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A NATO That Doesn’t Support U.S. Action Shouldn’t Exist

If Europe wishes to be protected while reserving the right to sabotage its protector’s actions, let it build and fund its own shield.

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President Donald Trump’s declaration that, for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, “the party is over” was treated like a barbarian shout in the salon. Yet his statement has the impolite virtue of being true. For 75 years, Europe has hosted the most expensive open bar in history, all of it paid for by the United States, and called this dependency an “alliance.” Now, when the bill is presented and the host suggests perhaps the guests might behave as if they own something besides opinions, they are scandalized.

Nothing has exposed this charade more clearly than the recent confrontation with Iran. The most revealing actor was NATO Europe, which, at the precise moment when it had the strongest interest in American protection, chose instead to lecture, obstruct, and deny access to bases that exist only thanks to American power and American money.

By obligingly parading its missile capabilities, Iran reminded the world of a basic geographic fact: Europe is closer to it than the United States. Those sleek Iranian rockets can reach European cities more easily and more quickly than they can cross the Atlantic.

Whatever else may be said of them, the ayatollahs have done the math. From their vantage point, London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome lie far nearer than New York or Washington. If anyone has a direct, existential interest in seeing Iran’s capacity contained, deterred,........

© The Federalist