OPINION: The head of NATO – like a smug Cheshire cat

BY PETER EWART

Special to the News

It was quite a spectacle in the Oval Office of the US White House on March 13.  On one side in a high-back armchair sat President Trump holding court with acolytes and courtiers, while in the other seat perched NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte who had come to kiss the ring of the president.  And kiss the ring he repeatedly did, at one point even using the term “dear Donald” to address Trump, heaping praise after praise on the grinning president.

When looking at what “Trump 47” has accomplished in the last couple of weeks, a beaming Rutte said to the president, it is all “really staggering.”  NATO has been “invigorated under your leadership.”  European members of NATO are buying four times more from the US’s strong defense industry, “but we need to do more,” he said apologetically.  

Then it was Trump’s turn to boast endlessly about his accomplishments while Rutte nodded his head and held his hands like a supplicant in thrall to the Almighty.

Now Trump meeting with sycophantic world leaders in the oval office is not unusual, even a Canadian leader has been there in the past to render homage.  But NATO head Rutte has come at a particular time, one in which in the last few weeks Trump has repeatedly threatened the sovereignty of NATO members Canada and Denmark, as well as Greenland and Panama. 

In the most arrogant, imperial style, Trump belittled the sovereignty of Canada, claiming that the boundary between the two countries “makes no sense,” and previously threatening to use economic force to annex the country and convert it into the 51^st state.  In his comments on the possibility of defying Denmark and annexing Greenland, Trump made the veiled threat: “Maybe you’ll see more and more [US] soldiers go there,” and even suggested that NATO could be involved.

So, what did this illustrious head of NATO do at this meeting, given that all these insults and threats of aggression were being directed by “dear Donald” against Canada, Greenland, Denmark and other countries?  In that regard, it must be kept in mind that NATO member countries are supposedly protected from invasion or attacks under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.  Yet this ever so brave head of NATO sat there with crossed legs and nary a peep of protest despite the president of the US attacking and threatening other NATO members Rutte is supposed to be responsible for.

Rutte made it all even worse in the oval office, by claiming that seven of the Arctic countries were working together, of course “under U.S. leadership” to keep the Arctic “safe.”  But it is noteworthy that he failed to mention that the U.S. does not recognize Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic over the Northwest Passage nor of a substantial section of the resource-rich Beaufort Sea.

When we assess this shameful incident in the Oval Office, the question arises as to why is Canada in such a military alliance at all?  How can it be that the head of NATO sits there with lips sealed like a smug cheshire cat as the U.S. president threatens and fulminates against member countries like Canada or Denmark?  There is something profoundly amiss with such an arrangement.   

Peter Ewart is a writer and community activist based in Prince George, British Columbia.  He can be reached at: peter.ewart@shaw.ca