the same cheerleaders for montenegro being in nato want ukraine in nato. they want georgia in nato. this is about nato expansion in general and this is a chance to have a real debate. in ukraine and georgia, if both ukraine and georgia were in nato today, we would be involved in a world war with russia. shouldn't someone speak up? shouldn't we have some sort of national debate before we commit our sons and daughters to a war in a far away land? one thing is for certain. russia will always care more about those lands than we will. does that make russian aggression right? absolutely not but our decision, the decision at hand, is are we willing to send our sons and daughters to fight in border disputes over montenegro? most americans couldn't find montenegro on the map. are you willing to send your kids there to fight? that's what this is about. and this is left over. they're going to forbid amendments. i forced this debate. nobody wanted to have this debate. they want to rubber stamp. they want no debates and they want to send your kids to war with no debate. today they will pass this

on with former nato secretary general rasmussen. caller: thank you so much, morning, nd good secretary rasmussen. i had one question, and now i have three. but the first question would be recent reports about the in south an crisis sudan and 100,000 people facing starvation, and what are the plans there? and er 2, it seems to me -- i don't mean to be indignant, but you're saying you have confidence in trump and you want to see him work and yet he is under investigation for ties to just said russia friend. was not our our n you plose clarify if administration has been undermined by the russians, how work with nato? and the last thing is for c-span. internso see your women do more than bring coffee. thank you very much and i will my answer off air. host: i'll speak to the last one. trust me, they do a lot more coffee, but go ahead. sudan, yes, it is really a disaster. as such, doesn't have any in south sudan. think that's a task for the international community like the united nations. it's a tragic situation and i do united nations wo

nato knows what it must now do. it must deliver greater resources, most particularly from member states not yet meeting the 2% target. efficiency is not a substitute for commitment. we need both. with resources nato must also reform. nato has begun that journey and the uk is determined to lead the effort. today, nato has embarked on a new defense and terror posture. we have a greater focus on our higher readiness forces and we are starting to develop new responses to hybrid threats, nuclear blackmail and cyberattack. but we now need to press the accelerator. the institutions of nato shape, act the joint forces commands and so on all need to play a part in the transformation of nato to a genuinely agile, flexible organization. one in which we can have confidence that can respond quickly enough to those who wish us harm. such an organization requires nato to be adaptable and responsive to the changing environment. we need to strive for an alliance that is less bureaucratic, better at prioritizing, more capable of taki

it's a concern for the whole of nato.nd here we are considering that the most important principle is indivisibility of nato territory. and it doesn't matter which part of nato can be challenged. it's the challenge for the whole of nato. and in this sense, assurances of nato, the presence of nato battalions, international battalions on baltic soil, and reassurance given by u.s. in particular, that gives a strong sense of, strong response to anybody wants to challenge nato as the strongest military organization. and that's only a response we can expect from nato, and that's the response that is understandable for everybody and that gives us, as small nations, a good sense of assurance about our security and safety and stability for the future. >> i take it you all, does anybody disagree with that? do you all agree with the ambassador? >> if i may add, senator, i think what we've seen in the past two and half years, to nato summits, wales in 2014 and warsaw last year, have made very important decisions. and it is important t

it is indivisibility of nato territory. and which part of nato can be challenged. it is a challenge for the whole nato. and in this sense, the assure uns of nato presence of nato battalions, international battalions on baltic soil and reassurance by u.s. in particular that gives a strong sense, a strong response, that anybody who want to challenge nato as strongest military organization and only response we can expect from nato, and that's response that is understandable for everybody. and that gives us, as smaull nations, good sense about our security and sovereignty and stability for the future. >> does anybody disagree with that? do you all agree with the ambassador? thank you. >> i may add, senator, i think what we have seen in the past two and half years, two nato summits, wales in 2014 and warsaw last year, made very important decisions. and it is important to implement those decisions and we don't see any change in direction in that sense. this is my answer to a question that if there is change of direction after the elections in the united states, no, we do

it eu and nato interest. russia's deployment missiles, i assume that creates significant challenges for you, am i correct on that? >> as i have just said, the deployment of these missiles is very essential for our security is a kind of -- i think it was a kind of break through moment because it strengthens this feeling of insecurity and uncertainly and it's not only about poland, it's about flexibility of nato in this region and it's about also about the baltic countries and our countries. so this area of this region is especially sensitive area, as i said, the most militaryized in the whole of europe i think. >> are you getting -- do you get support from nato do you feel that nato spoupport is strong? >> yes, we feel it is from nato and the united states and i think the whole project of deployment and deterrence imprei implemented right now is essential for our security and important. >> i look at all of the areas in the baltic area, lithuania, estonia, so on. do you feel any greater or less concern about ru

