NATO

‘Keep on dreaming’: could Europe really defend itself without the US?

The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, was typically blunt when he met members of the European parliament this week. From the dais of the blond-wood committee room in Brussels, he was clear: “If anyone thinks that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US, keep on dreaming. You can’t. We can’t.”

And if Europe wanted to supplant the US nuclear deterrent, existing spending commitments would have to double, he added – “so hey, good luck!”

His comments left some MEPs fuming. The former Dutch prime minister – who provoked mockery when he called Donald Trump “Daddy” – had already irritated some deputies with his robust defence of the US president’s interest in the Arctic.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union, NATO, USA

Rutte faces backlash for telling Europeans to ‘keep on dreaming’ about independence from US security

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is facing a backlash after saying that the European Union should “keep on dreaming” about becoming independent from the United States, its largest ally, in matters related to security and defence.

His comments came on the heels of US President Donald Trump’s attempt to seize Greenland from Denmark through punitive measures, an unprecedented dispute that brought the nearly 80-year-old transatlantic alliance to the brink of collapse.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inNATO, USA

Europe can’t defend itself without the US, NATO’s Rutte warns

BRUSSELS — Europe is incapable of defending itself without America, NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Monday, speaking just days after Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize Greenland pushed the alliance to the brink of collapse.

“If anyone thinks here … that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming,” he told lawmakers on the European Parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committees. “You can’t.”

A “European pillar [of NATO] is a bit of an empty word,” Rutte said, arguing a European army would create “a lot of duplication” with the alliance. Moreover, Russian President Vladimir “Putin will love it,” he added.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union, NATO, USA

Germany prepares for Russia to attack Nato in two years

Russia launches a full-scale war of aggression against Nato and the German armed forces are in the thick of the action from the first hours.

A 4,800-strong mechanised infantry strikes from a forward base in Lithuania before another 15,000 rapid-response troops are rushed to the front in a matter of days.

Over the weeks that follow tens of thousands of allied soldiers arrive at German North Sea ports to be shuttled east along road and rail routes plagued by Russian sabotage, cyberattacks and possibly long-range missile strikes.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inGermany, NATO, Russia

America should withdraw from NATO immediately

Trump’s “Board of Peace” might sound ridiculous, and perhaps it is. But it’s no more ridiculous than claiming NATO is a board of peace.

That phrase now circulates in respectable company, with a straight face, as though repetition alone could make it true. It cannot. NATO was not born as a peace club, but as a military alliance with a narrow defensive purpose — specifically, to prevent the Soviet Union from rolling tanks across Western Europe.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inNATO, USA

Trump’s Greenland threats show Europe must prepare for Nato’s end

Yesterday, Trump shocked Nato allies with a threat this weekend to impose tariffs on Denmark and a range of other Nato allies if they refuse to cede Greenland to the US. In response, the former Danish prime minister and Secretary-General of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told the Financial Times that: “Since childhood, I have considered the United States as the natural leader of the Free World. I’ve even spoken about the US as the world’s policeman… Now we see the United States use a language that’s pretty close to the gangsters that they should control in Moscow, Beijing etc.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inGreenland, NATO, USA

US troops in Germany are legacy of World War II, Cold War

Donald Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland has raised questions about the US’s commitment to NATO. The US maintains a major military presence in Germany — a vital part of its post-World War II national defense strategy.

Germany has been a vital part of the United States’ defense strategy in Europe since Allied forces occupied the country for 10 years following the end of World War II.

Though troop numbers have, of course, fallen significantly since those days, the US military still maintains a major presence in Germany, and over the intervening decades, American military communities have formed around a handful of German towns.

The total number of US military personnel has also risen significantly in the past few years, from fewer than 39,000 in 2019 to over 50,000 in 2024. The only other country where the US keeps a comparable number of overseas troops is Japan.

GOOGLE AI – Does the German public wish that America would close it’s military bases in Germany?

Desire for Withdrawal: Recent data indicates that approximately 47% of Germans support reducing the number of U.S. soldiers, and roughly 25% (one in four) would prefer a complete withdrawal of all American forces.

