The former head of the Army in Europe says the US and NATO are still close, but Trump

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The former head of the U.S. Army in Europe says the US and NATO are still close, but Trump is kicking 'allies in the a-- publicly'
By: PRI The World & Business Insider 4/1/19
RE: https://www.businessinsider.com/form...-around-2019-4

- A decade after NATO said Georgia would eventually join the alliance, the country remains outside despite working closely with its members.

- Ben Hodges, former commander of the US Army in Europe, says Russia's presence has made NATO members wary of admitting Georgia.

- Overall, the US and NATO still work closely together, but Trump's brusque talk isn't helping the relationship.

It's been more than 10 years since Russian forces invaded Georgia, occupying the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It's also been more than 10 years since NATO agreed Georgia will eventually join the alliance. Georgia became an "aspirant country" in 2011 — and it's still not a NATO member.

Last week, about 350 personnel from 24 NATO states began a joint military exercise near Tbilisi. The exercise concludes Friday.

Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges is the former commander of the US Army in Europe and an expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis. He joined The World host Marco Werman to discuss his perspective on the recent NATO-Georgia joint military exercise and the region's security against Russia.

Marco Werman: These military exercises in Georgia look like NATO is poking the Russian bear. Why is that?

Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges: Of course, Marco, we're not poking the Russian bear, we're working with a country that has been with us in Afghanistan and has been a partner for years and it is the path to membership in the alliance, yet has 20% of its country occupied by Russian forces 10 years after the Russians said that they would leave. So I would disagree with your characterization that we are somehow poking the Russian bear.

More than 10 years ago, NATO agreed that Georgia would eventually join the pact. Why has it not happened?

I think there's probably a couple of reasons. To me personally, Georgia should be a member of the alliance right now. They've got nothing left to prove, but I believe there are some member nations that are reluctant because they do see that Russian troops still occupy 20% of Georgia.

So in effect, those nations are giving Russia a veto over membership in the alliance, and I don't think that's right. I believe that Russia respects strength, and if the alliance is strong and Georgia is welcomed into the alliance, then I don't believe that Russia will act on that, because the last thing they want is a conflict with NATO.

What have you heard from Georgians about their hopes and fears for the future? Do they see NATO membership as one of the few options for defense against Russia?
Photo link: https://amp.businessinsider.com/imag...88-960-668.jpg
Protestors on the 10th anniversary of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war in front of the building of Russian Federation Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Tbilisi, Georgia, on August 7, 2018

I think that the Georgians are rightfully frustrated that, after years of being told that they were going to be welcomed into the alliance that it still hasn't happened yet, which is exactly what the Russians want.

So there is some frustration, but most of the responsible military, political, and academic leaders in Georgia that I've spoken with are confident that this is eventually going to happen. So, I'm confident that its eventually going to happen. It's just — I wish it was happening sooner rather than later.

As you know there are a lot of people who look at NATO and say relations have been undermined and weakened by President Donald Trump. How do you see it?

Well, I have to say that I'm disappointed that the way that my president has treated allies is not helpful. I mean, should nations be doing more, especially Germany for example, than some of the other wealthier Western European countries? Absolutely they should, every president has said that. But I think there's a better approach to doing this. When the president refers to the EU as an enemy of the United States, that's a gift to the president of the Russian Federation and also to the president of China. This is not helpful.

To be fair, since [Trump] became president, everything that President Obama promised to the alliance such as rotational forces, prepositioned equipment, and increased spending has all happened. Everything that President Obama promised has been delivered under the Trump administration. I think it's important to keep that in mind. It's just so unhelpful when he's kicking the most important allies in the ass publicly and doing things that are not helpful. I never in my life imagined an American president would call into question Article 5. That's unbelievable to me and it's causing people to have to do a lot of extra work to explain "Don't worry, we're still committed, and we're here."

Well, speaking of Article 5, that's the part of NATO that states that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. You support Georgia being part of NATO. Do you think Americans are ready to die for Georgia if Russian tanks roll in once more?

We have American soldiers that are there almost nonstop. We've had Georgians died alongside Americans in Afghanistan. When you think about what Georgia does and how the United States traditionally loves small countries like this that have a fighting spirit and that are willing to do what it takes for their own independence, I think you would find very strong support in the United States, particularly in the Congress, for this. So I would not see that as a problem at all.

