There’s a lot of discussion in various Western nations at the moment about the need to become independent of the US arms industry. This follows the Trump administration’s vigorous assertion that Europe in particular needs to take on much more of the burden of its own defence.
Let’s be clear – that is all that has been said or done. Ukraine, never a Nato member, has been pressured to toe the US line. But America’s huge and vital support for Ukraine was restored as soon as President Zelensky agreed to a ceasefire on US terms. As this is written, Ukraine fights on with American weapons streaming in and full US intelligence backing.
As for Europe’s full Nato allies, they have no reason to doubt that the US would stand with them if Russia attacked. They just can’t any longer expect to spend all their money on welfare and rely entirely on the American taxpayer for security. In what he thought was privacy, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has denounced such freeloading as “PATHETIC”. In public he is more diplomatic, saying last month:
“The European Continent deserves to be free from any aggression, but it ought be those in the neighbourhood investing the most in that defence. That’s common sense. You defend your neighbourhood, and the Americans will come alongside you in helping in that defence.”
Who could ask more than that of an ally? The worst that Europe is looking at is some redeployment of US strength elsewhere, which is entirely reasonable. But, baselessly, the suggestion is being made that not only would Trump renege on the US commitment under Nato Article 5 to defend its allies from attack, but that, for some reason, he might also withhold US technical support for US-made weapons.
There’s a lot of discussion in various Western nations at the moment about the need to become independent of the US arms industry. This follows the Trump administration’s vigorous assertion that Europe in particular needs to take on much more of the burden of its own defence.
Let’s be clear – that is all that has been said or done. Ukraine, never a Nato member, has been pressured to toe the US line. But America’s huge and vital support for Ukraine was restored as soon as President Zelensky agreed to a ceasefire on US terms. As this is written, Ukraine fights on with American weapons streaming in and full US intelligence backing.
As for Europe’s full Nato allies, they have no reason to doubt that the US would stand with them if Russia attacked. They just can’t any longer expect to spend all their money on welfare and rely entirely on the American taxpayer for security. In what he thought was privacy, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has denounced such freeloading as “PATHETIC”. In public he is more diplomatic, saying last month:
“The European Continent deserves to be free from any aggression, but it ought be those in the neighbourhood investing the most in that defence. That’s common sense. You defend your neighbourhood, and the Americans will come alongside you in helping in that defence.”
Who could ask more than that of an ally? The worst that Europe is looking at is some redeployment of US strength elsewhere, which is entirely reasonable. But, baselessly, the suggestion is being made that not only would Trump renege on the US commitment under Nato Article 5 to defend its allies from attack, but that, for some reason, he might also withhold US technical support for US-made weapons.