They don’t need the money no, although we did for some fuckin reason just give them an amount of money equal to about their total yearly defense budget.
However, they desperately need the diplomatic cover we give them on the world stage. The western world is well capable to make life miserable via sanctions for any country that isn’t playing ball to what we want them to do (Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc), to say nothing of getting hauled to the Hague to stand trial. Without the US shielding them from diplomatic consequences I think the theoretical ability to do their killing in a physical sense wouldn’t be something they felt nearly as free with.
They don’t need the money no, although we did for some fuckin reason just give them an amount of money equal to about their total yearly defense budget.
However, they desperately need the diplomatic cover we give them on the world stage. The western world is well capable to make life miserable via sanctions for any country that isn’t playing ball to what we want them to do (Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc), to say nothing of getting hauled to the Hague to stand trial. Without the US shielding them from diplomatic consequences I think the theoretical ability to do their killing in a physical sense wouldn’t be something they felt nearly as free with.