U.S. Defense Secretary: NATO Cannot Rely on U.S. for Protection
Europe’s defense strategy “cannot be reliance” on America, United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters ahead of a nato defense ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
“Deterrence and peace through strength” is the U.S. message to members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Hegseth said, “but it cannot be reliance.”
Increased defense spending: America no longer wants to shoulder the heaviest economic burden of nato and is pushing other member nations to take on more responsibility for defense spending.
Later this month, nato leaders will reconvene in The Hague to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal that all nato members should increase their spending goal from 2 to 5 percent of gross domestic product. It is widely expected that they will agree to this proposition.
Rearming Germany: Germany, as Europe’s largest economy, is expected to take the lead role in this increased defense spending. Despite historic warnings against allowing Germany to rearm, President Trump told reporters in a Thursday meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that, to a “certain point,” German rearmament is a “good thing.”
History, however, including two world wars, makes apparent that European armament presents a real danger.
Ignoring the warning: Days after his inauguration, President Trump returned a bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office. Churchill, among other significant postwar political and military figures, warned about the grave danger of German rearmament.
Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in his feature article “Heed the Watchman”:
Churchill’s warnings were proved right at a bloody, bloody cost. Yet today, the West scorns his great foresight. This is shameful, tragic and indeed deadly. We simply don’t recognize existential threats today.
Even world leaders who have busts of Churchill in their offices utterly fail to learn from his example. President Trump is urging Germany to rearm!
To understand the danger of German rearmament, read our Trends article “Why the Trumpet Watches Europe’s Push Toward a Unified Military.”
