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Posted on 04/03/2026 5:45:05 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
--SNIP--
Europeans are far more vulnerable to Iranian-inspired Islamic terrorism.
They are more reliant on oil from the Middle East, some of it passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
All the US had initially requested was basing support in disarming a common Western enemy that, for nearly half a century, has slaughtered American diplomats and soldiers and tried to kill an American president and secretary of state.
But most NATO members could not even offer tacit help.
Some ****** the US effort as either illegal or unnecessary.
The American public watched the British waffle for days over permitting the US to use their Diego Garcia airbase.
The Spanish banned American use of their NATO bases and airspace.
The Italians refused a request from American bombers to land and refuel at a Sicilian NATO base.
Many NATO heads of state rebuked the United States to their domestic audiences while, in typical two-faced fashion, publicly offering empty verbal support for the US campaign.
The NATO response to an Iranian missile aimed at fellow NATO member Turkey was anemic.
Even worse was the pathetic British reaction to another Iranian missile launched at a British base at Akrotiri, Cyprus.
Yet neutering a theocratic Iran is clearly of benefit to Europe.
So is preventing the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz from becoming a tollbooth run by the Iranian regime.
Such passivity stood in sharp contrast to the five-year-long Ukraine War on Europe’ border.
Ukraine is not a NATO member.
Nonetheless, Europeans made urgent requests for the US to honor the spirit of NATO solidarity and help protect Europe’s territorial integrity.
Yet Europe is not intrinsically weak.
The combined population of the European Union and European NATO members is around 450 million — more than 100 million greater than that of the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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During the 1982 Falklands War, a solitary Britain faced enormous logistical challenges in steaming halfway around the world to eject Argentina from its windswept and sparse islands. American aid was critical to the effort: The United States stepped up to help with intelligence, reconnaissance, the supply of some 2 million gallons of much-needed gasoline and crucial restocking of Britain’s depleted Tomahawk missiles.
Hey Prof Hanson made the New York Post!
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American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson The Sword of Perseus
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Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
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“Yet neutering a theocratic Iran is clearly of benefit to Europe.“
They’re not thinking like statesmen, they’re TDS all day and all night. Plus they may not want to piss off the jihadists they’ve let into their countries to displace the western populations.
"All the US had initially requested was basing support in disarming a common Western enemy that, for nearly half a century, has slaughtered American diplomats and soldiers and tried to kill an American president and secretary of state.
But most NATO members could not even offer tacit help."
AND
"Such passivity stood in sharp contrast to the five-year-long Ukraine War on Europe’ border.
Ukraine is not a NATO member.
Nonetheless, Europeans made urgent requests for the US to honor the spirit of NATO solidarity and help protect Europe’s territorial integrity."
That is the crux of the matter. The Europeans were all gung ho when it looked under Biden that the US would have boots on the ground while Europe cheered "lets you and him fight".
But when the US finally decided to do something about an acknowledged threat to the West, Europe couldn't be bothered. Not even to take a stance of keeping the Straights of Hormuz from being held hostage by Iran.
The one way nature of things has been on full display.
Played these United States as a patsy for a very long time. Asked to "do more," they balk and balk again.
“500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians. [...] Europe today lacks the belief that we are truly a global force.”But NATO has a very nice palace in Brussels:Polish PM Donald Tusk, speaking before his flight to London for the European Ukraine summit: X, 2 March 2025
At least Europe is making an argument that we shouldn’t continue to prop up Ukraine. They can do that without our help. So Zelensky should take that deal with Putin. Otherwise, Putin is going to ask for more later, especially he knows that in the future it is likely that the Americans won’t continue to assist Ukraine.
NATO still exists to protect its members against the nonexistent threat from post-soviet Russia.
*** Plus they may not want to piss off the jihadists they’ve let into their countries to displace the western populations.***
Oh, so they think they will appease them?
Europe, in my opinion, is screwing itself by not doing anything to go get the oil. They had an opportunity, and they’re really blowing it.
