Let's talk about the EU openly pushing for defense without the US.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about the EU openly pushing for defense without the US.

France's President Emmanuel Macron is out there making the case for European power independent of the United States. Recently he was in Greece and he made the pitch in what seemed to be an incredibly well-planned move to have all the right optics. He was with the Greek prime minister when he expressed concerns about the US honoring Article 5 of the NATO treaty and said “there is now a doubt on Article 5 not put on the table by the Europeans but by the US president. It is clearly a de facto weakening of the NATO alliance.”

Prime Minister Mitsotakis of Greece pointed out recent actions in Cyprus and said, "What we did in Cyprus was a game changer. We have a mutual assistance clause in our treaties and this is our European responsibility. We never spoke about it because we thought that NATO would always do the job."

If you missed it, in the early days of Trump's war against Iran, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain rushed fighters and naval assets to help the island nation. The assumption was that Iran could launch sustained attacks against it. The French president also said, “on Article 42, Paragraph 7, it's not just words.” That's a reference to the mutual defense clause of the EU.

The idea being presented and being pretty well-received in Europe is that Europe already has a NATO backup. They just have to work out the details. It's worth noting that previous statements by European leaders show that working out the details is underway and it sounds like they're putting together a manual of sorts to start to utilize their pact.

Article 42 Paragraph 7 says “if a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory the other member states shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations charter. This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defense policy of certain member states. Commitments and cooperation in this area shall be consistent with commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which for those states which are members of it remains the foundation of their collective defense and the forum for its implementation.

It's clear from the phrasing that it was never intended to be a replacement for NATO, but it also creates the same type of obligations and connection between countries.

The presidents who follow Trump will have to work for years to restore American strength and leadership in the world because after Trump is done weakening the United States, somebody is going to have to do a lot of cleanup to, dare I say it, make America great again.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.