“As soon as we stop paying the tab, NATO will fall apart.”
No. Germany will rearm and France, Germany and the U.K. will dominate NATO but Poland will not feel as protected without the guarantees of European-neutral U.S. and may decide to acquire its own nukes, as did France back in the day in spite of the U.S. “nuclear umbrella”. Other changes in military alliances among NATO members in Europe could develop as well and maybe not all good.
The one thing that U.S. dominance brought to NATO is that all the smaller NATO members felt better than a NATO minus the U.S. and dominated by either France or Germany. Notice when France left the military arm of NATO - 1967-2008, the other NATO members did not join France and split from NATO. The U.S. provided the “neutral glue”.
NATO was the military glue that united most of post-WWII Western Europe, kept the USSR border at the “Iron Curtain”, and gave western European friendship to Eastern Europe after the collapse of USSR/Imperial Russia. No small feat for its brief lifetime. There is no alliance like it anywhere else in the world - as many natoions pledged to mutual defense - and it decides things by consensus, not “majority” vote. If WWIII breaks out in Asia it will end with a NATO like alliance formed around China that will only unwind when the CCP loses power in China and China ends its old imperial claims all around the south China sea.
“The one thing that U.S. dominance brought to NATO is that all the smaller NATO members felt better than a NATO minus the U.S. and dominated by either France or Germany.”
Very true. A lot of those countries had not long before been victims of Germany, and there was still deep distrust of Germany.
Good analysis of a US led NATO countering Russian imperialism for decades. USA is the neutral glue! Too bad Putin had Germany gorging and bribed on Russian natural gas. Otherwise, Ukraine would have been allowed to join NATO 20 years ago.
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Gerhard Schröder
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Schröder was criticized for his policies towards Vladimir Putin’s government, his work for Russian state-owned companies, and his lobbyism on behalf of Russia. On 1 March 2022, Schröder’s entire staff including long-time office manager Albrecht Funk resigned due to Schröder’s alliances with Russia and Putin directly.[3] On 8 March 2022, the Public Prosecutor General initiated proceedings related to accusations against Schröder of complicity in crimes against humanity due to his role in Russian state-owned corporations.[4] On the same day, his party initiated proceedings to expel him.[5] The CDU/CSU group demanded that Schröder is included in the European Union sanctions against individuals with ties to the Putin regime.[6]
‘Germany will rearm’ - that’s hilarious.
The US military has to waste space, time and money keeping obsolete equipment functional so ‘powerhouses’ like Germany can keep operating with us. As a fellow German War College comrade told me - ‘why should we buy anything when we know you’ll just give it to us when you replace it?’