NATO starts wars and wants America to fight them. America does not need the oil in the Persian gulf. Europe needs it, China needs it.
What you don’t know about the middle east is that there are not that many Arabs in those rich countries. Dubai has about 10% Arabs. The rest are foreign workers. Those foreign workers are not going to fight any wars. The same is true in Saudi Arabia. In the poor countries. They have people. And those people can be soldiers. Or at least they can pull a missile launcher out of their garage and fire a missile at a tanker.
LOL, Russian "deal":
1-You surrender
2-You surrender
3-You surrender
4-You surrender
5-You surrender
6-You surrender...
Let UK, France, and Spain backstabbers defend themselves.
With our economy(especially our debt) the way it is, we don’t need to be spending money where it is accomplishing nothing & having much demanded from us by countries that don’t contribute in an equal manner.
With our economy(especially our debt) the way it is, we don’t need to be spending money where it is accomplishing nothing & having much demanded from us by countries that don’t contribute in an equal manner.
The USA isn’t “propping up” Ukraine.
What Ukraine has got - very slowly - is a lot of aged and obsolete military surplus that was literally burning DoD money just by it being stored in stockpiles for years without getting used.
In effect, flogging the gear off to Ukraine and Europe (in some cases at a sizeable profit far above its depreciated actual worth) was offsetting the costs the USA was already committing to, to replace that aged kit.
And since his second term started, Trump has wound even that down to the absolute bare minimum, so it’s a bit late in the day to argue that “we shouldn’t continue” - because to all intents and purposes, the Trump administration stopped doing anything remotely useful or helpful to Ukraine over fifteen months ago.
To your second point - Ukraine is NEVER going to take that Putin “deal” and EU-NATO is never going to agree to the December 2021 ultimatum. Because the Russian maximalist demands include removing NATO Article 5 umbrella protection from the entire ex Warsaw Pact region. Those demands also include, NATO cannot even perform training exercises in their own lands without first getting permission for Moscow.
I really don’t get how it seems impossible for MAGA to wrap their heads round just how utterly unacceptable that should be to the USA as well as to UK, EU-NATO and Ukraine.
Imagine if Putin demanded the USA sign up to a condition that said America can’t even do USAF excercises on US soil without asking Putin for his permission first, and threw down the ultimatum that if you don’t agree to this demand Russia will invade and “reclaim” Alaska.
Now imagine that the USA met with EU-NATO and instead of backing the USA, EU-NATO said “Oh, for god’s sake just sign the bloody deal already and take the L! Nobody here cares about Alaska, Putin’s unstoppable, and YOU’RE GAMBLING WITH WORLD WAR THREE IF YOU DON’T SIGN!”
Trump seems to think EU-NATO and Ukraine should agree to a really terrible deal (while at the same time he keeps castigating them for not doing enough to protect themselves). But they ARE protecting themselves, by NOT taking the deal.
Just imagine if the USA had shown half as much gumption, resolve and can-do attitude over Ukraine in 2022 as the USA has just done with Iran, the Russia-Ukraine conflict would’ve been long over by now, AND Iran wouldn’t have been bankrolled by Russia to create an inventory of Shahed drones so large that they are able to pancake Israel as well as Ukraine.
86% of the USA defense spending doesn’t go anywhere near EU-NATO or Ukraine.
The US contribution to EU-NATO, net, is less than $30bn out of $980bn.
NATO was not an American institution. It did the bidding of the EU
The fact it was expanded to cover 30 nations, with each as a trigger, is completely absurd and extremely dangerous
That was the hook designed to give them control over the US military.
NATO is a parasite on America and a threat to The Republic. NATO delanda est.
If he exits NATO, maybe he’ll feel free to seize Greenland and the northern provinces of Canada.
2. The Russians are no threat to Europe - they can't even cross the Dneiper.
3. Fight as long as you wish, Americans are under no obligation to subsidize you.
4. If Europe wants to (while at the same time buying Russian energy - which finances their war effort - nice perpetual motion machine that) that's entirely their business.
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