America's Overseas Misadventures: Today's news for March 20th

Fox News:

3 US soldiers shot in Afghanistan 'insider attack'

Three U.S. Army soldiers were shot and wounded Sunday when an Afghan Army soldier opened fire on them inside a base in southern Afghanistan's volatile Helmand Province, officials told Fox News.

...Since October, 12 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan and five Americans are currently being held hostage there.

It is quite curious that the war in Afghanistan allegedly ended in 2014, yet we still have troops there, and we are talking about sending more:

There are roughly 8,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan -- more than in Iraq and Syria combined.

Additionally, the Pentagon is weighing a decision to send more U.S. forces to Afghanistan. The top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. John Nicholson, told Congress earlier this year he needed more U.S. and allied soldiers to help train the Afghan army. 

Does that sound like a finished war?

Even more importantly, why are we there? Fighting the anomalous "war on terror" may be the excuse, but it clearly isn't working. Considering the soldier who performed this heinous shooting was probably a teenager or younger when the war started 16 years ago, it doesn't look like we are anywhere closer to ending terrorism.

Speaking of American foreign affairs...

Politico:

Berlin strikes back against Trump claim that Germany owes ‘vast sums’ to NATO, US

Since the start of his campaign, [President Donald] Trump has urged Berlin and other NATO members to accelerate efforts to meet a 2 percent defense spending target. After his first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday, Trump tweeted that Berlin “owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!”

During the White House meeting, Merkel pledged to continue to increase Germany’s defense budget and reaffirmed her country’s commitment to the 2 percent goal by 2024.

That was Saturday. By Sunday, Germany was already backtracking:

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday rejected accusations by U.S. President Donald Trump that Berlin owes NATO and the United States “vast sums” for defense, according to media reports.

“There is no account where debts are registered with NATO,” the defense minister said in a statement, questioning how military spending was calculated and arguing that a country’s financial commitment to the military alliance is not the only measure. “Defense spending also goes into U.N. peacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contribution to the fight against ISIS terrorism,” von der Leyen said.

Back in 2014, after Russia invaded Ukraine, this same German defense minister had this to say about German defense spending (from DW):

Germany spends 1.3 percent of its gross domestic product on the Bundeswehr, while NATO's target stands at 2 percent of total economic output.

"We are a large, economically strong country," von der Leyen told ARD. "Meaning one should always ask: 'how many percent of what?'" The defense minister said that Germany remained NATO's "second-largest net spender," adding that several other countries had seen their GDP decline in recent years.

"It's then clear that it is easier to reach the target, if the defense budget doesn't shrink at the same rate," she added.

In other words, she was suggesting shrinking the economy to reach compliance. We have a bear sighting!

By the way, German stupidity doesn't end with the defense minister:

In an interview with the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung newspaper to be published Monday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel also hit back at Trump’s comments, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported. 

“A sensible security policy is not just buying tanks, driving defense spending to insane heights and escalating the arms race,” he said. “A reasonable policy means crisis-prevention, stabilization of weak states, economic development and the fight against hunger, climate change and water scarcity.”

2% of GDP is "insane heights" for defending your nation? In the U.S., the lowest our defense spending has been in the last 70 years was 3.5% of GDP in 2001. Then again, we have been defending all of Europe during that time. That is true insanity.