Geopolitical Shifts: The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has created a paradoxical situation where many Germans feel “unprotected” and “abandoned” by U.S. policy shifts, yet 58% oppose Germany taking a leading military role to replace the U.S..

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inGermany, NATO, USA

A U.S. takeover of Greenland could be ‘shattering of NATO,’ warns Canada’s former military commander

As U.S. President Donald Trump insists his country needs Greenland for security purposes, Canada’s former top soldier is warning that a U.S. takeover of the area could spell the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“We have no history of one NATO partner seizing territory from another,” said retired general Wayne Eyre, formerly Canada’s chief of the defence staff, in an interview with CBC’s The House. “I share the Danish assessment that yes, this could be the shattering of NATO, much to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s delight.”

I’m pretty sure “Shattering NATO” is a Feature not a Bug to Trump.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Greenland, NATO, USA

Nato spending pledge is Trump’s biggest foreign policy success, Rutte tells BBC

Nato countries’ pledge to spend 5% of their economic output on defence is Donald Trump’s “biggest foreign policy success,” the alliance’s chief has said.

In an interview with the BBC, Mark Rutte said it was thanks to Donald Trump that Nato was “stronger than it ever was”, adding that Trump “is good news for collective defence, for Nato and for Ukraine”.

The US leader has harshly criticised European allies for spending very little on defence – even threatening to withdraw US protection if they fail to do so.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inNATO

NATO chief warns war with Russia ‘is at our door’ and tells Europe to be ready for action ‘now’ to avoid battle on scale ‘our grandparents and great-grandparents endured’

NATO chief Mark Rutte has warned that war with Russia ‘is at our door’ as he urged European allies to prepare for action now or risk facing a conflict on the scale ‘our grandparents and great-grandparents endured’.

Speaking in Berlin on Thursday, Rutte said too many NATO members remained ‘quietly complacent’ about the threat posed by Moscow and insisted Europe must urgently ramp up defence spending and weapons production to deter Vladimir Putin.

‘We are Russia’s next target,’ he said. I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don’t feel the urgency.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inNATO, Russia

US tells Europe it must take over ‘the majority’ of NATO’s defence capabilities by 2027 as Trump shifts American military focus

The United States wants Europe to take over the majority of NATO’s defense capabilities by 2027, Pentagon officials told diplomats in Washington this week.

The message, recounted by five sources familiar with the discussion, including a US official, was conveyed at a meeting in Washington this week of Pentagon staff overseeing NATO policy and several European delegations.

The shifting of this burden from the US to European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would dramatically change how the United States, a founding member of the post-war alliance, works with its most important military partners.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inNATO, USA

Carney government leans on ‘rounding difference’ to claim NATO spending target

The Carney government may meet its NATO defence promise this year only by relying on a “rounding difference,” according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, raising fresh doubts about Ottawa’s claims it is hitting key military spending goals.

Appearing before the Senate national finance committee, Interim Budget Officer Jason Jacques said Canada is only “close” to the NATO benchmark of spending 2% of GDP on defence by December 31 — a target Prime Minister Mark Carney has repeatedly touted as a done deal.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Poland rail bombing signals Russian escalation against Nato

Thanks to the norms of inter-state combat which have governed much of history, we’ve long been conditioned to think of war and peace in binary terms. But what’s happening on Nato’s east shows us that it is in fact a spectrum, with Poland caught right in the grey zone at its midpoint.

This weekend, for the first time since the Second World War, a deliberate explosion damaged a railway line connecting Warsaw to Lublin in what Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an “unprecedented act of sabotage”. Although Polish authorities have not yet named a specific culprit, they’re already stating the obvious — that “all traces lead to Russia.” That’s hardly surprising, given that the damaged rail line serves as a key pathway for shipping aid to Ukraine, and Russia has sent recruits to gather intelligence on Polish rail hubs near military bases and to disrupt train services using radio networks in the recent past.

Assuming it was Russia.

Poland: Ukrainians Working for Moscow Responsible for Railway Explosion

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inNATO, Poland, Russia