America is not planning on walking away from Europe and NATO despite the cacophony of voices claiming NATO is--or should be--dead.
It is in America's national security interest to remain in NATO. But that’s not what the Best and Brightest are telling me:
American policymakers are telling European leaders not to expect major U.S. troop drawdowns anytime soon, according to seven U.S. and NATO officials, calming widespread fears across the continent’s capitals.
European officials have worried President Donald Trump would call home tens of thousands of American soldiers to encourage countries to spend more on their own defense as the Pentagon focuses on the Western Hemisphere.
Any near-term reductions would likely be from the rotational reinforcements that were sent in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Since then, Russia has done far more harm to the Russian ground forces than one or two American combat brigades could inflict.
I think a number of European officials stoke worries to sabotage the trans-Atlantic relationship for their own purposes. And there are Americans who would do the same while pretending not to.
I've long supported a robust if limited American presence in Europe for a couple main reasons (starting on p. 15). Face it, America still needs NATO to defend the Atlantic. And to project power into and through Europe, as America has been doing to cope with Iran.
America's continuing European role fits in with the modern three reasons for NATO, in general.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
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NOTE: Photo from the article.
NOTE: My Redundancy Editor of Redundancies edited a sentence from the original post.
