US Vice President JD Vance has called on European states to show greater independence, urging them not to be US “vassals.” He also said EU governments could have done more to oppose Washington over the Iraq War.
This seems like an attempt to undermine NATO. The only time article 5 has been used was after 9/11.
By saying Europe had a choice and should have resisted, he lays the foundation for the US to not follow through on their NATO commitments.
Edit: The commenter below is right, the article 5 was used for Afghanistan, not Iraq. My whole argument is thus invalid
Yes but Europe was under no obligation to support the US in the Iraq war since it had nothing to do with NATO.
Yeah, we should have ended our ties to the US and our infrastructural dependency back then.
Back then was one of the few moments I was proud about a german politician, when Schröder said “No”.
…what…?
Seriously: what the fuck? There was - at best - scant official support in Europe for the war, and public support was nearly nonexistent. The fuck is he on about.
Go home and fuck your loveseat, heterosectional.
A few European countries sent troops, but more importantly there was not a peep from Europe about, you know, not creating another refugee crisis in their backyard. He said oppose, not not support. Europe could’ve done more to oppose the Iraq war.
This is interesting, today we know that a conflict in the middle east will cause a large spike in refugees/migrants to the EU, back when the Iraq war started, was that not the case?
Until 2004, the EU was a western European entity, with Greece alone possible to describe as being anywhere near the Middle East, and lacking a land border with the rest of the EU.
The Iraq war did not cause and international migration crisis. People were primarily moved internally and to other (unfriendly) ME countries.
What really started the migration crisis was ISIS and the Syrian war, 10 years later. Where a Russian ally fought the byproduct of American misrule in the Middle East, and Russian allies directed migrants into Eastern European countries unready for them financially or culturally.
Quite what the EU, a non-military force that primarily overlaps with NATO, was supposed to do differently there I don’t know. Should it have predicted that the US would essentially lose to Assad, to the Taliban, and that they would then switch sides and ally with Russia while still in NATO?
To be honest I wasn’t even alive when the Iraq war started so I have no idea, but looking back the pieces (immigration from the Middle East to Europe being easy, ethnic and religious rivalries in Iraq getting ugly, America’s inability/unwillingness to install stable governments abroad) were all there so anyone in a relevant EU role who didn’t see it coming should be fired.
They could have idk, introduced sanctions at least. They could have stopped military cooperation and threatened to form their own alliance. It was a deeply unjustified, dare i say criminal war that needed a more forceful response than Europe was able to come up with. I have no great love for the couch fucker but he’s correct here
I remember when Republicans renamed french fries to freedom fries because France opposed the Iraq War
So, is he seriously telling other countries not to just blindly go along with whatever the US tells them to do, but instead to resist and stand up for themselves?
And Trump is ok with this messaging? Hmmm.
