When former President Donald Trump attacks NATO — as he has done often — it touches a raw nerve in Europe but leaves some Americans puzzled, asking: What is this “NATO,” why is it useful, and is the value worth the cost?
As someone who has spent most of his adult life in uniform — and working with NATO — let me give some simple, direct answers.
NATO is a political alliance, a grouping of democratic states that have learned the hard way — after two devastating wars in Europe and Asia — those nations must band together in peacetime to deter conflict.
History teaches that strength and determination in peacetime can prevent war and weakness and timidity can encourage aggression.
NATO strength secured peace in Western Europe for 40 years against possible Soviet aggression.
Not a country club
Now, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe is alarmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t stop with there, but, as he has declared, will attack other countries including NATO members.
Donald Trump has invited him to do just that.
If Putin took him up on his offer it would guarantee a horrendous and costly repeat of World War II
NATO is not a “dues-paying golf club.”
Members pay modest fees for certain infrastructure — assessments based on the gross domestic product — and those payments are and have been up to date.
Members also invest in their own defense forces.
The United States has fewer than 70,000 Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines in Europe.
But aside from a few thousand forward deployed to Poland, most of these are supporting US efforts in the Mideast and Africa!
The costs of US participation in NATO are simply marginal in a defense budget of almost $850 billion — and if we lacked those bases and support forces in Europe, we would be spending billions more on forward basing, strategic transportation and forward stockades elsewhere.
These countries in Europe — NATO members — are allies and partners of the United States diplomatically and economically, as well as militarily.
They support international law; they provide diplomatic backing and legitimacy to US diplomatic initiatives.
They cooperate closely with the United States in preventing terrorism and cybercrime — Russia’s Putin, for whom Trump professes admiration, actually encourages terrorism and supports Iran and Hamas in their efforts against Israel.
Best bet vs. China
These European countries Donald Trump is threatening are major investors in the US economy and we in theirs: Our financial systems are totally interwoven.
And if there is any chance to constrain China’s growing military assertiveness short of war, it is only by combining Europe’s economic and technological clout with our own that we can succeed.
If Trump is re-elected and tries to diminish and disassemble NATO, he will destroy the most successful alliance in history.
And he will unleash the dogs of war on a world that has already seen too much conflict and slaughter.
Gen. Wesley Clark is a former NATO supreme allied commander.