Now, at the end of the day, it does come down to civilian leadership explaining it to the population, just like in every other country, why it is we're doing what we're doing and why it's to the overall benefit of all of us to have collective security.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Read the original article on PRI's The World. Copyright 2019.

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NATO leader plays down divisions as alliance marks anniversary
By: Lorne Cook, The Associated Press & Military Times 4-1-19
RE: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/y...s-anniversary/

BRUSSELS — The United States and its allies are stepping up cooperation in response to Russian aggression, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday while playing down differences among members as the military alliance marks its 70th anniversary.

Foreign ministers from NATO countries are meeting in Washington this week for the occasion, determined to show a united front in the midst of a long military stalemate in Afghanistan and tensions with Russia returned to Cold War era levels.

But as NATO deploys thousands of troops and equipment to deter Russia and seeks solutions to fast-evolving new threats such as cyberattacks and hybrid warfare, its biggest challenge arguably lies within. Damaging infighting over defense spending and authoritarian tendencies exhibited by some allies undermine NATO's values, according to experts.

"The strength of NATO is that despite these differences, we have always been able to unite around our core tasks. That is, to protect and defend each other," NATO chief Stoltenberg said in Brussels before the trip.

Stoltenberg has talks with U.S. President Donald Trump planned for Tuesday. He is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday.

A big source of the internal strain is Trump’s recurrent demand that countries devote an amount equal to at least 2 percent of GDP to defense spending — though that metric takes no account of how well the money is spent — as well as the U.S. president’s reluctance to criticize strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"NATO's single greatest challenge is the absence of strong, principled American presidential leadership for the first time in its history," two former U.S. envoys to NATO, Nicholas Burns and Douglas Lute, wrote in a report for the alliance anniversary.

Trump, they said, is seen by allies as NATO's "most urgent, and often most difficult, problem."

The White House said last month in a statement about Stoltenberg's talks with Trump on Tuesday that the two would "discuss the unprecedented success of NATO, including the recent increased commitments on burden-sharing among European allies and ways to address the current, evolving challenges facing the alliance."

Trump made a memorable impression on leaders from Canada and European nations during his first NATO summit in May 2017. During a speech outside NATO's new Brussels headquarters, he publicly humiliated them. Trump also cast doubt on whether they could count on Washington to fulfill NATO's collective defense clause.

The speech was delivered by a memorial made from a twisted piece of the World Trade Center towers felled by al-Qaida's airliner attacks on Sept. 11, 2011. Since the founding Washington Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, NATO has only once activated the clause stating that an attack on one member is an attack on them all, after the 9/11 attacks.

Trump also delayed a summit last year with fresh demands on burden sharing. That time, at least, his dressing down about the U.S. spending more on defense than the other NATO members combined happened behind closed doors.

Trump's routine tirades have fueled suspicion his aim mostly is to drum up business for the U.S. defense industry.

But the attitude of Trump — who walked away from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change agreement his allies in Europe value while making tariff threats against them — also is similar to authoritarian or populist streaks showing up in NATO members Turkey, Hungary, Italy and Poland.

"The political and trans-Atlantic unity that underpins NATO has been weakened. Only bad guys benefit from trans-Atlantic division and a U.S. retreat from its global leadership role," Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Stoltenberg's predecessor as NATO's top civilian official, said in an email exchange with The Associated Press.

"We see the consequences of U.S. retreat, with autocrats and dictators filling the vacuum," he added,

Burns and Lute say this retreat from democracy, individual freedoms and the rule of law is "a potentially cancerous threat."

Still, NATO has survived formidable challenges over the decades, including the Cuban missile crisis and the missile race in Europe. It's also remained intact after internal divisions over the Suez Canal, the Iraq war, and France's departure from the alliance's command structure. Officials say they are confident NATO will endure now, too.

Trump is not scheduled to appear at the upcoming talks of NATO foreign ministers, but he is expected to attend a leaders' summit in London in mid-December.

Last Comment by NATO: “I hope we will not see a repeat of President Trump’s antics in Brussels last year. It’s time for the world’s democracies to show their unity,” Rasmussen said.