Ahead of accepting official nomination as the Republican party presidential candidate, the billionaire property magnate told the New York Times in an interview that, if elected, he would not automatically deploy American military forces to defend another member of NATO if it were attacked.
As the Hillary Clinton propaganda sheet, The New York Times noted Trump’s conditionality regarding NATO was the first time any senior American politician has uttered such a radical change in policy. It overturns American cornerstone policy of the past 70 years.
Trump was asked whether he would defend Eastern European countries if they were attacked by Russia.
(Hypothetical, propagandistic nonsense, but let’s bear with the argument for the underlying logic that it exposes.)
Trump did not give the customary automatic, unconditional 'yes' response. Rather, he said he would have to first review whether these countries had fulfilled their obligations to NATO and The USA. If they had, then, he said, US forces would defend. If they hadn’t lived up to past financial commitments to NATO, then the inference was that a would-be President Trump would not order troops to defend those nations.
When Donald Trump did not quite say that if he is elected President in November, he would disband NATO, (he actually said America would not protect those nations that do not pay their subscriptions to the mutual defence club) the NATO gravy train riders' response was incendary. NATO’s civilian chief, Jens Stoltenberg, was evidently perplexed by Trump’s equivocal attitude. "Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO", said the former Norwegian prime minister. "This is good for European security and good for US security. We defend one another".
Stoltenberg would say that of course, as would I were I paid a big fat salary for flying round the world, staying in five star hotels, eating the best food, drinking the best wine, spending nights with the classiest prostitutes all at the taxpayers' expense, for carrying out the onerous task of shaking hands with people.
Stoltenberg was just one of many pro-military-industrial-complex figures on both sides of the Atlantic who jumped on the anti - Trump bandwagon.
The rightwing American Enterprise Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and senior foreign policy makers within the Republican and Democrat parties all slammed Trump over his views on NATO. Estonian and Latvian political leaders also expressed anxiety on what they see as a withdrawal by the US from European security.
Reuters reported a joint letter from a US bi-partisan group of national security experts who condemned Trump’s "inflammatory remarks" for not representing the core interests of the United States.
"The strength of our alliances is at the core of those interests", said the group. "The United States must uphold the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s commitments to all of our allies, including Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania".
Reuters also quoted a former US ambassador to the alliance as saying that Trump’s policy means: It’s the end of NATO.
Robert Hunter, who was NATO envoy under President Bill Clinton, added: "The essence of NATO, more than any other single factor, is the commitment of the United States of America to the security of the other 27 members".
The Los Angeles Times quoted former NATO supreme commander, US General Wesley Clark, as saying that Trump’s stance undercuts the deterrent impact of Nuclear Waeapons in Europe». Clark said that the comments showed that Trump has a fundamental misunderstanding of how the alliance works. It will mean the end of the European Union and the collapse of the US’s largest trading partner.
The former NATO military chief also made the snide comment that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would be happy with Trump’s shift in defense policy. As did Hillary Clinton’s senior policy advisor, Jake Sullivan, who made the inane assertion that "Putin would be rooting for Trump" to win the November presidential election.
Actually Putin is rootin' for a Trump victory, The Kremlin is sure Vinegar Tits Clinton is crazy enough to start a nuclear war if someone says something she thinks in a bit sexist, racist or homophobic.
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