<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">Courtesy of today’s (June 6, 2021) Lewiston Tribune with special thanks to the Palouse Pundit, Nick Gier.<div><br></div><div>—————————————————</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-size: 20pt; font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold", sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Correcting Sherwin</span></b><span style="font-size: 20pt; font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold", sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">I regret to inform Dick Sherwin (May 27) that his attempt to defend his friend, Marvin Dugger, (May 9) has failed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">The cost of funding NATO in 2019 was $1.5 billion, not the $6.5 trillion Sherwin mistakenly quoted and then corrected. Of that total, the U.S. paid $685 million. Sherwin is egregiously incorrect in stating that “no other nation paid more than $650 billion.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Dugger was right that the U.S. used to pay 22 percent of the $1.5 billion, but in 2019 the U.S. agreed to reduce the amount to 16 percent, as I mentioned in my letter (May 16).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Dugger is completely wrong when he claims that the U.S. paid “almost the full bill.” Germany’s contribution was nearly 15 percent, and France and the UK stood at 10.5 percent each.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Sherwin questions my assertion that since 2014 there has been a steep increase in NATO members’ defense budgets. Check out graphs 3 and 6 at <a href="https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/10/pdf/pr-2020-104-en.pdf"><b><span style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173); text-decoration: none;">https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/10/pdf/pr-2020-104-en.pdf</span></b></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">I stand corrected that there were only 30 armored Humvees (out of 230) in President Barack Obama’s $195 million military aid package to Ukraine, but it was ridiculous that Dugger wrote that Obama only sent “food and blankets.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Sherwin does not mention that President Donald Trump withheld military aid for Ukraine for six months because he wanted dirt on the Bidens. He also started a pullout of 12,000 troops from Germany as revenge for perceived slights from Chancellor Angela Merkel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">There is no question the Europeans are relieved that Joe Biden is president.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Nick Gier<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Moscow<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div><div>—————————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/">http://www.moscowcares.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></div></body></html>