ambassador to nato. so, beater, let's talk about turkey, erdogan, and nato.a real gut check for secretary dillers tillerson, bu continue to hear president trump say we're going to defeat siisi it will be quick, and now he is seeing the complicated task. >> yeah, it looks like the mood and the tone was okay, but the reality is that there is an issue about who the united states partners with, and the turks don't like the way in which america is working with the ypg. it is closely aligned with their own terrorist group. the turks want to see this gentleman extradited from the united states of america because of the involvement of the movement in the coup last july. and a number of difficult issues. so it was a tough. >> the entire nato alliance chanced so secretary dillerson could be here, he needs to be here at the summit. so they are showing a lot of flexibility. what if he comes here tomorrow, and continues to what president trump tweeted after angela merkel left, complaining that germany is not spending enough that the other nato allies need to pay their bil

. >> here at nato headquarters calling on nato to do more against terrorism. >> wement to discuss how we can build on their already important involvement in the fight to defeat isis and other actions that nato can provide that bring stability to the middle east. i'm delighted to be here, it's good to see all of you. >> what would you like to see nato do on isis mr. secretary? will you take any questions, sir? >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell at headquarters of nato in brussels. secretary rex tillerson called on nato to do more against isis and he tried to reassure that the u.s. is not retreating from the world, but most officials here are a little be wilderred by the goings on in washington. how do you explain michael flynn, one of president donald trump's closest advisors seeking immunity to give testimony to the justice department. and the president echos flynn's lawyer claims that this is all an unfair prosecution tweeting that it is a democratic witch hunt. peter alexander is following all of this, and joining us now, nbc news national security analyst jeremy barb as wesh as well.

but trying to push, for example, nato. let's be neutral. why lithuania should be nato member. let's be neutral. it seems like a very vague message, not against nato but why are we not neutral. that's kind of news probably more exploited in lithuania. >> ambassador teikmanis? >> i join assessment of my colleagues. three directions we are facing when we see hybrid warfare. one is russian tv, tv channels broadcasting in russian. the major narrative probably linked to baltic states but also to european union and this narrative tells about european union is economically collapsing and that was a great strategic mistake by baltic states to join to european union, and the only way how to get back to prosperity and welfare is to come back to russia and through russian economy, get to high wealth. another way is financing of ngos. while the person are not numerous and each of them are working in several ngos financed by different russian foundations and having, well, very nice names linked to protection of human rights or european research or whatever, and they are pretending to be fig

assurances of nato, the presence of nato on baltic soil and reassurance given to the u.s. in particular gives a strong sense, strong response to anybody who wants to challenge nato as the strongest military organization and that's the only response we can expect from nato and that's the response that is understandable for everybody and that gives us, small nations, a good sense of assurance about our security, safety and stability for the future. >> i take it, does anybody disagree with that? >> you all agree with the investor. >> thank you. >> if i may, senator, i think what we have seen in the past two and half years, to nato summits and warsaw, they have made very important decisions and it's important to implement those decisions and we don't see any change in direction in that sense. this is my answer to a question, if there's change of direction after the elections in the united states, no, we don't see that happening. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> german, thank you very much. thank you for joining us. >> as we make decisions about spending money, taxpayer

he wants to talk about nato's stance against isis and nato resourcing, which is a euphemism for the gdpommitment that nato allies are signed up but 23 out of the 28 have not made that commitment and something that president trump, vice president has spoken about, james mattis and secretary tillerson expected to amplify here. the germans half way down the table of countries failing to meet the commitment having major elections later this year. what we heard from another foreign minister going into the meeting is yes, we are speeding up our commitment to meet the 2% but can't just jump into it. perhaps the message will resonate across and around the table perhaps no more so than here in belgium the headquarters of nato. they're at the bottom of that list that make up the 2% of gdp. >> when you have to go right to nato's house and have that conversation, that might be a little bit more difficult. thanks so much for that. >>> five of the 28 nato countries pay that 2%. so that does give the president a little cover on that. >>> weather now, rain along the east coast. even some spring snow in

