diseased Muslim mindset, and that is actually quite useful here.
Vann Boseman says
I wish you were right. Sadly, you are totally wrong on the facts. The US has spent tremendous amounts of money to rebuild. But Islamic nations states should be destroyed and then abandoned. It is for the people of those countries to rebuild to the extent that they can while being crippled inside by a barbaric religion. Humanitarian relief should not be banned to the people in these nations. But care should be taken that such relief is not a funnel to jihad.
Ole Pederson says
Well. With all due respect.
Considering that NATO is 100% active only to pursue US-corporate interests, it should be funded 100% by US corporations. Better yet, it should have been disbanded after the Warsaw pact dissolved.
To name just a few:
NATO bombed Yugoslavia to smithereens, Yugoslavia gets torn to pieces, dismantled and colonized (bogus democracies installed since notwithstanding).
Europe gets the refugees (then some of them were real). Europe also receives the Islamic terror, as Bosnia has received thousands of the unemployed Muslim terrorists from a bombed-to-stone-age Afghanistan, then called the Mujahedeen and considered freedom fighters. All the big terror attacks in Europe since used weapons and ammunition from Bosnia.
NATO bobs Libya to smithereens, as Gaddafi. ruler of the only debt-free country world wide, intends to found an African-only type of IMF, and sell his oil in currencies other than the US dollar. Europe receives the refugees (fake and real) in spades.
NATO intended to bomb Syria, as Assad told the US that it would be Syria to decide which pipelines would be built in the country. This time the Syrians with a little help from Russia spoiled the evil plan. Still, Euorpe, in particular Germany with its evel Merkel junta, took in the human garbage sold to the population as “refugees”. Countless Germans and other European citizens have been raped, stabbed, mugged, and some even killed.
Euopean countries have more than paid their fair share for these insanities!
And for once, only once, I can agree with the last post of Mr. Muhammed, the band of crooks and mercenaries posing as US government at the respective periods of time, such as Dick Cheney, act not in the interest of whatever people, but only to destroy nations. Kind of “last man standing” strategy to keep up the no 1 position of the superpower-in-decline US of A.
And lastly, one thing that can be said in favor of Mr. Trump, the first time in three decades a new president is a year in office and has not started a new war.
So there.
gravenimage says
Ah….America bad; Jihadists good.
Kepha says
And I’m sure the Scandinavian countries are getting along just fine with their Muslim migrants.
Ole Pederson says
Nonsense. If you reply I would recommend you read what I wrote. Not what you think I wrote. Where did I write “America is bad” ? Where did I write “Jihadists are good” ?
I recommend you take a course in comprehensive reading.
I said corprations are evil. And it was US corporations with the help of the CIA to found, train, and arm the Jihadi terrorists in Afghanistan in the first place to hit the Soviet Union.
Same as the so-called “moderate rebels” and “free Syrian Army” were founded with CIA help and US funds who morphed into ISIS.
Now tell me, where do I say this is what “America” did, or the “American people” or even, more correctly “the US people” (there’s more to the Americas than the US).
gravenimage says
Ole Pederson wrote:
Nonsense. If you reply I would recommend you read what I wrote. Not what you think I wrote. Where did I write “America is bad” ? Where did I write “Jihadists are good” ?
………………………..
Ole Pederson derided the United States and lauded Mr. Muhammed. Hence, a reasonable assumption.
Miore:
I said corprations (sic) are evil.
………………………..
Actually, Ole Pederson did not say this in his post above–but he is saying it now. Are corporations like little “Oaklandish”, which sells souvenirs boosting Oakland, California, evil? Apparently so.
In other words, Ole Pederson hates free trade. Does he prefer Communism or “Shari’ah finance”? No clue.
More
And it was US corporations with the help of the CIA to found, train, and arm the Jihadi terrorists in Afghanistan in the first place to hit the Soviet Union.
Same as the so-called “moderate rebels” and “free Syrian Army” were founded with CIA help and US funds who morphed into ISIS.
………………………..
We should not consider any Muslims to be our allies.
But no–the claim that it was the United States that founded Jihad in Afghanistan is quite false. Jihad dates back many centuries there.
More:
Now tell me, where do I say this is what “America” did, or the “American people” or even, more correctly “the US people” (there’s more to the Americas than the US).
