The closest U.S. ally not in NATO

[dead0man]

Who should it be?  Brazil
Who is the most important from our perspective right now?  Japan
Closest over the long term? Aussies/Kiwis
Who is the most important from their perspective right now? Israel (but Japan, S.Korea, Georgia, Taiwan, Kuwait, S.Arabia...probably a couple of others, are right on the Jewish tail)

[dead0man]

Depends on the brand (or how they were made at home).  Keebler's Soft Batch is the brand God eats.

[dead0man]

Israel, with Australia in second.

Frankly, what has Israel ever done for the U.S.?

I understand that we provide them with everything they want and need, but I can't say that we've really gotten much in return.

Quite the contrary, our support and relationship with Israel has caused us more international problems than anything else. That doesn't necessarily mean that we should change our policy (well...yes it does actually, in my opinion), but regardless of one's view of Israel, I can't believe you'd call them an ally.

Lots and LOTS of intel goes both ways (and yes, we still spy on each other, but so does every other major power towards each other.  You'd be naive to think the UK doesn't spy on Germany and Germany on France and France on Spain and Spain....maybe not Spain).  At times it's been a good test bed for our weapons and strategies.

Certainly they've gained a lot more from us than we them, but we have gained valuable things from them that we woulldn't have been able to posses if we were not their ally.

[dead0man]

I feel that Japan has been drifting away from us rather than towards us though.  They're starting to become far more dependent on China (are we) and it's not really clear who will support whom if the US and China got involved or if China and Japan got involved in a conflict in 2030.

No.  China and Japan won't be friends any time soon.  Japan is still very close with the US.  We both need each other too much.

[dead0man]

Yeah, but Japan is more valuable to us than the Aussies are I think.  I agree our relationship is longer and has the better chance to survive in the long haul with Australia, but Japan has a couple of things going for it that our brothers down under don't:
A.Excellent location next to one of our more dangerous potential enemies (and not likely to be lost in the opening days like S.Korea)
B.A very mature, domestic technology base.

Plus, where the Aussies are a slightly "off"* mirror of the US culturally, Japan is a REALLY funked up mirror of the US culturally.  Their culture is just more interesting...but that's a minor point compared to the above two.




*I mean nothing bad by that.  I love that you guys are so much like us.  Much more so than the UK.  In some ways you're even more like us than Canada...but not many.




Ya know what, I change my mind.  You're probably right.  I was thinking "most important" nation outside of NATO, but that's not the question.  It's who is "closest" to us outside of NATO and that probably is Australia.