[…] Of course the main culprit of this sudden flare up is France. Emmanuel Macron—sensing that Germany is weak as a leader of EU, seeing the British Tories facing an electoral massacre, and himself facing a tough election at home—has suddenly changed his tune and is trying to form a bloc within a bloc, aligning France with the Baltic states. The Americans, the British, and the Germans rightly understand how reckless it is, and are opposed to it. POLITICO reported that “France’s top NATO partners, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, [had] to clarify that they would not be sending troops.”[…]
There is a simple way to stop this nonsense. The president of the U.S. and his NSC have so far specified their refusal to send troops to Ukraine under any circumstances, outside of NATO being under direct attack. This situation demands they go a little further. If any Baltic country decides to go to war with Russia, alongside France, they are free to do so. Any retaliatory attack on their home-soil or military assets in the high seas, however disproportionate, will not automatically invoke Article 5 of NATO.
And that should be made explicitly clear to both the West and East Europeans. NATO is a defensive alliance. Once you’re in the club, you’re in it. But if you open the doors and try to punch someone outside, only to expect the other club members to go and defend you, then apologies, but you’re on your own. Clubs have walls. You can stay safe inside, on the condition that you don’t pick a fight outside theclub. Läs artikel