European NATO Members Know 'Russia Threat' Rhetoric is a Lie - Expert
© Sputnik / Vladimir Trefilov
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In his speech at a rally in South Carolina, Donald Trump appeared to double down on his previous insistence that all NATO members should follow the bloc’s guidelines and spend at least two percent of their respective gross domestic products on defense.
"One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, 'Well, sir, if we don't pay, and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us?' I said, 'You didn't pay, you're delinquent?'" Trump said as he recalled an exchange that allegedly took place at some NATO meeting. "No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want."
Trump’s statement, however, does not mean that the United States would not honor its obligations under NATO’s charter, argued Earl Rasmussen, retired lieutenant colonel of the US Army and an international consultant.
12 February, 16:10 GMT
According to Rasmussen, Trump is merely “sending a message” about him being concerned that certain NATO members are not paying their dues in full.
“That said, NATO is essentially just an extension of the United States military and foreign policy. So in a way, being part of NATO keeps [the US] in Europe and influential within all of the European Union as well as the UK,” he noted. “So from a global strategic perspective, being able to influence policy in Europe is an important thing for us to stay there.”
NATO membership essentially provides the United States with a way to involve itself in Europe, “not just from the defense perspective, but also from their policies perspective, which I think is much more critical to us,” as Rasmussen put it.
“Sometimes we've dragged countries into conflicts that probably was not in their interest to be dragged into. Had NATO not been in existence, would Yugoslavia have been dismantled? Would the Balkans be balkanized? Would we have leveled Iraq and Libya? Would the Middle East have really gone to the extent that it has?” he mused. “That's a question, you need to look at the human costs of NATO's existence.”
Rasmussen also suggested that by not paying their share of the dues in full, NATO’s European members signal that they do not really believe there is a military threat they need to be protected from by the bloc, which basically was the raison d’etre for NATO’s existence during the Cold War.
“The politicians will have the rhetoric as far as Russia boogeyman. But they know that Russia is not going to attack them. And security is fine unless they attack Russia,” Rasmussen remarked. “President Putin pointed out recently in his interview with Tucker Carlson, no, it would be insane to attack a NATO country unless they attack them. That's another story. So most countries realize that their security really is not threatened, no matter what they're telling their public, no matter what the politicians are saying.”
11 February, 19:05 GMT
“In my view, it's time to move past NATO,” he postulated, arguing that the bloc’s expansion led to “increased tensions with Russia resulting in a conflict in Ukraine,” not to mention NATO’s role in the “leveling of Libya” and the destruction of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We're now pushing to extend it into Asia as well, opening up a NATO office in Japan. This is just going to increase tensions with China. It really has become more destructive to the world and global stability. So we need to really have some deep self-examination,” Rasmussen added.
On the other hand, international relations and Russian affairs analyst Gilbert Doctorow said he thinks Trump was serious about leaving NATO members to fend for themselves if they don't pay their dues.
“He was preparing the way for the United States to step back from its Article 5 obligations and eventually for leaving NATO,” he said.
As Doctorow explained, NATO’s European members for a long time saw no need to ramp up their defensive capabilities due to understanding that “their own collective military capabilities were incomplete and inadequate without the full and active participation of the USA in their defense.”
He also remarked that being a part of NATO means that his country, Belgium, “has a big bulls-eye painted on it” due to the fact that the NATO headquarters in Brussels would quickly become a target if a “European war with Russia” were to break out.
