NATO – Page 2 – Blazingcatfur

Is German troop withdrawal start of US uncoupling from Europe?

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s assertion that the US is being “humiliated” in its war against Iran has triggered a new confrontation between Europe and President Trump. Four days after the comments were made, the Pentagon announced plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from its bases in Germany.

Many experts see it as a waypoint in the American military’s continuing uncoupling from the Continent. There are more than 38,000 active US troops in the Federal Republic and on Saturday the defence minister, Boris Pistorius, implied the move was expected, saying: “We Europeans must take on more responsibility for our own security.”

🚨 JUST IN: President Trump says the US will be withdrawing "A LOT" more troops from Germany than the 5,000 announced yesterday

FINALLY.

Bring our troops home! We don't need NATO — NATO needs US!

"We're going to cut WAY down and we're cutting a lot further than 5,000" 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/I4RBJnb3qL

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 2, 2026

Payback to the base for the Iran conflict?

by Blazingcatfur•May 3, 2026May 3, 2026•0•Europe, NATO, USA

Russia is already waging war against us, Polish general says

Russia is already waging war on Poland, and Nato must respond more forcefully to its next attack, a senior Polish general has said.

Poland shot down Russian drones deep inside its airspace last autumn, while Moscow-linked hackers have attacked government infrastructure and ministries of thousands of times — including a cyber-assault that sought to cripple the power grid in midwinter.

by Blazingcatfur•May 1, 2026April 30, 2026•0•NATO, Poland, Russia

Iran war: Trump tells ‘broken’ Germany to keep nose out of conflict

President Trump has intensified his personal attack on Friedrich Merz, telling the German chancellor to spend “less time on interfering” after Berlin ridiculed the war in Iran.

In a social media post, the US president told Merz to concentrate on Ukraine peace efforts and called Germany a “broken” country.

President Trump Is Considering Pulling Troops From Germany Amid Tensions With NATO Countries

President Trump announced late Wednesday that he is considering withdrawing some U.S. troops currently stationed in Germany, after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States is being “humiliated” by Iran in both the conflict and ongoing negotiations.

by Blazingcatfur•April 30, 2026April 30, 2026•0•NATO

Defence became a dirty word. Now Nato is paying the price

Nato members scrambling to rearm for a potential war with Russia face “empty shelves” after three decades of neglect in the defence industry, the alliance’s former top military officer has warned.

Armed forces face “unacceptable” waits of up to seven years for tanks, fighter jets and Patriot air defence missiles, Admiral Rob Bauer told The Times after the Kyiv Security Forum last week. Bauer, a former commander of the Dutch armed forces, stepped down as chairman of Nato’s military committee last year.

He said President Trump had been a “blessing” for renewed investment, pushing all Nato members to hit the decade-old target of spending 2 per cent of national income on defence and to agree to raise it to 3.5 per cent by 2035. But manufacturing cannot keep pace with the extra funding, he said.

by Blazingcatfur•April 28, 2026April 28, 2026•0•NATO

Falklanders should go back to England, says Argentina’s vice-president

Falkland islanders should go back to England, Argentina’s vice-president said after Buenos Aires renewed its claim to the British overseas territory.

Argentina’s claim to what it calls the Malvinas was boosted when Donald Trump threatened to review the official US position on the islands after the UK did not join his war on Iran.

Javier Milei, Argentina’s president and a close ally of Mr Trump, said last week that the “the Malvinas were, are and will always be Argentine”.

by Blazingcatfur•April 27, 2026April 27, 2026•0•Argentina, NATO, UK, USA

Germany’s military expansion won’t convince young people to enlist

Germany has unveiled its first military strategy since the Second World War, and it’s certainly ambitious. By 2039, Berlin wants to command the strongest army in Europe, with a total of 460,000 combat-ready troops. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius argues that this is a historic turning point, and he’s right. But the national effort he’s asking for requires a change in the national attitude toward war, which may be much harder to achieve.

by Blazingcatfur•April 27, 2026April 27, 2026•0•Germany, NATO

The contempt Trump feels for his Nato allies is mutual

The war in Iran has revealed plenty about America’s ability to inflict damage on its enemies, Tehran’s capacity to resist pressure and Washington’s broader tendency to get itself stuck in the Middle East – a region several US presidents planned to extricate from. The conflict has been paused since 7 April due to a ceasefire that Trump extended earlier in the week. But it is nonetheless revealing a gradual systemic shift in the so-called international order that has been bubbling beneath the surface for years.

The movable object is none other than the transatlantic alliance which, through Nato, has bound the United States and most of Europe into a single security construct. That perennial institution, which security elites on both sides of the Atlantic have for decades held up as the pinnacle of what an alliance should be, is beginning to lose its lustre. This is thanks to the weight of diverging geopolitical priorities, divisions within Europe itself and President Trump’s propensity to treat European states as the equivalent of a lazy 25 year old who refuses to leave the house and get a job.

by Blazingcatfur•April 25, 2026April 24, 2026•0•NATO, USA

No 10 says Falklands sovereignty rests with UK after report of US ‘review’ … No means to expel Spain from NATO

Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands “rests with the UK”, Downing Street has said, following a report the US could review its position on Britain’s claim to the territory.

