Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and a Little White Lie About NATO that is Getting Exposed

With friends like these, who needs enemies. If that statement were not all too often true about America’s relationship with Europe, then that old saying has no truth at all. Today, even though the US pays for most of Europe’s defense despite Russia not having been a serious threat to our nation for a decade, the United States has a nearly $260 billion trade deficit with the EU. While European countries have been able to export a variety of goods to America without excise taxes or tariffs for years, the leaders of the European Union have frequently imposed steep duties on American products. The fact that the EU is a larger economic zone than the nearly $30 trillion US economy, and America still runs significant deficits with its European competitors, is telling.

One of the biggest lies told by politicians to Americans for decades was that NATO was still serving our country’s interests, even nearly 3 decades after the end of the Cold War. The false and absurd premise that there was a real need for an economic and military alliance between Europe and the United States was the primary reason why Americans allowed Europe to constantly rip the country off before Trump came on the scene. The 45th and 47th President was keenly aware that the EU was largely setup to act as a way of uniting Europe to stand up to the US on trade, and Trump was also keen to the fact that NATO was largely just a way for Europe to receive massive subsidizes from the US even though the America has received minimal benefits from this military alliance since the fall of the Soviet Union.

President Trump was right to question what if any real benefits the US is getting from a NATO alliance where America continues to pick up the majority of the costs even though Europe has been ripping the US off on trade for decades. Even more recently in Ukraine, the United States has put up nearly $130 billion in aid to Ukraine, while all of Europe combined has sent around $200 billion to Zelensky’s government. America has sent far more money to Ukraine than any European nation, and the numbers are not close. The US also accounts for nearly 17 percent of NATO’s direct military budget, which, again, is a larger financial commitment than any country in Europe is making. America’s overall defense budget is also 70 percent of the military spending that NATO countries engage in.

This is why the recent tepid reaction by most European countries to the US war in Iran, including these nations’ reluctance to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, is so interesting. The United States is a net exporter of oil, and the nation depends very little on this critically important waterway. The closure of this Strait impacts Europe and Asia far more than the US. Still, despite this fact, England and France have both offered little to no support for helping ships securely pass through this waterway, and both countries have also not offered America help with the overall conflict either. Even Germany, a country that originally expressed support for the US military strikes on Iran during the prime minister’s recent visit to the White House, has recently expressed concern over the war in the last week. Indeed, recent reporting suggests that Japan is showing more willingness to help secure the Strait of Hormuz than any of America’s supposed European allies. This fact remains true even though Europe depends far more on oil from the Middle East than the US, a country that barely imports energy from this region anymore.

One of the largest lies told by politicians and the failing legacy media about Trump was that the 47th President was going to undermine NATO and the US’s foreign alliances. The reality, as usual, is the exact opposite. Trump is using leverage to make sure that the countries that have been ripping off America for decades finally pay up. The President is making sure the United States actually benefits from NATO, and he isn’t going to let wealthy European countries take advantage of the naivety of the American politicians. Indeed, the fact that European countries and the US’s supposed allies aren’t even willing to offer the most basic assistance to help secure the Strait of Hormuz during a conflict in Iran that should benefit Europe more than the US, again shows Trump was right about NATO being a 1-way alliance that the United States gets minimal benefits from despite accounting for most of the cost burden.