<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><span style="line-height:107%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Good Morning Visionaries:</font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><span style="line-height:107%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><span style="line-height:107%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">For those who do not get the Daily News, my column from yesterday is appended below. The long version will appear in the Idaho State Journal on Sunday. It is attached.</font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><span style="line-height:107%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><span style="line-height:107%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">It is my understanding that Theresa May has invited this lout for a state visit. I do hope that he is now disinvited.</font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="line-height:107%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="line-height:107%;color:black">Europeans Pay More Than Their Fair Share</span></b><span style="line-height:107%;color:black"><span></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> One would expect that in
anticipation of meeting with the heads of NATO’s 29 nations, our so-called
president would at least learn some basic facts about this nearly 70-year-old
alliance. <span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Instead, an ignorant and boorish Trump
stunned these leaders with a lie that most NATO countries are financial dead
beats. He claimed that <span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">“many of these nations owe massive amounts of money
from past years.” With regard to NATO’s actual finances, these countries don’t
owe anything. <span></span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">In 2006, under pressure from
the U. S., NATO countries promised that they would increase their defense
budgets to 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After the end of the Cold
War in 1989, many of them had cashed in the peace dividend and diverted funds
to social programs. <span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">The Great Recession of 2008—largely
caused by Anglo-American bankers, politicians, and economists—caused havoc with
budgets around the world, and by 2016 only five NATO nations had met the 2
percent goal. Contrary to Trump’s claim, it is not U. S. taxpayers who will pay
for these extra weapons; rather, it is the citizens of 24 NATO nations
themselves. <span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">After the United Nations outlawed “wars of
aggression,” the U. S. War Department was renamed the Defense Department in
1947. Presumably, the idea was that the soft power of diplomacy and development
aid would replace the hard power of armed intervention.<span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> The U. S. spends a paltry .17
percent of its GDP on foreign aid, and the Trump administration has plans to
reduce that amount by gutting the State Department’s budget. A specific target
may be the Officer of Religion and Global Affairs. There are unfilled positions
in programs tasked with curbing anti-Semitism and preventing radicalization in
the Muslim world. <span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The 28-member European Union budgets on
average .47 percent of GDP to foreign aid.
Sweden, which is in the EU but not in NATO, allocates 1.4 percent, and
Norway is next highest at 1.05 percent. <span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Sweden has also taken in a record number of
refugees. With a population of 9.8 million, the compassionate Swedes accepted
150,273 asylum seekers from May 2015 to April 2016. This number is 1.5 percent of Sweden’s
population. <span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> During that same period the U. S.
accepted 150,875 asylum seekers, and we would have to accept 4.7 million to
match the Swedes. From the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003 to 2014, we relocated
only 115,000 Iraqi refugees, while Sweden admitted 78,000, 40 percent Assyrian Christians.
<span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Under Saddam Hussein Christians were safe and
respected (his foreign minister was a Christian), but now their numbers have dropped
from 1.4 million in 2003 to 275,000.<span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">George W’s invasion incited a civil war
between Sunnis and Shia, and both sides were radicalized as a result. Should
Sweden send Bush, Cheney, et al. a bill for giving sanctuary to these good
folks?<span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">In absolute numbers Germany has accepted the most
refugees: 890,000 in 2015 alone (1 percent of its population). The total number
of Syrian refugees in Germany at the end of 2016 was 567,000. As with all German refugees, these Syrians
commit crimes at same rate as citizens, and only</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"> nine have been arrested for suspected
terrorist activities. </span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><span></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">In his speech at NATO headquarters Trump refused to reaffirm our
nation’s commitment to Article 5 of the NATO treaty. This provision requires
NATO to come to the aid of any member country that has been attacked.
Presumably, Trump will not make this commitment until all member nations “pay
up.” <span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">This is one of the most brazen and irresponsible examples of Trump’s
“America First” policy. This refusal gives comfort to Vladimir Putin, who would
very much like a weaker NATO, and it instills fear in those living in the small
NATO countries of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, right on Russia’s door step.<span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">An editorial in the Kremlin-supported “RT” news outlet says it all: “In
Europe, Donald Trump is Making Russia Great Again.”<span></span></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. He
can be reached at <a href="mailto:ngier006@gmail.com">ngier006@gmail.com</a>.</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><span></span></span></font></p><font face="georgia, serif">-- <br></font><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <div style="height:auto;width:auto"> <div> <div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><div><font face="georgia, serif">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. <br><br>-Greek proverb</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
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