Trump’s threats to NATO allies are ‘utterly perverse’ to military officers: Naval expert

The men and women of the armed forces are likely reeling in response to President Donald Trump’s threats to attack NATO allies over Greenland, according to one longtime military expert.In a Monday essay for the Atlantic, Tom Nichols — the former chairman of the Strategy and Policy Department at the U.S. Naval War College — wrote that officers typically follow the commander-in-chief’s orders without question, given that civilian leadership of the U.S. military is a core tenet of the American system. However, Nichols noted that many officers are likely having a crisis of conscience now that Trump may commit military forces to Greenland despite the autonomous island territory already belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark – a key NATO ally. “[T]hese will be orders that force U.S. military minds to step into a horrifying mirror universe where the United States is the aggressor against NATO, a coalition that includes countries that have been our friends for centuries,” he wrote. “Should Trump pursue this scheme of conquest, the military’s training will have to be shattered and reassembled into a destructive version of itself, as if doctors were asked to take lifesaving medicines, reconstitute them as poisonous isomers, and then administer them to patients.”Nichols pointed out that while a president could order senior offices to draw up war plans to invade Greenland, it could be seen as merely one more “war game” for officers to plan for, though he observed that war games typically involve crafting plans for nonexistent nations with made-up names. But when the planning involves the hypothetical invasion of a longtime ally, Nichols argued that this may be a bridge too far for many officers — including though who served alongside members of the Danish military during the War on Terror.”[A]fter years of experience with American military officers, I believe that even these hypothetical instructions will sound utterly perverse to men and women who have served with the Danes and other NATO allies,” he wrote. “Denmark not only was our ally during the world wars of the 20th century, but also, as my colleague Isaac Stanley-Becker has written, joined our fight against the Taliban after 9/11 and suffered significant casualties for a small nation. Their soldiers bled and died on the same battlefields as Americans.”The former Naval War College professor wrote that while officers are routinely prepared for countless different wartime scenarios, one case they never considered was the commander-in-chief being a “megalomaniac” who threatens hostility against a key ally because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize. He also cautioned that should the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon carry out potential orders from Trump to take Greenland by force, it could lead to a “global catastrophe.””It is not up to the armed forces to put a stop to Trump’s ghastly ideas,” Nichols wrote. “… Americans, and their elected representatives, must take this burden away from the armed forces — now.”Click here to read Nichols’ full essay in the Atlantic (gift link).

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