Major non-NATO U.S. Allies

Agreed. I don't really understand how Pakistan is considered an ally at this point...

Because the government funded all of that. We pay to fight terrorists lol. This has been the truth for 30 years now. Bin Laden probably in US witness protection now.

I thought the same thing. I laugh now because now they have to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda which they saved from the US and trained lol!

yes it does and we've explained it to you before. You just don't like it because you are stuck on the wrong side of 1999.

Do you still feel this way?

Well, it's the largest protection racket in history, so for the racketeers, I guess it does serve a certain purpose.

NATO is to keep the Americans in, the Germans down, and the Russians out

From the list or from the map? :)

They're certainly not allies with the new administration

Well...perhaps two of them. Depends on how this plays out but the next door neighbor there appears to have been quite the safe haven.

Saudi Arabia is also a major ally of the U.S...

The situation in Afghanistan is still pretty chaotic and probably won't be resolved for several months, if not years. The government of President Ghani is still the internationally recognized government, even though he's not even in Afghanistan anymore. The Taliban has taken over the capital by force and proclaimed a new government while simultaneously claiming they seek a peaceful transfer of power. I don't think the Taliban has even officially chosen a leader.

In other words, it's a hot mess, and probably too early to definitively update the quiz. (Also if I got any of that wrong please correct me--it's hard to keep track of everything going on right now.)

IKR

Different government, but it seems the US still recognizes the old regime, and the designation has not yet been revoked

Maybe make it 𝘥𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘳𝘦 an ally, at least until the Islamic Emirate is proclaimed to officially succeed the Republic and maybe sever ties with the US

It has not yet been designated as a Major US Non-Nato Ally.

Personally I'm more surprised Vietnam was never designated. I mean obviously during the Cold War it would be a bit controversial but after 1991...

Quizmaster cant remove Afghanistan from all quizzes like this automatically.

SINCE 2004 ACCORDING TO THE TABLE ABOVE

They'll be joining NATO proper so they won't be in here.

Was about to say that too

Presumably any European country (Ukraine being the exception) that would want to put in the effort of getting on this list would just as easily join NATO, and their absence from both lists shows they really don't want to. Austria and Ireland in particular both strike me as countries that don't want to get involved with any military conflicts, especially ones pertaining to the United States.

From Wikipedia: "Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) is a designation given by the United States government to countries that have strategic working relationships with the U.S. Armed Forces while not being members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While the status does not automatically constitute a mutual defense pact (as would be the case through NATO membership) with the United States, it does confer a variety of military and financial advantages that are otherwise unobtainable by non-NATO countries."

Basically, there are countries that are working closely with at least one branch of the US military forces. They also get some benefits from doing so.

Since those benefits are sanctioned by the US government, it employs an official designation for them (Major Non-NATO Ally).

So what, it's like, "we need to give you arms to balance powers in the region. so we'll pick the least-worst & call you a 'designated ally'. now you can buy our stuff at a discount, or free - if you're that undeveloped. and we can proclaim to our constituents that it's legal and in our interest to move arms (and in some cases men/ships) at volume"

Because some of these don't make any sense in the traditional term of "ally" / "allegiance", like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taiwan, Argentina, Israel, etc.

Set aside Afghanistan. AFAIK Pakistan's #1 enemy is India, and there's no way their worth combined would even approach attracting the US to involve itself between 2 nuclear-armed barely-functional countries (especially in support of Pakistan in that situation). I think their #2 enemy is Pakistan/a coup. And maybe #3 the US.

Maybe it's some legal loophole where you can't export 500 tanks to just anyone, or have US men doing state-related tasks on foreign soil without certain approval.

such an ignorant remark coming from a "geophile"

I'm afraid it's just because in 2019 president of USA was Donald Trump and president of Brazil was another right populist, Jair Bolsonaró, so it was just a kind of 'gesture of friendship'. I don't really see any strategic use of Brazil to the US, really, maybe only to control the Latin America, but tbh US doing that too good without Brazil (if to look on that strategically). But politically, presidency of Bolsonaró really was a present for Trump to descrease power of the Leftist forces in Latin America, but in his defence I can say that the Leftist powers are a really potentiallu great danger for US positions in Latin America.

Yep, awaiting the new addition very soon…

Yeah Iran is... decidedly not on this list :/

Historically because India prefered to stay closer to non-aligned status, plus they had a much stronger economic relationship with the Soviet Union than with the United States. So while bilateral relations between the United States and India have gotten much stronger in the last decade or so, they aren't quite good enough for India to qualify for this designation.

I think that Kenia is just a political gesture by the Biden administration (just like Brazil was for Trump) to show that the United States has a strong relationship with Sub-Saharan Africa (where, in fact, the United States only has a strong position in Kenya and Liberia). I also think that we should not be fooled by the outward "hostility" of some regimes (such as Pakistan or Egypt), as it is easy to see that they are actually quite submissive puppets behind the anti-American façade. However, it is indeed false to call them allies today — the prerequisites are already visible, as you said. I am afraid that this is a consequence of the quietly changing world — the Third World is gaining strength, and that the regimes like Sisi's Egypt or Qatar or Pakistan now could even show their Anti-Americanism (because really, before they were needed in US money, but nowadays USA need in them, not them in USA) is one of the signals of this.

Kenya is definitely capable of helping. Kenya contributes crucial military resources to the American mission in Somalia and is frequently far more helpful than "ally" countries and even fellow NATO countries. Without them the war would look very different.

At the time (2004) they were pretty crucial in the GWOT, enough to overlook everything else because we desperately needed them to grant us flight privileges. Now they're fighting the Taliban all by themselves apparently.