Victor Davis Hanson: NATO Has Become a One-Way Street

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Welcome to the Daily Signal Podcast, where we provide intelligence for the intelligent. Now, without further ado, here's today's take.

Victor Davis Hanson (0:08)

The threats that face Europe are not going to threaten the United States, and the threats that face the United States, we don't count on NATO partners volunteering to go to Taiwan or to protect us from a Chinese missile. The Europeans are making that harder and harder to sell to the American people, because it's a one-way street. When we need you to protect Europe, you better be there. When you need us just to let us use your airspace, you can't even do that.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. Our on and off relationship with our European allies and friends is in another low spot.

There's a lot of developments that have been going on that I don't think they quite appreciate, have created a loss of confidence in the United States about the reliability of our NATO allies. And this transcends the earlier existential problem that all of our NATO allies, 32, had over 20 years promised, but reified that and ratified it. The last 15 years, they would spend 2% of GDP on defense. And as you remember in 2016, after the election and Donald Trump remarked as he was going to enter office in 2017, that all but sixth of them had not met their requirements. And after all this bullying, all this acrimony, now almost all of them, I think with one exception, have made the 2%.

But now we're into another series of crises. The former head of German intelligence was just found out in his retirement, I think he's 80, that he was a trader, and that he had been selling or trafficking in secrets that involve German and NATO security to existential enemies like China and maybe Russia.

That creates a lack of confidence in the security that we have with the Germans. Britain, remember, we have a dual-use base, an RAF and a US Air Force base in the United Kingdom. The idea, of course, is forward deployment. If we would get into a crisis with China, with Russia, over Ukraine, almost anywhere in the world, we would have maybe 11 of our $320 million B-1 bombers that have capability to carry nuclear weapons and huge payloads, but they would be based and safe in this airport air base that was patrolled by our allies, the British. Now we learn that some terrorists had a dry run where they got very close to this base and were in the process of filming it and doing reconnaissance work. We learn two things from the British government. Prime Minister Burnham, number one, they were trained by or in the service to Iran, the greatest terrorist threat in the world, and number two, they were let out on bail. How can you say that the most dangerous terrorists that we've seen in the UK, there are actually scouting out ways to destroy an American bomber fleet is from Iran, or at least influenced by Iran or hired by Iran, but then let them out on bail.

And then we get to the recent argument from our allies that they want nothing to do with the Iran war. They understand that the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's oil and the oil of the Gulf are critical to their oil needs. And they understand that the wealth of the Gulf States is essential for them to export commodities. And they understand the principle that Iran is a dangerous country. And for 50 years, they have said in a course with us that it should not and will not be nuclear, although neither they nor the American presidents, seven of them have done anything about it. So we go and try to stop that threat. France then immediately says that this was not an approved UN war and they cannot use French airspace to use American assets, not NATO assets, American assets over their airspace. The UK says you cannot use the Diego Garcia base, which is critical in the Indian Ocean for operations in the Middle East, long distance operation. Italy says you cannot use your dual use space with us in Sicily to land aircraft to go after Iran. Spain says you're not going to use our base, you're not even get near our airspace.

Switzerland and Austria are neutral, but they're pro US and if their push came to show, they wouldn't be able to avoid a European Continental War and they would seek protection from whom? Probably us. They said nobody gets near our airspace. None of these European countries said we will help the US Navy patrol the Strait of Hormuz to ensure that it's open and global commerce is uninterrupted.