An internal Pentagon email reported by Reuters suggested the US was considering options to punish Nato allies it believed failed to support its war on Iran.

The options discussed also included seeking Spain’s suspension from Nato over its opposition to war.

Asked about the report, a No 10 spokesman said: “The Falkland Islands have hugely voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a UK overseas territory, and we’ve always stood behind the islanders’ right to self-determination and the fact that sovereignty rests with the UK.”

by Blazingcatfur•April 24, 2026April 24, 2026•0•NATO, Spain, UK, USA

Trump has had it with NATO

A month ago, it was obvious that our frenemies in NATO was trying to play President Trump for a fool by blocking USA bases in their countries from carrying out Operation Epic Fury, which would keep the Islamic regime in Iran from building nuclear weaponry.

I wrote about this in March, calling that newsletter The Little Orange Rooster.

Unlike the characters in The Little Red Hen, these animals were not simply lazy—they were saboteurs supporting a regime that killed 40,000 protesters in two nights. Do not for a moment believe Starmer, Macron, Merz and the rest of the cowards would not open fire on their own people, too.

by Blazingcatfur•April 23, 2026April 22, 2026•0•NATO, USA

NATO’s death and what it would mean for Europe

The mess we are in is getting deeper. Not only is there no prompt resolution in sight for the Iran crisis, plunging the planet into economic uncertainty of unprecedented nature, but the repercussions threaten to dismantle some of the very groundworks of the world order as we know it. In the midst of a storm which appears to be turning into a biblical deluge, our anchors – starting with NATO – are drifting away.

by Blazingcatfur•April 20, 2026April 19, 2026•0•NATO

It’s Time to Rethink NATO

NATO won the Cold War—but clinging to it now drains U.S. power from the Indo-Pacific, where the real contest for the future is unfolding.

It has been nearly 80 years since the guns fell silent in World War II. In that long arc of peace, the United States helped rebuild a shattered Europe, deter Soviet expansion, and anchor what we now call the transatlantic alliance. Those were noble achievements. They mattered. They still echo in the prosperity and stability of the Western world today.

But history is not a life sentence. And gratitude, while virtuous, is not a strategy.

by Blazingcatfur•April 17, 2026April 16, 2026•0•NATO

Europe Is Accelerating a NATO Fallback Plan in Case Trump Pulls Out

A fallback plan to ensure Europe can defend itself using NATO’s existing military structures if the U.S. departs is gaining traction after getting buy-in from Germany, a long-term opponent of a go-it-alone approach.

The officials working on the plans, which some officials are referring to as “European NATO,” are seeking to get more Europeans into the alliance’s command-and-control roles and supplement U.S. military assets with their own.

The plans—advancing informally through side discussions and over dinner meetings in and around the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—aren’t intended to rival the current alliance, participants said. European officials are aiming to preserve deterrence against Russia, operational continuity and nuclear credibility even if Washington withdraws forces from Europe or refuses to come to its defense, as President Trump has threatened.

by Blazingcatfur•April 15, 2026April 15, 2026•0•NATO, USA

Former Nato chief to say UK’s national security ‘in peril’

A key government adviser will accuse the UK’s leaders of “corrosive complacency” towards defence and warn the country’s security is “in peril”.

Lord George Robertson, the former Nato secretary general who wrote the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR), will use a speech later on Tuesday to accuse “non-military experts in the Treasury” of “vandalism”.

The government has promised to publish a 10-year defence investment plan to fund the SDR’s vision but it has been repeatedly delayed.

by Blazingcatfur•April 14, 2026April 13, 2026•0•NATO, UK

Goodbye NATO, Hello America First

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 and has grown to 32 nations.

Not surprisingly, the United States of America is the largest contributor to the organization, supplying 16 percent of the overall NATO budget and having the largest expenditure on national defense, totaling $980 billion, which is 62 percent of the overall defense spending of all member nations.

Oh boy …

British General Admits That It Can’t Deploy a Division Abroad

How pathetic is the British Army?

How about this: it cannot actually deploy a heavy (armored) division to Europe if required.

by Blazingcatfur•April 13, 2026April 13, 2026•0•NATO

Europe Refuses U.S. Hormuz Blockade, Exposing NATO Rift

Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Greece have all ruled out sending naval forces to support the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, exposing a growing rift inside NATO at the very moment global energy routes are under threat. Within hours of Washington’s request, European governments had distanced themselves from the operation and insisted that NATO has neither the mandate nor the interest to enter a war with Iran.

The refusal has triggered another dispute inside the Atlantic alliance. President Donald Trump has linked European participation in Hormuz to the future of NATO, warning that the United States cannot continue guaranteeing Europe’s security if Europeans refuse to support American operations abroad.

by Blazingcatfur•April 13, 2026April 13, 2026•0•"US Israel Iran War", NATO