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Trump thinks Europe needs NATO more than America does. His generals know better. Here’s what the US loses without it. 1. Its European base network Over 50 US military bases across Europe housing 84,000 troops. Ramstein in Germany is the largest US air base outside America and the hub for every US operation in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk is home to the only US F-35 wing in Europe, the same base the F-15 shot down over Iran last week flew from. These aren’t gifts to Europe. They are America’s front door to the rest of the world. 2. The geography it can never replace The US sits thousands of miles from every major conflict zone on earth. Europe puts American forces within striking distance of the Middle East, North Africa, the Sahel, the Arctic and Russia’s western border. No aircraft carrier replaces an entire continent. Without European bases America is projecting power across two oceans from a single landmass. That is not a superpower posture, it is an island. 3. Its intelligence network GCHQ, MI6 and European intelligence agencies feed directly into US operations. Five Eyes gives America more global surveillance reach than any other arrangement in history. Lose NATO and that pipeline closes. 4. Two allied nuclear powers The UK and France have independent nuclear arsenals. Outside NATO those weapons are no longer guaranteed to be on America’s side. That is two fewer nuclear powers in your corner. 5. Its arms export market European NATO members are America’s biggest weapons customers. F-35s, Apaches and Patriot missiles, hundreds of billions in contracts. If Europe goes it alone they buy European. Lockheed Martin and Boeing lose their biggest export market overnight. 6. The dollar’s global dominance NATO helps underpins the security order that keeps allies trading in dollars and holding dollar reserves. Collapse that alliance and the shift to alternative currencies accelerates. No single advantage matters more to American prosperity. 7. A trillion-dollar insurance policy 31 other countries have a legal obligation to fight for America if attacked. The only time Article 5 was ever triggered was to defend the US after 9/11. Over 1,100 allied soldiers died in Afghanistan answering that call. No other country on earth has anything close to this. 8. Its seat at the head of the table NATO makes America the leader of the free world. Without it the US is just another big country with a big army stranded between two oceans with no allies. China and Russia would celebrate for a decade. Without NATO, America doesn’t gain independence. It loses an empire.
If you look at the pattern of 🇺🇸 military withdrawals from Europe it’s all assets geared to NATO operations, while it doesn’t touch its huge networks of bases and facilities key to 🇺🇸 non-NATO operations outside Europe. European nations could, conceivably, demand a corresponding reduction there.