first iserson: ensuring that nato has resources, financial and other wise, necessary for nato to fulfillts mission. secondly, we want to discuss how we can build on nato's already imported involvement on the fight to defeat isis and other counterterrorism actions that nato can provide that ultimately bring stability to the middle east. we want to have a discussion run nato's posture here in europe, most particularly eastern europe, in response to russia's aggression in ukraine and elsewhere. we have tillerson speaking on a number of issues. finance is one of them as well as the islamic state group and russia. generally speaking now that he is there at the meeting, that was unexpected until scheduling was changed. is he reassuring nato allies, and will they comply with this financial question? pierre: well, he is reassuring the european allies, while his isual presence in itself part of the ongoing commitment of the united states, which was a big question of them since donald trump called nato " obsolete" during the campaign. obviously, the united states want the allies to pay up, and mos

nato is and his views specifically that, you know what, nato isn't fair. the other nato countries are not paying their fair share, are they? and whether or not the white house is now already pivoting to throwing paul manafort and even maybe mike flynn under the bus, it's not inexplicable why candidate trump might start criticizing nato at that point in the campaign and sewing distension and division and hitting this potential sore spot. it's not inexplicable why candidate trump might start doing that. i mean, the uncorroborated dossier of alleged russian dirt on donald trump that was published by buzz feed in january after handed over to the fbi by a former british mi6 officer, that dossier made a claim that they were supportive of it and cooperated with it and claims that there was a quid pro quo, that in exchange for russia's attack on the election to hurt clinton and help trump, according to the dossier, the operation had been conducted with the full knowledge and support of trump and senior members of his campaign team. in return, the trump campaign wo

he is going to stand with nato. it has been a question in re ce nt nato.th vladimir putin. there was also no mention of russia, and none of the middle east. there was talk of immigration. resident ron spoke about immigration and border security. -- president trump. we believe in immigration enforcement and border security. by finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars and make our communities safer for everyone. we want all americans to succeed, but that can't happen in an environment of lawless chaos. we must restore integrity and the rule of law at our borders. donald trump speaking about immigration. the whole issue of immigration, from the executive order banning people from seven will some countries —— muslim, that has almost been the most dominant feature of his presidency. did he go somewhere in this address to clarify what he wants to do on immigration, to clearup to clarify what he wants to do on immigration, to clear up some of the chaos that has the roundabout? not tonight, but i th

that's the next nato meeting.reed to move toward the target of spending 2% of the size of their country's economies on defense. the u.s., united kingdom, poland, greece and astone i can't are the only five nato countries reaching that target. there are 28 nations in nato. as forever the u.s. response, if nato countries fail to spend more on defense, state department officials refused to say. the german foreign minister is already pushing back on the u.s. request. reuters reports foreign minister sigmoid gabriel would mean 70 billion euros. i don't know any german politician would claim that is reachable or desirable. before reprimanding nato allies on defense spending secretary tillerson opened his remarks to international counterparts expressing support for nato is strong and bedrock for trans-atlantic security. a message of relief for some. >> remember, at the beginning of the presidency, you know, nato is not so important anymore. it is not the key for security. now we see that the united states said, no it is

i spoke to the secretary general of nato very recently.pect of ukraine being invited in to membership right now is simply fantasy. and surely you know it. let me go back to the history. do you remember bucharest meeting of nato, bucharest summit in 2008? ukraine was promised to sign a membership action plan. so, in the end a number of nato member countries refused to support this idea. what happened afterwards? russia invaded georgia. then russia illegally annexed crimea and sent in troops to donetsk and luhansk. we paid a huge political price for this kind of decision. going back to our prospective nato membership, we are very pragmatic and realistic and i do understand that we cannot get it in the short term. but in the long term, in case if we modernise our military, if we pass reforms that are needed for the ukrainian military, and we are on track with these, with the support of brits, canadians and americans, if we approximate ukrainian military up to nato standards it's in your interests to have ukraine as a nato member. we are defen

toward nato? what's their strategy when it comes to nato? >> their strategy is exactly what you have described. it is to split the western alliance and it is to insure that people have mistrust in democracy. when i am witnessing the debate that esspewed across the atlantic, when i am following the debate here in the states, i think mr. putin has more-or-less achieved his goal. >> how vulnerable is nato, that alliance to the kind of splits you're talking about. obviously, there are always disagreements and points of contention to the closest of allies. the kinds of divisions and spndlits a sore subjectse apparently wants to push, how vulnerable is the alliance? >> he cannot split the nato alliance. of course, it was a matter of concern wh candidate trump raised doubts about the american commitment to defending all allies. after he was elected, he has appointed a security team which has reassured allies that the american commitment is unchanged, that's good. and furthermore, he has also provoked, i

