Is NATO Still Relevant With The United States?

 

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in 1949 primarily to counter and curtail the foreseeable expansion and influence of the USSR (and then the Warsaw Pact Countries) in Europe after World War II.

The demise of the USSR in 1989 and the breakup of Warsaw Pact countries, considered as the “A” list nations in terms of threat to the US national security interests, has caused the United States’ foreign policy on defense to pivot slowly and strategically to the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, looking closely at China, North Korea, and Iran while still maintaining its radar on the USSR, now known simply as Russia.

As the saying goes in geopolitics, there are no permanent friends but only permanent interests. So, after the USSR’s disintegration, the three former Soviet Republics (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), the 11 Warsaw Pact Countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia), as well as Finland (a former Soviet territory), Sweden (historically neutral), and Germany have changed their allegiance and became part of NATO.   

The political and military realignment of the communist sphere into the Western coalition is akin to a tectonic shift, transforming communist/socialist states into democratic nations and thereby lessening the threat posed by Russia’s military strikes.

Again, there are no permanent friends but only permanent interests. The United States fought against the Italian, German, and Japanese forces in World War II. Now these three countries are trading partners and military allies of the Americans. Russians who fought alongside the Americans in World War II to defeat the German forces became the United States’ archenemy. Still, its political clout and military capabilities (except for the nuclear warheads) around the world have diminished.

According to open sources, over the past 75 years, since NATO's creation, the United States has contributed an estimated $21.9 trillion to the alliance’s defense budget, significantly more than the 32 members. An estimated $36 billion was spent on direct protection of Europe, including troop presence and infrastructure, in 2018. What about the aid to Ukraine? As of 2025, the US government had appropriated approximately $187 billion to Ukraine for the current war with Russia.

Right after World War II, the United States, through the Marshall Plan or the European Recovery Program, started an initiative to help 16 European countries get back on their feet and provided around $13.3 billion ( (equivalent to over $130 billion today) to “rebuild economies, prevent communist takeovers, and create strong markets for U.S. goods, offering funds for food, fuel, machinery, and technical assistance.” The Marshall Plan was a total success, given how Europe has become an economic powerhouse today.

The United States has done so much for the European Union and NATO, and with the deafening calls from the Europeans for the American Forces to leave their continent because of the Greenland issue, the Trump Administration must take the ingrates and anti-American peoples’ proposition seriously and let them protect their continent this time against Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.

While the United States is spending trillions of dollars on the defense and security of Europe, it’s allowing the European Union and NATO countries to concentrate and allocate their spending in building powerhouse economies like those in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The parasitism relationship between the United States and the European Union must stop. The Europeans can now handle the Russians in Ukraine without the United States' military aid and protection. Can they do it, really?

For the last time, there are no permanent friends but only permanent interests. Now, the Europeans consider the Americans as their enemies, and the United States’ national security interests now shift to the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and the Asia-Pacific Region. American allies such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines welcome the presence of US military forces in the region. There is no better time to move the US troops and military infrastructures from Europe to the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and, of course, Greenland.