Jason D. Greenblatt
European security officials are now issuing a message that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago: prepare for war. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, governments across Europe are warning citizens to brace for the possibility of conflict with Russia. The moment is sobering, but long overdue. It exposes a hard truth Europe spent years avoiding: The continent’s vulnerability is not simply the result of the war in Ukraine. It is the consequence of strategic complacency, fiscal misallocation and the reckless assumption that the United States would always pick up the tab.
Europe’s security must first and foremost be Europe’s responsibility.
President Donald Trump forced that reality into the open. He has pressed NATO allies to honor commitments long made in theory but ignored in practice—serious defense spending. Under sustained pressure, NATO members finally began moving toward higher outlays beyond the long-neglected 2 percent-of-GDP benchmark. Trump’s blunt insistence compelled Europe to confront what genuine burden-sharing means. As reported in The Washington Post, senior Pentagon officials are preparing a plan to downgrade several of the U.S. military’s major headquarters, including U.S. European Command. This move aligns with President Trump's national security strategy which declared that the “days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.”
No comments:
Post a Comment