'The French had the best dressed corpses on the battlefield.'
- Old British World War I joke/observation
Twice in the last century, the United States has had to rush in - expending enormous blood and treasure - to save Europe from its own arrogance, pettiness, self-aggrandizement, and incompetence. After the end of the Second World War, America had to spend billions rebuilding the place in order to prevent it from reverting back to the status quo of thousands of years. Additionally, the construction and maintenance of the NATO alliance became a necessity both to safeguard what was left of 'Free Europe' from the clutches of the Commie Bear during the Cold War and to protect the fragile peace and security forged out of ancient tribal animosities. One of the requirements of the Treaty is that each member must spend 2% of GDP at minimum on defence. The overwhelming majority of members do not - how else could they afford their generous welfare states?
Almost all 'share the wealth' around to their citizens and migrants alike whilst getting a free defence ride from the United States and her taxpayers.
Along with South Korea (we fought a war for them, too), Japan is the largest recipient of American military largesse in East Asia. After spending an earth-shattering amount of blood, money, and opportunity costs defeating Imperial War in a nearly four-year, gore-soaked war from Pearl Harbor to Midway to Guadalcanal to the Philippines to Iwo Jima to Nagasaki, Americans rebuilt Japan and created the foundation for the many years of peace and prosperity that the Japanese would enjoy for decades to come.
Given that sacrifice, it's 'nice' to know that...
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