Surprised that Rutte can stand upright without a spine

Niclas Vent

Reporter

This is a commentary text. Analysis and positions are those of the writer.

Published 17.50

NATO chief Mark Rutte and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the meeting in Washington yesterday. Photo: Rod Lamkey/AP/TT

The water has begun to recede.

NATO's worst crisis ever is approaching, and as soon as the war in Iran is over, Donald Trump's wrath could hit Europe like a tsunami.

Unfortunately, the material for protective walls has probably run out.

- They were put to the test, and they failed.

Donald Trump has not held back in his criticism of NATO countries:

- NATO was not there when we needed them, and they will not be there if we need them again, he wrote last night.

NATO crises have certainly been a daily occurrence during Trump's second term.

The arguments have been about tariffs, defense spending, Russia, and the war on Ukraine, before everything came close to collapse in connection with the Greenland crisis at the beginning of the year.

The latest crisis is about Iran.

Unfortunately, it has the potential to be the worst ever.

Trump has already talked to his advisers about leaving NATO and is working on a plan to move troops away as punishment.

The anger is both about Europe not helping in the offensive war, and about several countries putting a damper on the wheel by banning American use of bases.

- We need to reevaluate the value of NATO as an alliance, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently.

- If NATO is only about us defending Europe against attack, while they don't let us use the bases when we need it, then it's not a good arrangement. It is very difficult to stay engaged.

         

         Mark Rutte and Donald Trump at the Davos meeting in January this year. Photo: Evan Vucci /AP/               TT / AP 

Of course you never know with Trump, everything might blow over.

But two things make the situation particularly bad:

• First, the anger this time seems more genuine and widespread – the war goals have not been achieved and scapegoats are needed.
• Second, it is harder to do anything about it.

When Donald Trump complained last year that Europe was not paying enough, he had a point, and at the summit in The Hague, the allies were able to meet him with shockingly high spending targets without much problem.

But now?

Should independent countries be forced to surrender their own territory to aggressive wars that they themselves consider illegal?

Sending warships into a war zone to open a strait that is only closed because of the US?

That is clearly unreasonable.

When everything is on the rocks, there is no worse person to hold on to than Mark Rutte.

I now find it difficult to even look at the NATO Secretary General without being overwhelmed by paralyzing secondary shame.

Oblivious, creeping, slobbering.

One is surprised that he can even stand upright without a spine.

In Rutte's world, everything Donald Trump does is brilliant.

Starting negotiations with Russia, which has yielded zero results: Absolutely necessary.

Bombing Iran, which many NATO countries oppose: Absolutely necessary.

        

      Rutte gives the US and Marco Rubio the thumbs up at the meeting yesterday. Photo: Rod Lamkey /            AP/TT

On CNN yesterday, after meeting Donald Trump at the White House, Rutte spoke about the threat from Iranian nuclear weapons, which the recent war was actually to almost zero extent about meeting:

– The whole world is safer because the president has worn down that capability.

When Trump threatened to destroy the entire civilization of Iran, asked CNN's Jake Tapper, did that worry you at all, as a diplomat?

– I don't comment on everything. What I want you to know is that I support the president, Rutte replied.

Curtain.

I'll try to be generous. A benevolent interpretation might look like this:

Rutte does what he has to.

His job is to keep NATO alive, and he seems to have decided that this is what is required. Get really close to Donald Trump on every issue, praise everything he does, make faces and never even breathe criticism.

That he thereby sacrifices both reputation and dignity and makes himself a public and eternal laughing stock is, in that reading, a sacrifice of messianic proportions.

 He gives his own life so that NATO can live.

No more benevolent interpretations.

I don't buy it.

It could do the same right now.

Rutte's creeping is an illustration of how deep the crisis within NATO actually is – and how short a time we Europeans have to reach a place where we can deter Russia on our own.

In the place where our security does not depend on how deeply we can bow.

         

         Servile, krypande, lismande – så kan Rutte uppfattas. Photo: Rod Lamkey /AP/TT

Oblivious, creeping, groveling – that's how Rutte can be perceived. Photo: Rod Lamkey /AP/TT 

FACTS

US use of bases during the Iran war

• Spain has banned US planes participating in the Iran-Iraq war from using Spanish airspace.
• France has allowed the use of French bases for defensive missions only, and has reportedly stopped deliveries of military equipment through its airspace.
• The UK has allowed the US to use its bases, such as RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, but only for defensive missions.
• Italy temporarily blocked US use of Sigonella air base in Sicily, after the US failed to properly request access