Both former White House speechwriter Marc Thiessen and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer for George W. Bush predict that western NATO countries have screwed up big time with their actions during the Iran war, and it may be the end of NATO as we know it.
Marc Thiessen writes:
: So many longtime NATO supporters saying the same thing right now. I helped bring Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic into NATO. But denying us basing and overflight is inexcusable, as is their failure to help with Strait of Hormuz. No one asking them to bomb Iran, just let us use our bases and help escort ships. If they can’t do that, NATO has no purpose.
What Thiessen is referencing is this writeup from Melissa Chen:
Let’s be real here. Europe has spent decades freeloading on American security. Even now, with every NATO member finally hitting the 2% GDP target in 2025.
But beyond the financial contributions, the real rupture is philosophical and the Iran crisis has shown a spotlight on it.
Europe worships process. Endless committees, consultations, and “predictability.” Macron actually calls it a virtue. For Trump, this is paralysis as his style is to articulate a threat, fix a target, and act. The Americans are men of conviction and purpose. Europe on the other hand lives by bureaucratic liturgy and in high-minded abstractions.
Sure, Americans might make mistakes when acting. But Europe never considers what the costs of not acting actually are.
Just look at how their nations are doing on various fronts, especially on the border crisis, and you see the same cancerous rot that undergirds their foreign policy approach play out domestically. It’s the same problem on a different scale.
Iran is currently holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage, choking 20% of global oil and spiking prices past $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, the regime is bleeding from strikes, its nuclear ambitions are still alive despite degraded capability, and its proxies are firing missiles at allies and oil tankers. If this isn’t a clear and present danger to the global economy – of which Europe is a part – then I don’t know what is.
Yet when Washington asked to use European bases to finish the job – bases the US has defended for generations, the response was hesitation and hand-wringing. The US did strike from RAF Fairford, but only after warnings that British soil could become a “legitimate target.”
If you cannot agree that a theocratic regime with eschatological ambitions who have shown no restraint in hitting out at Gulf countries and threatening the world’s energy jugular is an enemy worth confronting, then what, exactly, are we allies about?
Europe loves to preen about being tough on Russia. They issue condemnations and speeches and slap sanctions that hardly work to cripple the Russian economy.
Now here was a chance to do something concrete: let the Americans use the bases they already pay for, help clear the Strait, and actually degrade the Iranian war machine that arms Moscow’s proxies. Turmp didn’t ask for boots on the ground or any kind of more offensive action. All he wanted was permission to operate from the infrastructure America has underwritten for decades.
They couldn’t even manage that.
So can you blame the Americans for seeing NATO for what it is? A paper-tiger alliance that expects Washington to bleed and pay while Brussels and London convenes and deliberates.
If Europe refuses to treat Iran as the threat it is while happily letting American power keep the Strait open and the lights on, then the alliance is already dead. Trump is simply stating the obvious and the Americans are becoming very reluctant to subsidize the European delusion any longer.
That was a very good explanation of why President Trump is so upset with our so-called allies in NATO.
Ari Fleischer writes about NATO:
When this is over, the western part of NATO will never be the same. Spain, England, France and Italy have sold us out, as they too often have a history of doing. Eastern European nations are the heart of NATO. They spend money on defense, know how to fight and love the US.
France particularly deserves fault and blame. From supporting China and Russia at the UN to denying Americans overflight rights, they’re doing what they’ve always done – showing weakness, while cutting deals with terrorists. (The reason the US has a Marine Corps and Navy is unlike France, we refused to pay a ransom to the Barbary Pirates. France is always happy to cut a deal.)
Wars have unintended consequences as nations show their true colors.
NATO will never be the same, and Western European weakness and acquiescence is the cause.
He also wrote this today about France, specifically:
I am and always have been a fan of France. I started studying French in 4th grade. I minored in French in college and love travelling there.
But France today is a problem. France is guided by “France first.” Unlike “America First” which strengthens and benefits the world militarily, commercially and morally, France First sells out to the highest bidder. It’s the underbelly of French historical collaboration with Nazi Germany. It undermines the West, and Ukraine, as France cuts deals with Russian and is a top buyer of Russian natural gas. It’s why they work with the IRGC in Iran so French ships can transit the Straits of Hormuz. There’s no one they won’t cut a commercial deal with. Their immigration policies have turned their country substantially over to Muslims whose motives and influence are even more problematic.
All that is bad enough. But now they won’t give the US overflight rights as we fight in Iran. We don’t want their troops or their ships. We want and should have overflight rights.
France is a historical headache for the US and much of the west. French governments relish playing that role.
France is only sometimes an ally.
France is a real problem for the West.