WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump repeated his complaint about NATO after a closed-door meeting with the alliance’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday for discussions that had been expected to be aimed at soothing Trump’s anger with the military alliance over the Iran war.
Ahead of the private meeting, Trump had suggested the U.S. may consider leaving the trans-Atlantic alliance after NATO member countries ignored his call to help as Iran effectively shut the the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping waterway, and sent gas prices soaring.
Afterward, he issued an all-caps comment on social media suggesting he remained aggrieved. “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” Trump said in his post. The White House did not immediately offer any further updates.
I wonder if we might be hitting an inflection point where NATO no longer serves American interests. It used to make sense during the Soviet era because it kept Europe in American orbit. When USSR was the biggest geopolitical challenge to the US, keeping Europe in the American sphere of influence was critical. However, modern Russia doesn’t pose any sort of ideological challegne to the US, and China is seen as the new ideological adversary.
In that context, Europe doesn’t really have the same value to the US. On top of it, the economic dynamic is very different today. Back during the Cold War, the US was by far the biggest economic engine in the world, and propping up Europe was worth the cost. However, today, China is the bigger economy in productive terms, and the US simply cannot offer Europe anything competitive economically. Europe needs affordable goods that China manufactures, it needs renewable energy, and the ability to export its own goods to a nation of 1.4 billion people. So, if the US can’t offer a convincing economic alternative to China, then it will inevitably lose political hold on Europe going forward.
If that is the case, then there’s little value to continue dumping resources into Europe. Hence why I think we’re seeing the US changing its strategy to open predation. The US successfully destroyed European economy by cutting Europe off from Russian energy and imports from the Gulf. As input costs in Europe continue to climb, companies are starting to flee, and a lot of that business ends up going to the US where energy costs are a third of what they are in Europe.
Should the US leave NATO, then there would be a panic they can exploit as well. Europeans will be desperate to arm themselves, and given that Europe lacks a serious military industry of its own, a good chunk of that money would end up in the US.
So, that’s what I think is happening. The US is basically taking a scorched earth approach here by knee capping Europe to make sure it doesn’t turn into a competitor aligned with American adversaries, and grabbing anything of value that’s available in the process.
Yep, I agree, and this is why we see countries like Spain, Italy, and even France turning more on the US Empire. The international dictatorship of the bourgeoisie headed by the US Empire is breaking down, and Europe is first to really feel that pivot point before the US comes crashing down. The ROK and Japan are already feeling the pressure, which is why the ROK is trying to juggle ties to the US with increased ties with China. The breakdown of imperialism is happening in real time.
Exactly, and the war on Iran is going to act as an accelerant for the whole thing. It exposed the limits of American military power, and that there’s a severe economic cost to aligning with the US. So, even countries in the American orbit are being forced to hedge out of sheer necessity. As the western economic order continues to break down, we’re going to see more and more dog eat dog behavior from western capitalists.
Agreed!