US President Donald Trump is letting it be known that he is considering pulling the United States from NATO, and perhaps some of America's alliance relationships. This is in part because of his anger, embarrassment and frustration that his European allies, and even some of his Asian allies such as Japan, South Korea and Australia, did not automatically follow the US, or Israel for that matter, into his war against Iran. His fury was redoubled when many of the European nations, including England, gave chapter-and-verse explanations about their reservations, ones also being voiced in the US.

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The war aims were far from clear, the reasons for it were being made up and changed as Trump went along, the urgency never explained. Trump had no exit strategy. His bombast, and, even worse, the noise coming from the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, was a distinct turn-off, and, in any event, never reflected the truth of the conflict. To Europe, indeed, it looked precisely the sort of conflict in which the US has become enmired and enmeshed, and generally defeated, since Korea. It was not a war that US allies had helped plan. It was not a war about which they were consulted. Most had made their opposition clear well before bombs were hitting schools or popes were becoming agitated. No one felt any sort of instinctive duty to stand by an old friend.

Trump may hope that NATO countries, learning that he is serious, might fall into a heap of apologies, with renewed unwilling military investment, and reparation presents such as Greenland. But I doubt he has his hopes up. The disdain is mutual.

He has been disparaging European and NATO leaders for decades and has talked of walking away from NATO before. He has been increasingly indifferent to Ukraine's interests in its defence against a Russian invasion and has made it clear that he expects Europe to assume the whole burden, if it wants to. He, and the Vice-President, JD Vance, seem not to care much about Ukraine.

Trump has hurled insults and abuse, and European leaders have become increasingly frank with their populations about their reservations concerning the value of the US as a great and powerful ally. Especially under Trump. But Europe has seemed quite conscious that even a more steady, steadfast and patient successor American president will be unable to restore the old status quo. Unlike Australia, most NATO countries have had a dialogue with their citizens and their neighbours about their concerns with the American government.

The NATO countries and alliances Trump is talking of walking away from have not lost their desire for collective security, even if they have declining faith in whether America will be by their side. They fear Russian aggression. They understand that the western alliance embraces Asia and Pacific nations as much as Europe and the Atlantic. Increasingly they are thinking about practical ways of drawing into their plans Australia, Canada, and key western-oriented nations such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore. They maintain close relationships with countries such as the ASEAN nations and India, who are also concerned about mutual defence in superpower politics.

Europe, NATO, Japan, Korea and Australia discussing defence arrangements 

Australia and other Asian powers are closely involved in informal contingency discussions. They are well aware of NATO thinking about possible future western security arrangements that do not involve the US, let alone US military leadership. In some respects, people are hardly talking about anything else. The personality, the moods and the........

© Canberra Times