Time to resist cutting social spending to pay for more military

 

The militarists are looking to slash social entitlements to massively boost war spending. Yet there’s little organized opposition.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sent a letter to all 32 member states asking them to agree to spend 5% of GDP on the military and associated initiatives. Up from the already outrageously high current alliance target of 2% of gross domestic product, the plan is to devote 3.5% to “hard military” initiatives by 2030 and 1.5% more for infrastructure and defence-related activities.

Donald Trump’s administration has been pushing for this huge expansion in war spending.

The US president has repeatedly said he wants NATO allies to boost military spending to 5%.

While it’s widely understood that Germany, Belgium and others are pushing back privately, Spain appears to be the only country publicly opposing the plan to be finalized at the June 24-25 NATO leaders’ summit. On Thursday Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said, “We think that this 2% is enough to meet the responsibilities we have committed to.”

Canadian officials haven’t expressed any criticism of the proposal while publicly celebrating NATO’s uber militarism. After speaking with Rutte Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney posted, “had a productive call with the Secretary General of NATO this afternoon ahead of the upcoming NATO Summit. I raised Canada’s plan to rebuild, rearm, and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces — part of our commitment to strengthening the Alliance and its military readiness.”  (more...)

Time to resist cutting social spending to pay for more military