I read complaints that America has changed the terms of Article V by insisting allies earn American help by doing more to defend NATO. Spain is one of the countries that changed the terms of Article V long before America did.
Madrid had little incentive to ramp up defence spending. It languished further after Spain reeled from the 2008 financial crash, standing at just 0.9 percent when Russia annexed Crimea. And since the likes of Germany were slow to raise their tiny military budgets after what should have been a turning point, faraway Spain could be forgiven for stepping up inadequately. Especially seeing as Ukraine is on the other side of the continent.
Just going to note--notwithstanding my longstanding support for arming Ukraine and my even longer support for preventing Russia from being a threat--that America is even farther from Ukraine and Russia, from the perspective of looking across the Atlantic.
While America may be revising the terms of Article V--never an automatic trigger--Europeans had already revised the terms of Article V by disarming far more ... enthusiastically ... than America did after the Cold War. Those European states counted on America defending them regardless of their contribution.
Much of NATO has or is correcting that mutual defense deficiency. Spain has not. Although it did decide to help defend Cyprus. And if the initial author is correct, internal politics will prevent Spain from spending more. Spain's failure to let America use its air bases for the war against Iran is not a promising sign. And it got worse.
Perhaps another NATO ally would like to host the ballistic missile defense destroyers we base in Spain now.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
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NOTE: Photo of the Spanish destroyer ordered to Cyprus from the last article.
