Donald Trump recently ignited another controversy when he mused that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was obsolete. He hinted that it might no longer be worth the huge American investment.In typical Trump style, he hit a nerve, but he then offered few details about the consequences of either staying in or leaving NATO.NATO is certainly no longer aimed at keeping a huge Soviet land army out of democratic Western Europe, as was envisioned in 1949.<\/p>\nThe alliance has been unwisely expanded from its original 12-nation membership to include 28 countries, absorbing many of the old communist Warsaw Pact nations and some former Soviet republics. NATO may have meant well to offer security to these vulnerable new alliance members. Yet it is hard to imagine Belgians and Italians dying on the battlefield to keep Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s forces out of Lithuania or Estonia.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s NATO pledges to many of its newer participants are about as believable as British and French rhetorical guarantees in August 1939 to protect a far-away Poland from its Nazi and Soviet neighbors.
\n<\/p>\n
No NATO member during the 40-year Cold War invoked Article 4 of the treaty, requiring consultation of the entire alliance by a supposedly threatened member. Turkey has called for it four times since 2003.<\/p>\n
The idea that Western Europe, beset with radical Islamic terrorism and unchecked migrations from the war-torn Middle East, would pledge its military support to the agendas and feuds of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s increasingly Islamist and non-democratic regime is pure fantasy.<\/p>\n
Few NATO members meet the alliance\u2019s goal of investing 2 percent of gross domestic product in defense spending. Instead, socialist Europe expects the United States to carry most of NATO\u2019s fiscal and military burdens.<\/p>\n
Europe is increasingly seen as defenseless against Islamic terrorism, and unable to stop the immigration of legions of young male Muslim migrants from the war-torn Middle East. It is also viewed as a fat target for unstable (and increasingly nuclear) regimes.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Europeans even add insult to injury. They count on U.S. subsidies to help trim defense costs in order to fund socialist entitlements \u2014 even as they caricature America as an over-militarized superpower bully.<\/p>\n
Using NATO forces outside of Europe has not always been productive. It was helpful in Serbia, of questionable utility in Afghanistan, and completely disastrous in Libya.<\/p>\n
Is Trump right, then, that we should let NATO die on the vine? Is the alternative of a future without the alliance preferable to the present costly and flawed NATO?<\/p>\n
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Lord Ismay, NATO\u2019s first secretary general, said that the alliance was formed “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”<\/p>\n
The Soviet Union has collapsed, Germany is now in the European Union, and the EU has a larger population and economy that the United States. But Putin\u2019s Russia is still nuclear and aggressive. It expands anywhere it senses weakness. Germany still earns suspicion in Europe, whether because of Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s destructive immigration policies or the equally unwise practice of rich German banks recklessly lending to bankrupt Mediterranean nations. The European Union never managed to unite its disparate nations into something cohesive and similar to the individual states of America.<\/p>\n
In sum, a powerful Russia will always have to be watched. A dynamic and headstrong Germany will always have to be integrated into some sort of military alliance. And the United States will always have a natural self-interest in preemptively keeping kindred Europeans from killing each other.<\/p>\n
The West is increasingly under assault. It is the target of radical Islamic terrorists, it is losing its deterrence with Russia and China, and it is seen as weak by rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea.<\/p>\n
The issue is not whether NATO is still useful, but whether the alliance can reform itself before it implodes.<\/p>\n
NATO must stop growing. Why offer guarantees to nations that it would not protect in the real world \u2014 nations that would only become red lines for aggressive enemies that wish to humiliate and unwind the alliance? NATO should be wary of using its forces outside of Europe and should instead outsource such peacekeeping to individual members acting on their own.<\/p>\n
Turkey and other members should be warned that autocracy and Islamicization are contrary to NATO principles and are grounds for expulsion.<\/p>\n
Greater European military expenditures will not only keep the U.S in the alliance, but also protect Europeans themselves, who lack the two-ocean buffer of the United States.<\/p>\n
Constitutional nations with common traditions of freedom of the individual, self-criticism, and tolerance of dissent and difference are becoming rare these days. Without shared military power and cooperation, Westerners can either all hang together or surely we will hang separately.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Tribune Media Services Donald Trump recently ignited another controversy when he mused that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was obsolete. He hinted that it might no longer be worth the huge American investment.In typical Trump style, he hit a nerve, but he then offered few details about the consequences of either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1092,1091,203,154],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2pj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11296,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/reforming-nato-is-the-only-way-to-save-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":9257,"position":0},"title":"Reforming NATO Is the Only Way to Save It","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Donald Trump recently ignited yet another firestorm by hedging when asked whether protecting the newest NATO member, tiny Montenegro, might be worth risking a war. Of course, the keystone of NATO was always the idea that all members, strong and weak, are in theory\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8011,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-end-of-nato-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9257,"position":1},"title":"The End of NATO","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Defining Ideas Declaring the North Atlantic Treaty Organization dead has been a pastime of analysts since the end of the Cold War. The alliance, today 28-members strong, has survived 65 years because its glaring contradictions were often overlooked, given the dangers of an expansionist and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Defining Ideas"","block_context":{"text":"Defining Ideas","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/defining-ideas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11284,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/natos-challenge-is-germany-not-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":9257,"position":2},"title":"NATO\u2019s Challenge Is Germany, Not America","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review As the most populous and most affluent of European nations, Germany insidiously dominates Europe During the recent NATO summit meeting, a rumbustious Donald Trump tore off a thin scab of niceties to reveal a deep and old NATO wound \u2014 one that has predated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Germany"","block_context":{"text":"Germany","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/germany\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11303,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/07-30-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":9257,"position":3},"title":"07-30-18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Subject: NATO Maybe it\u2019s my old age but you seem to be contradicting yourself. You explain quite correctly how useless it is and then suggest that you think strengthen it is a good idea??? Looks like trump wants to dump it knowing Germany will never pony\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10360,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/lord-ismay-nato-and-the-old-new-world-order\/","url_meta":{"origin":9257,"position":4},"title":"Lord Ismay, NATO, and the Old-New World Order","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 What has become of the prescient post-WWII dictum \u2018Russians out, Americans in, Germans down\u2019? \u00a0 The accomplished and insightful British general Hasting Ismay is remembered today largely because of his famous assessment of NATO, offered when he was the alliance\u2019s first secretary general.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EU"","block_context":{"text":"EU","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/eu\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11403,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-buries-the-old-world-order\/","url_meta":{"origin":9257,"position":5},"title":"Trump Buries The Old-World Order","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Hoover Institution The present continuance of institutions such as the EU, NATO, UN, and others suggests that the world goes on exactly as before. 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