So why doesn't the US just spend that money so we can be more like X trendy country I heard about on Y blog/podcast that is a fraction of the size of the US and does "EVERYTHING" better?
Well, the case is that they have more money to spend because the US is subsidizing their military. So many of these countries are able to get away with tiny military budgets because of the US's large military budget. (all of those countries are also unrecoverably in decline)
It may not be direct subsidiaries but I'd be willing to wager a pretty penny that there are a lot of European countries that feel comfortable with spending little on defense and aren't worrying about Russia because they know the US has their back.
Not to mention keeping Taiwan from being brought under the CCP umbrella, the efforts the US Navy puts into preventing and reducing piracy. In fact most of the world that doesn't worry about imminent invasion from it's neighbors doesn't worry mostly because the US has provided almost global security by virtue of having the largest most capable military on the planet.
I won't pretend it is perfect or that we have global peace but like during Pax Romana although they were still squabbling with the Sassinids, the average person's risk of dying as a result of military conflict is very small when compared historically, especially since almost every military action in the past half century has been not between modern nation states but between guerrilla and partisan forces which results in considerably less damage in life and property than a full scale conflict between two capable actors as the Iran Iraq war proves.
The pledge - which wasn’t signed was for 2% - nobody is afraid of Russia at this point and Poland alone could very well handle any Russian army if this war is any indication.
Of what the US spends on NATO, very little goes to smaller nations. In exchange, the US has legal bases and troops deployed in other countries without fear of retaliation, do you grasp how much power the US gets to project through this? Probably not.
US keeps Taiwan because it benefits them, and because it needs the semiconductors.
Nothing is free.
When you lot decided to invade Middle East for oil yet again for the 4th or 5th time, you also triggered article 5 and foreigners died as a consequence of your own greed, your unchecked black ops, and CIA funding terrorists.
Furthermore, this “alliance” means that people are spending money on US military hardware, not anyone else’s, but this is conveniently out of the discussion every time such complaints come up.
Less than 20% of what the US spends on NATO is used to assist smaller countries, and the US only covers 16% of operational costs of NATO - which is as much Germany is covering.
Legal boots on the ground next to any front trumps any and all economic arguments.
You mostly had me until this point. Did you know there is more oil in the US than Iraq and Afghanistan combined? Do you have any data on the number of oil rigs set up during the invasion? Who gets this oil by the way? Do you know how many trillions were spent in Afghanistan and Iraq? More than it's GDP of the entire period the US was there. Please provide some source for this claim. If anything, the US would invade a country just to "stretch it's legs" and keep the machine running.
The oil in the continental US is hard to extract [1]. The oil in Middle East is trivial and cheap to extract [1,2].
There is a reason oil price is up there, because the US and Saudi Arabia have setup a cartel, aramco has iirc > 70% profit margins. The cartel ensures that the U.S. can be “competitive” on pricing, that’s it. It ensures private interests are protected.
As for who gets it and whatnot, it’s all about private interests funding politicians who ensure no crisis is lost.
The money spent there is not to Iraq or Afghanistan per se, but also to the troops. You should look into how much the US is paying for the food supplies.. we are talking thousands per meal.
So why doesn't the US just spend that money so we can be more like X trendy country I heard about on Y blog/podcast that is a fraction of the size of the US and does "EVERYTHING" better?
Well, the case is that they have more money to spend because the US is subsidizing their military. So many of these countries are able to get away with tiny military budgets because of the US's large military budget. (all of those countries are also unrecoverably in decline)