Pentagon email floats suspending Spain from NATO, other steps over Iran rift, source says (www.reuters.com)
from MicroWave@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 24 Apr 10:54
https://lemmy.world/post/46009859

An internal Pentagon email outlines options for the United States to ​punish NATO allies it believes failed to support U.S. operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from the alliance and reviewing the U.S. position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a U.S. official ‌told Reuters.

The policy options are detailed in a note expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the United States access, basing and overflight rights - known as ABO - for the Iran war, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the email.

The email stated that ABO is “just the absolute baseline for NATO,” according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

#world

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nkat2112@sh.itjust.works on 24 Apr 11:07 next collapse

They might wish to learn more of what it takes to float tankers through a particular strait rather than dumb ideas.

gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works on 24 Apr 11:08 next collapse

Afaik there’s no mechanism within the nato charter or any of its founding documents or principles that would allow this. So the US doing this would probably only hasten NATO falling apart, and lead to the forming of a new iteration of it without the US.

Edit: and, uh, NATO itself agrees with that first part

Magister@lemmy.world on 24 Apr 11:32 collapse

Without the US? How the North American Treaty Organization exists without US?

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/1cc14b42-48d4-49ca-a600-cb2fb68509dd.png">

gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works on 24 Apr 11:35 next collapse

Lmfao NYT coming in hot with the AI slop 🤪

Honestly though, that’s a hilariously bad and super obvious fuck-up

gigachad@piefed.social on 24 Apr 11:36 next collapse

lmao

panda_abyss@lemmy.ca on 24 Apr 11:49 collapse

Also, even if NATO stood for that, Canada is in NATO, so it’s still North American. The US does not own the Americas.

porcoesphino@mander.xyz on 24 Apr 12:25 collapse

And it should end with “without the US”. Fuck the US and their center of the world bullshit, there are a lot of beautiful countries in the Americas

hellequin67@lemmy.zip on 24 Apr 11:19 next collapse

I’m sure Spain wouldn’t mind. At the same time they can leave all their bases in Spain. Frankly at this point NATO would be better off without the US.

It’s time Europe stood in it’s own, but for US that means leaving all bases in Europe and Europe no longer sharing intelligence or purchasing US military hardware.

Good luck being a pariah state.

WanderingThoughts@europe.pub on 24 Apr 11:25 collapse

EU is also reducing and disconnecting financial systems, infrastructure, software, critical trade and a bunch of other dependencies. The US and their businesses are less happy about that part.

kablez@lemmy.world on 24 Apr 11:40 collapse

I pity any country that is slugged with buying food from the US. For a country obsessed with meat, they sure are bad at producing any worth a damn.

givesomefucks@lemmy.world on 24 Apr 11:52 collapse

Well, that’s because you seem to think the same thing makes good “meat” regardless of the cut or even animal…

American beef is shit for steaks, but is the best hamburger meat. Most of our beef that’s exported is ground to be mixed with “local” beef in other countries for hamburgers due to the higher fat content in American beef.

Anyways, it was just weird to see someone mention all those big issues, and then someone to chime in with something that really doesn’t matter and they clearly don’t understand

JoMiran@lemmy.ml on 24 Apr 11:49 next collapse

NATO is already dead. Nobody believes that the.participating nations will act to protect one another.

Dragomus@lemmy.world on 24 Apr 12:09 collapse

If an enemy actually comes they will defend one another … but the suspicion lies in that only the US just goes meh, not interested.

On top of that, trump seems to reason to himself that he is being attacked by Iran, and therefore NATO (which is a defensive only alliance) is supposed to help, which it is not.

Trump attacked Iran… for dubious reasons worse than the Iraq debacle, so the allies who trump already spat in their faces have no interest getting pulled into his war whatsoever.
This is trump’s war on all fronts, not NATO’s, and does not come with a moral contract to let him use any other countries’ assets if they disagree.

The situation would change dramatically if Iran actually did attack a NATO member.

Asafum@lemmy.world on 24 Apr 11:51 next collapse

Isn’t NATO a defensive organization? Crybaby taco Trump is acting like they’re his personal army and if they don’t attack who he says to attack then they should be punished…

phutatorius@lemmy.zip on 24 Apr 11:51 next collapse

NATO is a defensive treaty. No NATO member was attacked by Iran. As usual, Trump is full of shit.

DandomRude@lemmy.world on 24 Apr 12:01 collapse

All the more reason for the EU to leave NATO as a united bloc.

What value does a defense alliance have when the most influential country in its ranks is ruled by a psychopath who openly threatens its members with a war of aggression and commits the most heinous war crimes elsewhere in the world?

We simply have to be realistic: The U.S. is now the enemy of the free world. Nothing will ever change that, because the American people will never rise up against their own downfall.