U.S. must exit NATO

OPINION:

Is anyone on the world stage more ridiculous than British Prime Minister Keir Starmer?

Leaving for a trip to the Middle East last week, Mr. Starmer said, “I welcome the ceasefire agreement reached overnight. … Together with our partners, we must do all we can to support and sustain this ceasefire.”

We? Britain had zero involvement in brokering the ceasefire, and that’s exactly how much credit Mr. Starmer should get for it.

Mr. Starmer previously waffled on the U.S. using its British bases for attacks on Iran. He eventually declared that the U.S. could use them, but only for “defensive” missions such as attacking missile sites, not for “offensive” purposes, whatever Mr. Starmer thinks those are.

He thus joined other NATO countries, such as France, Spain and Italy, in restricting the use of U.S. bases in those nations (and their airspace) for flights to attack Iran.

Is it any mystery why President Trump wants to quit NATO? Well, yes. There are three reasons not to and only one reason to do so, but that one reason may control the decision.

The first reason not to quit NATO is that doing so would grant Russian ruler Vladimir Putin one of his most fervent ambitions. Mr. Putin has wanted to split NATO’s European members from the U.S. since he took power 26 years ago. His war of conquest in Ukraine nearly did it.

Mr. Putin’s support for Iran has gained barely any mention. His regime is sharing intelligence information with the ayatollahs and helping manufacture drones in the Iranian factory in Russia. He can be counted on to make trouble for the U.S. at every opportunity.

The second reason is that U.S. law and the NATO Treaty are obstacles to exiting.

Under Article 13 of the NATO Treaty, the U.S. would have to give a “notice of denunciation” to the other NATO members, notifying them of our intent to dissolve the treaty, which shouldn’t be a big deal for us.

Yet the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023 included a provision that prohibits a president from quitting NATO without a two-thirds vote of the Senate or a joint resolution passed by both houses of Congress.

Interestingly, that provision was sponsored by then-Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat.

Now secretary of state, Mr. Rubio has said we will reassess our NATO membership after the Iran war has concluded.

With the very slim congressional majorities in the House and Senate, Mr. Trump will find it impossible to quit NATO. The Democrats would be unanimous in opposing an exit simply because Mr. Trump favors it.

Many Republicans would reject the idea because it is an election year.

The third reason is the instability in Europe that a U.S. exit from NATO would cause. Mr. Putin could attack any NATO nation without fearing U.S. intervention, which has been his major obstacle in attempting to reassemble the old Soviet empire. Russia would threaten and possibly invade smaller nations, such as Estonia.

If he decides to quit NATO, the president could propose an alternative alliance composed of the nations that have not denied us access to our own bases for offensive purposes. He also could exclude Turkey, which is, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a lost cause, an Islamist nation unworthy of our protection.

European instability would still occur, but because it would mostly be Euro whining, it could be ignored.

None of this can happen, however, because Congress won’t approve a U.S. NATO exit.

We have almost 80,000 troops stationed in NATO countries. Mr. Trump could order our troops out of uncooperative nations and either bring them back to the U.S. or redeploy them to more reliable NATO nations. The leaders of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain wouldn’t welcome those minor blows to their economies, but other, friendlier countries, such as Poland or Estonia, would appreciate the moves.

Our bases in the uncooperative nations can be replicated elsewhere.

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in 1949, and several nations have been added since, some unwisely. Congress should choose to help Mr. Trump in his post-NATO plans. If it does not, then NATO will continue to fail and lose us the next European war.

• Jed Babbin is a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Times and a contributing editor for The American Spectator.