Notations From the Grid (Weekly Edition): Out & About in Our World
As our team went to press, President Trump had left Scotland after a 2-Day non working getaway at his resort to meet with the President of Russia in Finland. Before he left, though, he gave an interview to CBS News which was reported out by the Team at the Washington Examiner in this manner — and an apparent suggestion that The UK should sue the EU — which the UK Prime Minister noted she decided not to take:
Trump calls EU ‘a foe’ ahead of Putin meeting
President Trump described the European Union as “a foe” in an interview aired Sunday, ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland.
“I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump told CBS News. “I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they are a foe.”
As the President called for a massive increase in spending, the team at the National Priorities project provided a snapshot of what that would entail with profound implications for the World:
The world is becoming a more dangerous place.
This week at the NATO summit, President Trump not only campaigned, as he has been, for every NATO country to spend at least two percent of its GDP (gross domestic product, a measure of economic productivity) on its military — but for every NATO country to double that goal and spend four percent.
The two percent goal is already nonsensical, and just serves to underscore how European countries that spend less on their militaries also spend more on bread and butter programs that actually make peoples’ lives better, as Lindsay Koshgarian writes in Fortune.
The massive military spending spree Trump demanded at NATO serves no actual security purpose. Trump’s four percent goal comes out of the same playbook as his military parade. It would make a big point, at a big cost, with no real benefits.
If every NATO country met the four percent goal, it would be akin to adding a U.S.-sized superpower to the world. Conversely, if every NATO country — including the U.S. — spent two percent of its GDP on its military, total NATO spending would actually decrease — and that could allow the U.S. to meet any number of other domestic and international goals, according to this thought-provoking Washington Post analysis.
We also were assessing what was the latest out of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. As the Syria War seems to be winding down, there is a “clamour” for Iran to leave and Iran’s Supreme Leader Advisor for International Affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, said that Iran is willing to leave Syria as Israel continues its’ attacks. The more crucial flashpoint, right now, is Iraq though especially as protests continue and now there is a nationwide internet shutdown-as the protests began in Basra and have continued onward. As for Afghanistan, Civilian deaths continue to climb at an alarming rate. There was also the on-going siege of Gaza and the latest flareup as Israel pounded Gaza yet again as two teen-agers were killed after Hamas rocket attacks.
As we look to a new week, though, we wanted to note that the Final Game of the World Cup is being played right now as we went to press. France was up 3–1 against Croatia. This is also as the formal handoff between Russia and Qatar occurred:
Onward to the New week……
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Originally published at www.thedailyoutsider.com on July 15, 2018.
