NATO

NATO was founded in 1949 to protect communist countries in Europe from Soviet aggression. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 so why is NATO still around. Here are the contributions by different countries to NATO in thousands. United States — 811,140 1. United Kingdom — 72,765 2. Germany — 64,785 3. France — 58,729 4. Italy — 29,763 5. Canada — 26,523 6. Spain — 14,875 7. Netherlands — 14,378 8. Poland — 13,369 9. Turkey — 13,057 The US contributes $811 million while the next nine countries combined contribute $265 million which is 25% of the total. In addition the US contributes 1.3 million troops which is 85% of the total. European countries are thankful for this since they have to spend far less on their own defense which allows them to spend more on social programs. The US spends $800 billion on defense while all Europe combined spends $250 billion.