After much fretting, and complaining, and denouncing, NATO did the simplest thing: It went along.Д«yron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.And despite what you hear from WashingtonвЂ¦Дonald Trump will become the greatest president of the United States in history. The bottom line is that Donald Trump moved the NATO debate. And now NATO, facing the reality of a Trump presidency, has little choice but to go along. Modernizing NATO's approach in the age of the Islamic State is also eminently reasonable.

But the fact is, burden sharing is an old idea, and a non-controversial one. It's hard to overstate the near-hysteria that met Trump's 'fair share' and 'obsolete' comments. Then he added what Pence wanted to hear: 'But we agree that the alliance can, and should, do more in the fight against terrorism.' First, he noted that NATO is helping train security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and is contributing surveillance planes to the fight against the Islamic State. On the issue of terrorism, Stoltenberg said yes again. 'I expect all allies to make good on the promise that we made in 2014 to increase defense spending and to make sure to have a fairer burden of sharing.' 'I fully support what has been underlined by President Trump and by Vice President Pence today, the importance of burden sharing,' Stoltenberg said. 'And if you don't have a plan,' Pence said, 'get one.' Just in case anyone missed the message, Pence encouraged the NATO countries that don't spend 2 percent on defense to accelerate their plans to get there. 'The president of the United States and the American people expect our allies to keep their word and to do more in our common defense, and the president expects real progress by the end of 2017. 'So let me say again what I said this last weekend in Munich,' Pence said. As a candidate, Trump repeatedly called for NATO to pay more, Pence noted.ДЄnd now Trump is president. Only four countries, in addition to the U.S., are now meeting that standard. He reminded the group that in 2014 all 28 members of NATO promised to try to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense by 2024. 'Europe's defense requires Europe's commitment as much as ours,' Pence said.

Pence dropped the hammer of Trump's demands, and NATO quickly went along. 'I can say with confidence, America will do our part.'Д«ut at least as newsworthy was what happened next. 'It is my privilege here at the NATO headquarters to express the strong support of President Trump and the United States of America for NATO and our transatlantic alliance,' Pence said. will stand behind its treaty commitments.

News reports from Pence's news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg focused on Pence's effort to 'reassure' nervous NATO officials that the U.S. And after all the controversy and complaining, NATO's response could be boiled down to a single sentence: Yes sir, Mr. On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence took the Trump message to NATO headquarters in Brussels. Candidate Donald Trump set off a furious controversy when he said NATO countries should pay their 'fair share' of mutual defense costs and, later, that the treaty organization was 'obsolete' because not enough of its efforts were directed against radical Islamic terrorism.

Yes sir mr president free howard trump