us$ crash, page-23

Hi Briter,

Your point concerning Solana as SG is interesting. Yes, I agree that he is one to watch.

As for the police force (Nato), once you reduce Nato's strength for the US European contingent (~170,000) and for the Canadian force strength, you start getting to a rather smaller Nato field strength which is fractional when compared to the US (with or without Canada).

The other issue concerning Nato /EU is being prepared to move into so-called internal issues (ie: Kosovo, for whch a sizeable US contingent led the initial engagement, along with the Brits). The track record on this amongst EU-Nato members is not that great.

A further issue concerns what has essentially failed as a joint defence project - namely, the Euro Fighter programme.

Most recently (23/11), Greece scrapped their 4.8 billion euro ($6.2 billion) agreement with the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) to buy 60 Eurofighter jets (plus a further 30 options).

As for defence costs, most EU memsbers have currently defence budgets in the sub-1.5% of GDP range. So, they have a long way to go there to fill the void that will be left behind once the US exits from Europe.