It is a bit rich to hear French president Emmanuel Macron announce that NATO is suffering “a brain death” because of “a lack of American commitment.” France has allowed her armed forces to dwindle down to an aircraft carrier,six nuclear submarines with nuclear-tipped missiles, a modest but well-armed air force, and an army of about 100,000, a fifth of Turkey’s. This is the army that in other times was the greatest in Europe prior to the unification of Germany in 1871, was the silent force in French political history, and produced that nation’s greatest leaders, particularly Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle. This was the army that, with the Royal (British) Navy, was the shield defending Western Europe and North America from the dangers of Central and Eastern Europe between the founding of the Alliance Cordiale, ending eight centuries of Anglo–French animosity, in 1904, to the fall of France under the hob-nailed jackboot of Nazi Germany in 1940.
The United States, the country in NATO least likely to be attacked by any other country (except possibly for Canada), or by any terrorist outrage directly traceable to another country, has brought its military capabilities up to their highest point since the end of the Cold War nearly 30 years ago. Of course, the United States is the only country with legitimate strategic interests around the world and it is the only country that can correctly determine the level of force that is necessary to protect those interests adequately and provide the level of deterrence that meets the counsel of Publius Fabius Vegetius Renatus in the late fourth century: “If you wish peace, prepare for war.” Rome had practiced that for seven centuries when Vegetius wrote it, but had reached a state of such political and moral dissolution that it was about to be overthrown in the west and comprehensively defeated and subjugated by barbarians. Though commentators who don’t know better (they are numerous) frequently claim that the United States is in sight of such a fate, it is very far from it.
The problem with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is anything but an absence of American commitment. The United States is absolutely committed to preventing or responding effectively to attacks on NATO countries, but it is unwilling to maintain a false spirit of egalitarian collegiality with allies that are just free riders on the deterrent and counterattack force of the American armed forces. The remark of President Macron is doubly odd because France is about to enjoy a periodic up-thrust of its influence in Europe as Britain partially disengages from it. Germany is in some political turmoil as Chancellor Merkel has stayed too long in office, and it is becoming steadily more difficult to be confident of German political stability. A German chancellor, like a British or Canadian prime minister, can continue in office only if the government retains the support of a majority in the principal legislative house. This is becoming very difficult in Germany, where there are six national parties and the traditional governing Christian and Social Democrats barely enjoy a majority between them.
