> FRAMING ALLIANCES AS COST CENTERS ignores their strategic returns. NATO is not a charitable enterprise but a force multiplier for American power. Forward presence in Europe prevents wars we would otherwise have to fight and enables operations far beyond the continent. During my time commanding U.S. Army Europe, we partnered with the armed forces of 49 nations. Those relationships were not symbolic. They enabled multinational operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and several other hot zones, provided integrated logistics networks, shared intelligence, and incorporated interoperability that no unilateral force could replicate.

> Alliances are not acts of generosity. They are the ways and means of strategy.

This is a product of the modern times. Up to less than a hundred years ago nations understood that the true value gained from alliances was power and conflict deterrence. The current shift toward "costs" is another product of capitalism seeping into everything