Europe must hurry to defend itself against Russia—and Donald Trump

livemint.com:

returned to the White House, which version will it be? The one who cajoled allies to spend more on defence, reinforced NATO troops on the eastern flank and began to arm Ukraine; or the one who threatened to leave the alliance and embraced Vladimir Putin? To judge from his latest election-campaign outrage, he is likely to prove the wrecker of the Western alliance. At a rally on February 10th Mr Trump, the near-certain Republican presidential nominee recounted how the leader of a “big country" once asked him whether America would defend an ally that was “delinquent" on its payments, presumably one that was not meeting the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence. “No, I would not protect you," Mr.

Trump replied. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay.

You gotta pay your bills." These words are Mr Trump’s most damaging assault yet on NATO, and should set alarms ringing across the defence alliance. It does not much matter whether he was indulging in hyperbole or recounting an old conversation. Exhorting Russia to attack any NATO country in any way is to weaken the sacred promise of Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty: that an attack on one ally is an attack on all; and that an attack on even the smallest ally is, in effect, an attack on America.

Compare Mr Trump’s demeaning of allies with President Joe Biden’s warning to Russia that America will defend “every inch" of NATO territory. The message of deterrence has worked since NATO was founded in 1949. After the end of the cold war NATO enabled the extension of democracy and economic prosperity to the countries of the former Soviet bloc.