………………………..
Yes, the Americas consist of the entirety of North and South America, and the Caribbean. But America has long been used to refer to the United States. Canadians and El Salvadoreans and Brazilians do not generally refer to themselves as Americans as Ole Pederson pretends.
Mark Swan says
Ole Pederson, you are very close to some facts—-however you ignore them.
All the Worlds Nations Combined Have Not Done As Much Right As The United
States OF America…The systems others call democracy are a knock-off of the
American-Way, the prosperity of the Whole World Up-To Now is linked to this Amazing Country—U.S.A.—which could have stood the world on it’s ear, but did not.
While I agree that American leadership has done many things the wrong way and
still does
China’s and Russia’s military intrigue is taunting the EU, which has launched a multi-billion dollar defense research and development programmed with the ultimate aim of merging the continent’s militaries into one military . New leadership in Germany can be very energized from what it is now, and eastern European and Scandinavian alliances with Germany leading, could happen and bring about a very different Europe that is economically and militarily very formidable and determined.
We could see a real super-power form in Europe…brought on by Russia’s and China’s posturing and America’s vacillating and lack of resolve and other world events. While
the European theater continues, America Must wake-up now to its own serious problems.
If sound U.S. A. leadership can not take hold…we will face a harshly changed world unsure of a weak and unstable U.S.A.. We will be at the mercy of a merciless World.
This could all culminate in un-acceptable events that would be catastrophic, for the Whole World.
If The World turns its back on the U.S.A.—-they will be at the mercy of the World.
I wish you good luck—Ole Pederson—from the superpower-in-decline US of A.
Wellington says
Ole Pederson; NATO exists only to advance US corporate interests?
This is the same kind of garbage that asserts that the Marshall Plan was just a way to insure more markets for America.
I did address EXACTLY what you asserted and I say what you asserted is mostly, if not completely, BULLSHIT.
America under Truman created NATO in 1949 to insure freedom first and foremost and not American corporate interests. Your stupid, yes stupid, assessment, of NATO, the greatest alliance in human history for the protection and promotion of freedom only reveals far more about you than you realize.
Your turn. Do it.
gravenimage says
Good posts, Mark Swan and Wellington.
jewdog says
NATO needs to be reconfigured to exclude Turkey and emphasize eastern Europe and the Balkans. The Russian-Iranian alliance is the biggest threat.
lebel says
“Donald Trump has shown himself to be exactly what the United States needs, after our expensive misadventures in Dar al-Islam. May he keep up the cutting of such aid, in the case of the “Palestinians” ideally all the way down to zero, keep exposing the malevolence of those Muslims who pocket our billions and “smile at us while they curse us in their hearts,” and start directing the Muslim mendicants away from our door to those of their brothers in the umma, in the well-heeled states of the Arab Gulf.”
Good, others are eager to step in such as Russia and China. Lets also get all those bases out of the Muslim states. All that taxpayer money wasted on Muslims. The less US involvement the better as others are lining up trying to extend their area of influence.
gravenimage says
Muslims are not our allies, as lebel here pretends. As for Russia and China, they are apt to do deals with Muslim countries, but not fork out the foreign aid that we have over the decades. And Muslim countries are not going to be real allies of the Russians or Chinese, either–or of any Infidels.
lebel is just sad to think about the end to all that Jizya, of course.
Hector Archytas says
Muslim are not dangeruous in isolation. They are exploding in number because we are creating ties with them and help them.
Let’s alone. They spend their time killing one another keeping their demography low.
If we can’t force them to change of religion, just keep them in isolation.
Berengaria says
Whether the Mendicants are Islamic Countries or Islamic Individuals, they are NOT Entitled to one Dime, we are Tired of their Whining Demands, couched in Oily, Clipped Tongues.
If they Fight, Allow them to Clean up their own Messes.
No more Showy Planes rolling into GW Bush’s Ranch, Filled with the Top-Scum of Arabia.
We have a Real, AMERICAN LEADER & he SAYS “NO” to Muhammad’s Shrill Demands!
May God Bless President Donald Trump!!!
Abu_Lahab says
We have been so lucky to get a leader who understands the World as it really is instead of how the Establishment try to mold it.
If we’d have got Hillary we’d be on the fast track to One World Government.