"De Hoop Scheffer said that 7 of the 26 alliance members were meeting the benchmark of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense."

This is a surprise given that msot of the membership cannot meet even this very low level of defense spending?

The US is spending about 3.5% of GDP on defense. France and the US are lower but still above the 2% benchmark.

Everyone else seem to be forcing the US to effectively subsidize them. Won't last, gentlepeople.....

"The 2 percent argument doesn't hold water. Look at Germany, for example: We don't have an arsenal of nuclear weapons. We don't have a bomber fleet. We don't have nuclear submarines. We don't have aircraft carriers. We don't have a big Navy. And we don't need any of these things."

Germany also doesn't have an effective army for the most part, with the exception of a few formations. Germany doesn't maintain a fleet of transport aircraft. Under most circunstances Germany doesn't need any of these things because Germany relies on the US to provide them. No, sometimes it seems that the ONLY thing Germany cares to provide to the alliance are battalions of lawyers and judges to man war-crime tribunals to send figting men and women to jail for doing what Germany is too good to do - fight.

The nukes don't cost much. Neither do the subs cost that much. What always costs ae 'boots on the ground'. Fighting soldiers and sailors. You have the US to provide them, so why do you need to do anything at all?

It's not quite that bad yet, but getting there. Germany is utterly exhausted when it has to deploy as many as 11,000 soldiers overseas on mostly undemanding peace-keeping missions (Kosovo, Kabul., etc. I think the tiny defense budget has something to do with that exhastion.

"The US removed its nukes from Ramstein and not a single German has pissed his pants because of lack of protection"

I don't doubt it. If anything I think the majority of Germans would prefer it is the US were to remove nukes from German soil entirely, so that Germans can be morally pure while still getting the benefit of nukes based elsewhere in the improbable case where they maight be needed to defend Germany.

We see this alot from Germany. Perhaps many Germans would disagree but I think that many would be gratified if outside NATO forces were to withdraw completely from Germany - that being the most morally pure possible stance for Germany. Other Germans possibly ask 'What if they don't come back if they are ever needed?'.

Good question, that.

Another good question which infintesmal numbers of Germans apparently ask themselves is: "What value do we supply to our allies to justify their expenditure of resources (past, present, and future) to defend us and our neighbors?"

Over the past 10 or 15 years we have seen a clear trend in Germany and (to be fair) others who have benefitted from NATO). That trend is when asked to do something to go through all kinds of political angst the product of which is to either answer 'No' or to provide a small fraction of what other NATO members regard as adequate contributions.

I see three possible outcomes. One is the dissolution of NATO either in fact or a 'hollowing out' as other alliance members follow the lead of Germany and others and withdraw committment. Another is that Germany and others decide to increase their capability and answer 'Yes' more often. A third is that Germany and others increase their capabilities and work out a creative way to advance the mission(s) - but in ways other than what has been initially requested. An example might be a major German (and other) reconstruction project(s) in Anbar province of Iraq. Now that Anbar has been pacified (or more accurately pacified itself), this is certainly possible and desperately needed.

Folks, pinning your noses closed with a clothespin is not working. Time to learn to say yes or at least to find ways to be of value. Telling Uncle Sam 'You broke it, you bought it' only encourages us Yanks to remember the time(s) a nation-state broke an entire continent - twice this century but most notably 1938-1945. Eh? Perhaps the US people should have told Germany thenm 'You broke it, you bought it'?