John Bolton: Putin was 'waiting' for possible US withdrawal from NATO

MAJ James Woods - Your statement that "NATO's strength is the coalition's commitment not the size of one's military" is not logical or factual. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has launched a classic "come as you are war". Given that lack of recent defense spending by members, the military resource commitments to NATO by any member country are entirely related to the size of a member country's military. As this point in time, these available resources are so woefully inadequate that were it not for the somewhat surprising lack of Russian army proficiency and its apparent inability to execute competently complex combat operations sustained by logical support, the former Eastern bloc members of NATO ought to be in fear of invasion later this year.

MAJ Eric G Troup Not all 27 members are built the same so you'll have some nations with a large GDP and defense budget and others with a small GDP and budget. So yeah, size doesn't necessarily matter. What matter is the commitment of as many members to come together financially and militarily to combat a threat.
Of course it's in the best interests for each member nation to have a strong military whether it's personnel or technology or both.
Yeah, NATO is fortunate that Russia is invading non-member Ukraine that it underestimated the force they'll need or how so many Russian military would refuse to fight.
Again peacetime tends to cripple a nation's military. Even the US and Europe learned this prior to WW2 and the US again in Korea with peacetime readiness. You're reaching with fearmongering rhetoric that NATO should fear a Russian invasion.

MAJ Eric G Troup You'll also know the 2% funding is a goal not a mandate. Even the Trump Admin ackniwledged that it's not a mandate and the US could drawback funding if it chooses without penalty.
Yeah a nation's defense budget isn't directly tied to its commitment to NATO. Other national security priorities can impact its ability to commit 2% of GDP. This isn't hard to grasp; we just assume the wealth of US allows us to do it so every other nation can too.
End of the day, German officials are concerned their military has been depleted due to mismanagement making it even hard to commit forces in another US led Coalition against an Iran or a China. Put yourself in their shoes. NATO sounds important but it's a small piece in their big picture of domestic policies.

MAJ James Woods Well, not a small piece now…. “Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine has caused Ger­many to rev­o­lu­tion­ize its de­fense pol­icy in less than a week.” WSJournal

As for Germsn Energy Policy, Trump explicitly warned Germany not to sole source their energy from Russia. The German UN delegates laughed during Trump’s speech to the UN in this video. Probably not laughing now with Merkel gone.
https://twitter.com/etroup13/status/ [login to see] 44923650?s=21

Let's see what we're dealing with here.

Trump
Picked and "Carried Big Stick":
1. Acted to significantly strengthen military.
2. Acted to return manufacturing and associated jobs back to the United States.
3. Acted to build economic strength achieving lowest unemployment in 50 years, highest labor participation rate, solid GDP and wage growth, low inflation.
4. Proving Obama wrong "you cannot drill your way out of oil shortage", Trump acted and achieved US energy independence and net exporter of oil and gas.
5. Correctly identified NATO as weak and succeeded getting some NATO nations to at least consider increasing defense spending.
6. Shut down ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
7. Worked to get out of long non-productive wars in the Gulf region and Afghanistan.
8. Held North Korea in check
9. Held Russia in check
10. Held China in check
11. Worked to achieve Border Security.
12. Enabled multiple peace treaties between Israel and Gulf Region countries.
"Spoke Softly":
13. Spoke nicely / maintained cordial relationship of the leaders of Korea, Russia and China.

Biden:
Put down all "Big Sticks": Must have been too heavy to hold up...
1. Ruined energy independence - focused on green policies and shut down drilling and mining and pipeline projects. Held up all leases on government lands. Wrecked US energy industry in order to favor EVs. Made US and Europe more vulnerable to energy blackmail.
2. Weakened US Military - Ordered focus on green policies because climate change is the number 1 threat to America. Stood down military for woke training and Marxist developed Critical Race Theory training.
3. Abruptly abandoned Afghanistan with a disastrous retreat that emboldened Putin and Xi.
4. Focused America on guarantee equal outcomes (not opportunity). Wrecked work ethic especially in Democrat-run major cities. Created rampant crime wave with anti-policing anti-bail, anti-jail policies.
5. Focused on spending and giveaways creating record runaway inflation.
6. Wide open borders with zero controls on mass migrations into US. Why should I have to show a passport to travel?
7. Covid-19 response a disaster.
Pretends to Speak Tough - It is all talk and no action. All hat and no cattle.
8. Putin attacks Ukraine marking end of Post-Cold War globalism possible start of WWIII.

MAJ Eric G Troup If you actually believe that you're beyond hope.

I was told if I voted Trump there would be a war, I voted for Trump and here we are!

Killing an Iranian general in Iraq and last minute called off a drone strike; umm yeah some thought he'd along with Bolton was out to start a war with Iran or North Korea. Can't dispute both Trump and Putin don't like NATO.