and so it's a reminder that bringing nato into -- bringing montenegro into nato is important for the alliances sake, but it's also an important step in continuing to make investments in security in the balkans. it's important for a second reason, because there's another player out there that is desperately trying to make the balkans less stable, and that is russia. russia has for a very long time had legitimate interests in the balkans. they have relations with the people of balkan nations as well as those governments. but they have an interest today in trying to destabilize that region, to create a crisis for europe, to create a crisis for nato. and as we all know, russia fills vacuums of power better than almost any other player out there. and whether we like it or not, as members of the senate, there is an enormous vacuum in the world right now created by the withdrawal of america. without a robust state department, without a coherent u.s. foreign policy, we are just not players in the world today like we were a year ago. and example "a" may be the balkan regions, the balkan regio

, in the nato response. similarly, so i don't take too much time, when we look at china, we see the same types of capability development we see in russia. certainly tracking chinese investments is a bit more opaque than russia but we still see a full range of capabilities, many of them oriented to keep us from moving into the pacific theater or operating freely within the pacific theater during a crisis or contingency. clearly with iran, similar capabilities in thaent this anti-axis area ef denial range, more focused on the straits of hormuz as opposed to china's capabilities and most recently, north korea, we see now a combination of both intercontinental ballistic missile capability as well as an effort to put a nuclear war head on that intercontinental ballistic missile so north korea not only threatens south korea, not only threatens the region but now presents a threat to the homeland as well. when i look at probably the most important thing when we look at the implications, the first one is that we nee

rasmussen: well, nato allies already decided. they did it while i was -- they will within the next decade reach the 2%. that also goes for the germans. tim: by 2024 come i think it was. >> yes, it is. tim but mattis has said that the : u.s. in the short term might moderate support for nato if that isn't met more quickly. >> yes. and he added that i will not elaborate on what moderate engagement will be because i expect nato allies to live up to their commitments. tim: yeah, but if america says it is unsustainable that we will take the lion's share of the 70% of this budget, and that needs to be addressed will that , be changed by nato members to fit in with what america is looking for? mr. rasmussen: i think it will, but i fully agree with the americans. this is not sustainable. in europe we have a peace , dividend, but now we must realize the security situation has changed after the russian attack on ukraine, and that is why we must pay 2%. tim: thank you very much indeed. mr. rasmussen: you're welcome. tim: you're watching "bbc

von der leyen responded in a statement, saying "there is no debt account at nato.ng missions, into our european missions and into our contribution to the fight against is terrorism." well, america's former ambassador to nato, ivo daalder, is among those who felt the need to correct mr trump, and he's live now from chicago thank you forjoining us. why is donald trump incorrect? he is saying all nations sued contribute 2% of their budgets to defence and that doesn't happen. he is correct in saying all countries - to do more saying all countries need to do more on defence, that the europeans in particular over the last 15 years or so particular over the last 15 years or so have been cutting defence at a time when in fact more spending is necessary. nato agreed in 2014 after the russian invasion of ukraine and the russian invasion of ukraine and the annexation of crimea to take the 296 the annexation of crimea to take the 2% guideline and make it policy and said countries not spending 2% of gdp on defence should do so by 2024. all nato countries agreed including german

so nato is going to evolve. ..turkey will find that it's in turkey's national interests to cooperate with iraqi kurds, largely because of the large volume of oil and gas which north of so many are to the eastern mediterranean corner. and as iraq becomes increasingly radicalized, and led by shiite extremists with ties to around revolutionary guard, we can look at the iraqi cards kurds and confront iraq itself but we've already heard from president trump a willingness to re-visualize nato. in my view, re-visualizing nato recognizes turkey as it is, not for how it was or how we wish to be and corresponding steps to extend the eastern flank of nato from the entire surroundings into iraqi kurds. >> the one in the back? >> how strong in your view is erdogan to deal with the eu about refugees who might become immigrants, especially in the view of upcoming elections in germany and france. >> it's a good question we haven't discussed the turkey eu relations. >> it's an important question. everyone rightly says the eu is shi

