Wither OTAN

Trump is in Europe and really socking it to our OTAN*allies.

After rebuking the Krauts for relying on Russia for energy, the President declared, “We’re paying a lot of money to protect, this has been going on for decades… it’s very unfair to our country, it’s very unfair to our taxpayers… these countries need to step it up, not over a ten year period, but immediately.”

Back during the Cold War every NATO member had a serious military. West Germany fielded two army corps, the Brits, Dutch, Danes and Belgians one each, and all had several squadrons of sophisticated combat aircraft.

Today the Luftwaffe is all but grounded, the Kriegsmarine's newest ship can't sail straight, and Bundeswehr troops in Afghanistan are too fat to fight.** 

Since the end of the Cold War Western Europe has lived in a fantasy world were history has ended, Fukayama style, and defence budgets don't really matter, all while expanding east. We always supported including parts of Eastern Europe in NATO, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czechs, but expanding into the Baltics was just spitting in the Bear's eye.

Berlin, Brussels, Paris, they want to believe that European soft power of diplomacy and trade can stop rogue regimes and bring peace. Recall that 25 years ago, OTAN's soft power couldn't prevent the Serbs from doing whatever they wanted to the people of Croatia and Bosnia. The Yugoslav War didn't end until the grownups (America) arrived with actual power like carrier battle groups.

By the way, did you know that today marks the 24th anniversary of the Serbs massacre in Srebrenica? They rolled right over passive Dutch troops and murdered 8,000 men.

So much for soft power.

*Yeah, French, look at me.
**Just google it.