Helmut Schmidt: $1.02 Trillion NATO budget enough already

Helmut Schmidt  is right to caution against throwing more money at NATO.  In 2013 $1.02 Trillion was spent on  'defence' by the NATO countries. Russia spent $90 billion. It's unclear how one or two percent increase in spending by European countries would have changed the Ukraine dynamic.

Lord Grey was Britain's FM in 1914. His belief was that the pre-war arms race was the cause of the 'Great War'. Whilst many scholars would argue against this mono-causal  theory, it's apparent that arms races promote war in that they shift the military balance.

The Ukraine crisis reverberating across Europe recalls 1914 before the outbreak of World War I as Russia, the U.S. and European governments risk sleepwalking into conflict, said former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
“I don’t want to encourage a third world war and especially not calls for more money for arms for NATO,” Schmidt, 95, was cited as saying in an interview with Germany’s best-selling Bild newspaper today. “But the danger that the situation intensifies as in 1914 is growing day by day.” Link