NATO Flag
By Karen Stokes
On Wednesday, former OSCE Ambassador Daniel Baer, Navy Veteran Tracey Sperko, Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, and former NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller held a virtual press call highlighting the danger Donald Trump poses to democracy worldwide.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.
Donald Trump said Saturday to a crowd in South Carolina he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” if it attacked a NATO country that didn’t pay enough for defense.
His comments drew fierce backlash from some Republicans, the White House and leading Western officials, with the head of the trans-Atlantic alliance suggesting they could put the lives of American and European soldiers at greater risk.
“Most Americans recognize that part of our power in the world comes not only from having a wonderful military, from having a strong economy, but also for standing for our values and our commitments. And the idea that as former President Trump said over the weekend that he would violate those commitments that we’ve made to our close partners, that he would not only do that, but invite others to violate it is just unconscionable. And it makes us weaker in the world, as we try to make partnerships, and protect Americans and our economy going forward,” said Former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Daniel Baer.
Former NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Rose Gottemoeller: “I served at NATO from 2017 through 2019, so I was there for most of President Trump’s first term in office. And we heard some similar points back then. ‘The NATO allies got to pay to play,’ and they started the process at that time, and Trump was very, very tough on them at that time. But he, never in my presence anyway, never said that Putin can do ‘whatever the hell he wants’ with NATO allies who don’t pay up.
And to me, this is a step way beyond where he was in the 2017 to 2019 period, and does invite aggression that will affect not only the NATO allies in Europe, but will affect U.S. security as well. Let’s not forget that there are many U.S. troops deployed in Europe in support and in defense of our NATO allies. So, Secretary General Stoltenberg was right when he said the other day, in reaction to Trump, when he said that this will put soldiers at risk across the alliance, including the U.S. soldiers.”
While Trump and MAGA Republicans repeatedly bend the knee to Putin and other autocrats, President Biden remains wholeheartedly steadfast in his defense of democracy everywhere.
America’s national security has depended for the last 75 years after World War II on a system of alliances that we have built with blood, sweat and tears over decades and worked to maintain,” said Baer. “It has been crucial to American security.”