not to cause nato to respond. they arehem feel like alone and something that they have to deal with bilaterally with russia. that helps us understand these tactics and i find our own knowledge about europe and european political dynamics and our own strength of purpose with our allies. congressional visits like years or so important. it is fake or false news that are blatantly wrong stories designed to put pressure on the government and create hysteria. andleaks of in paris information designed to discredit government officials. , the moreou discredit false news. ownership of the media. i argue the central european media market is decreasing -- increasingly becoming russian owned. it gets back to beneficial ownership who is owning these media companies. >> russian oligarchs. don't want to be conspiratorial here. i wonder what is happening here with this kind of export of wealth. we are seeing more and more of that. is coming on the asymmetrical issue. is the degreeake to which these influence operations are enable

. >> we strongly support nato, we only ask that all of the nato members make their full improper financial contributions to the nato alliance, which many of them have not been doing. many of them have not been even close. and you have to do that. >> you could say germany is closer than a lot of the nations in nato. it is also a good bet that they are going to talk about the refugee crisis. obviously, it has been overwhelming many nations in europe. the president critical of the german chancellor for allowing a million refugees into germany. it is also expected that the president will ask angela merkel her opinion about dealing with vladimir putin. keep this in mind. she's been in office an awful long time, they have met more than 20 times, that you read leaders during their time in office, and so it might be good intel for the president to see what merkel has to say about him. and this conversation of wiretapping, we talked about that, right? this idea that may be president trump was wiretapped by some other country, and it is a controversy to say the least. the white house has talked abou

the nato issue, in your view. >> well, i think the nato issue is the big one. as i say, america can't keep -- shouldn't go on paying the whole of the bill. but also, you know, the underbelly of this is there are some -- and i don't think merkel's one of them, but there are some in the european union who actually want a separate european army, and i genuinely do not think that's a good thing. trish: nigel, do you think merkel laughs? >> i've met her many times, i've had lunch with mrs. merkel. i had to say she looked like she was sucking a lemon throughout the whole event. [laughter] mrs. merkel in private -- trish: you're toug >> -- is no llier than she appears in public. trish: oh, dear. all right. but you did have lunch, you spoke about something even if she wasn't necessarily happy about it. tell us -- well, you know what, here she is. they're coming out right now. >> they're coming out. trish: the president as well, so let's listen in. thankthank you, nigel. [background sounds] >> chancellor merkel, it is a great honor to welcome you to the people's house,

the white house is calling nerves with nato.fter the secretary of state opted out of a key nato meeting. hey allergy muddlers are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® zyrtec® starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec®. muddle no more®. try rhinocort® allergy spray for powerful nasal allergy relief. pabut with odor free blue-emu continuous pain relief spray, i can box out any muscle or joint pain immediately. blue-emu continuous pain relief spray, it works fast and you won't stink. >> new this morning, president trump has just officially added a may 25th nato summit to his schedule. in a statement, the white house said the president will, quote, reaffirm our strong commitment to nato. among the items on the president's agenda for the meeting in brussels, nato's role and the fight against terror and what the white house called allied responsibility sharing. president trump has been relentlessly critical of nato allies for failing t

first ensuring that nato has all the resources financial and otherwise necessary for nato to fulfill its mission. secondly, we want to discuss how we can build on nato's already important involvement in the fight to defeat isis and other counter terrorism actions that nato can provide. ultimately bring stability to the middle east. >> reporter: so that nato resource really is a euphemism. what you're going to hear from perhaps germans and others is they want to increase the spending, they are increasing their spending but hope to do it over a number of years and not as speedily as president trump wants because it isn't easy for them to turn around huge budgets an want to do it efficiently. likely to hear from the french as well. they want to hear more about the united states' position on syria. they feel that may be changing an want details on that. >>> as we often hear with these meetings, trump administration officials trying to reassure our allies, seems to be the word we use every time. >> the president has said nato was obsolete not doing anything. >>> futures right now taking a

because estonia was new to n nato. do you think other nato countries felt it was an attack on them as well? >> thank you. at the time, this did not really get much traction. at the time of course, people had fully understood the nature of cyber attacks and their debilitating consequences. and just to chemosome things in perspective, the first time the munich security conditiference a panel on cyber. >> yet in 2016, nato declared it a fourth demain of welfare. one of the new russian owned goals was that we had been lobbying for some time. a number of countries came on board, so it has been in operation for some seven years. eight years. initially, i don't think countries understood the full impact or the power of digital weaponry. closer to the west. polls are showing, people of ukraine as more and more coming out. when i was in poland four weeks ago, one of the leaders there said something i'd like you to comment on. he said we're watching you in the united states. he said, we want to see how you react to the invasion

