The restructuring of NATO
Trump's presidency removes Europe from 5000 American soldiers. The additional brigade deployed by Biden after the Russian invasion of Ukraine returns to the United States. The dispatch of the Cruise missile regiment arranged at the time is also revoked.
ByMarco Ferrando
The dimensions of the American “withdrawal” are very modest.The North American contingent stationed in Europe amounts in total to 75.000 effective. The withdrawal is essentially concentrated in Germany. German and Polish rearmament largely compensates for the American withdrawal.
Nevertheless, the political signal is not irrelevant. The decision to partially disengage was made without consulting the European NATO allies. And it is combined with the advertisement, still unofficial, according to which “in the event of war” the United States would reduce the number of American soldiers that would be sent “to the relief” of Europe.
The America First line thus takes a new step forward. It is not about the American abandonment of the old continent, the “D-Day in reverse” that the bourgeois press talks about (The Republic, 21/5). But certainly the new American presidency confirms its trend line. Declining US imperialism finds it difficult to sustain the costs of its old global hegemony and proceeds to unilaterally cut them. Better to concentrate on the Pacific border, where the strategic game is played with Chinese imperialism. On the other hand, The new Strategic Document of the US administration identifies Russian imperialism as a “long-term adversary”, no longer as an “enemy”. And regarding Putin, Trump has been developing a new policy for some time. Not friendly, but exchange. “Russia out (and china) from Venezuela, from Cuba, of the American continent", that the American president wants entirely “under the stars and stripes”. But full willingness to negotiate with Russia the division of Ukraine and to recognize a broader space in Europe..
The crisis of the transatlantic axis between US imperialism and European imperialisms is in full development. The American controversy against the lack of European support in the war against Iran and for the unblocking of Hormuz is part of this framework.. Today NATO as such is not under discussion. But a profound restructuring of the Alliance is certainly underway. The famous article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance, in its real military implications, suffers a progressive political emptying. European imperialisms are called to assume a growing military commitment at the expense of their own employees.
German imperialism is running to lead the European arm of the Atlantic Alliance.Germany wants to achieve the goal of 5% of GDP allocated to military spending. “Our objective is a new distribution of burdens within the NATO alliance, that corresponds to the economic and military potential of Germany…”, This was declared by the German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, after the announced American “withdrawal”. It is also the German challenge to the hegemonic ambitions of French imperialism in the European military terrain.. Regarding Italian imperialism, Its objective is to consolidate, with increasing resources, leading the southern branch of the alliance, the one that controls the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Definitely, The reformist idea of “a Europe of peace” because it is “more autonomous from the United States” is the illusion that conceals an inverted reality.That of an increasingly armed capitalist Europe, that places in rearmament the hope of relaunching its negotiating weight in the new distribution of global balances. Only the fight for a workers' government, in each country and on a continental scale, can face this perspective. Only a Socialist Europe can realize a true alternative.
