‘Despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us’
By Christopher J. Little, Real Clear Wire
Most of America’s allies are still operating under the old rules. A few are already adapting. The rest are about to find out what the new framework actually requires.
On April 24, an internal Department of War email leaked into the news. Its contents were stark. The Pentagon was weighing the suspension of Spain from NATO and a review of long-standing American support for British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. Both measures were responses to the same problem. America’s allies had failed the test.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson confirmed the substance on the record. “Despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us,” she said. “The War Department will ensure that the President has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further on Fox News the same day. “If we’ve reached a point where the NATO alliance means we can’t use those bases to defend America’s interests, then NATO becomes a one-way street.”
The email was not the story. The email was a symptom. The story is a strategic reorientation now 18 months in the making, codified in three documents — the November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), the January 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS), and the policy architecture known as Project 2025. Most of America’s allies have not yet read them carefully. A handful have already begun acting on them. The gap between those two groups is the central drama of American foreign policy.