nato is central for tto the uni states of our own security policy. and so nato is important to us. it's important to the europeans. and i think it was very good news that both the chancellor and the president recommitted themselves to this nato which is central and as you suggested with threats coming from moscow and other areas of the world, we don't have the luxury of quarreling amongst ourselves about the importance ever this allege l of this and i lie answer. >> we can't have time to get into the claims of wiretapping, but quite frankly, there is nothing to talk about. there is no evidence. thank you so much. >>> the secretary of state is seeking chinese support to rein in the north korean weapons program. in south korea he said that the u.s. would consider military action against north korea if it was provoked. let's get the sfview from china. will ripley is live from beijing. a pleasure to have you with us. let's talk about the secretary of state on the ground in china at the same time the president on twitter putting out this tweet within the last 24 hours. tweet reads as fo

but nato will evolve we've already heard from president trump a willingness to revisualize nato in my vn it recognizes tkey it is, not for how it was or how we wish it to be. and corresponding steps to extend the eastern flank of nato from the entire surroundings into iraqi kurd. >> take another one. in the back. [inaudible conversations] how strong in your view is to deal with the view about the immigration -- about refugees who might become immigrants especially in the view of the upcoming election to germany and france that can be into turmoil with their huge way of new immigrants. >> it is a good question. we haven't discussed turkish view relations in the revolution so it is an important question. everyone rightly says that the e.u. is constantly shifting the goal post. the e.u. turkey deal on migration had two components. they were 6 billion at the e.u. to pay turkey. i think it has been dribbling out some sums to assist with the refugees in turkey. by the way who were created by conflict supported by turkey through its assistance to jihadi groups. the other component of the dea

nato allies in belgium.a two-month deadline to craft their defense spending plans, fox news' rich edson is live in brussels with the latest. rich? >> reporter: hello, melissa, and secretary of state rex tillerson, his first trip to a nato meeting, and he says that the u.s. is burying a disproportionate share of nato spending, nearly 70% of nato spending and wants countries that aren't meeting that threshold, the nato designated threshold, spending 2% of the country's economy on defense they want that to happen in the next two months to create a plan how they're going to get there if they're not there already. 28 nato nations, currently 5 nato countries spent 2% of gdp on defense. beyond all of this, the secretary of state has been pushing this idea as has the trump administration that they want more countries to contribute to organizations like nato. >> first is ensuring that nato has all of the resources, financial and otherwise, that are necessary for nato to fulfill its mission. secondly, we want to discu

strengthen nato's southern border. since its independence from serbia tense year as -- ten years ago it was pursued inclusion and it's been a good partner to nato. montenegro has contributed ably to the mission in afghanistan which is the only time article 5 of nato has been enforced, invoked. it was after the attacks of 9/11 on the united states and our response was to go into afghanistan. montenegro joined us along with our other nato allies in this effort. montenegro has also imposed sanctions on russia for its aggression in ukraine. montenegro's accession to nato is also critically important for the wider balkan region which faces increasing russian influence and interference. after all, remember, the two major wars of the last century, world wars i and ii started in the balkans. we need to do everything we can to maintain stability there. this is one of the things that i believe montenegro's accession to nato will help us do. and we saw that increasing russian influence, that increasing effort to destabilize the b

, the nato alliance?l on the head. nato exists for one reason, and that's to keep europe secure. so the question becomes who's responsible for that security. is it the europeans, is it americans, is it europeans and americans. and, you know, we have been responsible for, you know, we at least have been the guarantor of that security since the end of world war ii. but if you actually look at that and you add up all the 28 member countries, you add all of their gdp up together, you know, the u.s. alone represents about half of that gdp, a little bit less than half, yet we're footing two of thirds of the annual nato bill. so when it comes to 900 or so billion dollars and is we're paying for about $600 billion, you know, look, everybody right now is having financial issues. europe is, certainly we are. but, yes, absolutely. it's time for them to start paying their share. and the money can't be spent arbitrarily. it shouldn't be a jobs program the way countries like italy use it but should actually go to buyin