President Trump requested this past week that our North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “allies” assist in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, safe, and passable for oil tankers. One of the dangers in the Strait is the placement by the Iranian military of mines in the waterway. European countries are said to possess abundant minesweepers, and this assistance would ease the burden on our armed forces which are also engaged in other far-flung parts of the world. But our so-called allies have thus far refused, or, at best, offered only empty lip service in support of the effort to keep the Strait open, from which they benefit far more than does the U.S.
President Trump characterized the refusal of NATO members to assist in the conflict with Iran in this way: “The United States has been informed by most of our NATO ‘Allies’ that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
I note that every U.S. president—Democrat and Republican—since the 1979 Revolution that brought the Mullahs to power have pledged to prevent this result, but only Trump has had the courage to take action to protect the U.S. and the world from religious fanatics with a nuclear bomb.
Trump continued “I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend hundreds of billions of dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need.”
He later warned even more emphatically: Stand with the U.S. for defense of the Strait of Hormuz or face a “very bad” future. (Fox News). “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there. If there’s no response, or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.” (The Financial Times).
Echoing that sentiment, retired Gen. Jack Keane pointedly described the situation expressing frustration at the reluctance of NATO members “to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil and gas transport that supplies roughly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and has been targeted by Iran.” (Fox News).
Keene stated that this refusal is part and parcel of the general weakness and indecision resulting from “the entitlement handouts and open border policies of our NATO allies, leading to serious issues, ultimately setting the conditions for strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin to move in. Keane continued, “it’s very frustrating to see something like this happen when we need help. It’s not that we can’t escort these ships down the Straits of Hormuz … (but we should have the assistance of our allies).”
What is stupefying to me is that, in this instance, all of our NATO allies have identical interests in keeping the radical Iranian regime from possessing a nuclear weapon! The U.S. certainly doesn’t need the oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz given the tremendous domestic oil and gas production happening in the U.S. today. Rather, America is carrying the burden of keeping the Strait open to benefit the rest of the world.
Maybe this will change. Maybe Trump’s threats and pressure will get our “allies” moving. It’s a small “ask.” We could use their assistance to protect the oil flow through the Strait, of which they are, again, the primary beneficiaries. Their cowardly weakness jeopardizes the security of their own economies and their own national security.
It reminds me of Winston Churchill during World War II holding off the Nazi Menace for many months, alone. The French couldn’t wait to surrender and most other nations cowered. But Churchill, in his and his country’s finest hour, stood firm as London was bombed nightly by the German blitzkrieg. The U.S., to its great credit, did supply vast amounts of materials and equipment to the war effort during this period, joining the war itself after Pearl Harbor. But for this kind of courage, we would likely all be speaking German or Japanese.
May America’s purported allies find similar courage to help defeat the Iranian scourge.
Shreveport attorney, Royal Alexander, worked in D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 8 years for two different Members of Congress from Louisiana.