America is no longer our ally but a predator and a bully. My message to Europe's leaders: stick together and prepare for war, writes GENERAL SIR RICHARD SHIRREFF
'An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile,’ warned Sir Winston Churchill, ‘hoping it will eat him last.’
Over the past year, European governments have sought to appease President Donald Trump: they turned a blind eye as he launched a global tariff war, threatened to annex Canada, bombed Iran, seized oil tankers and flaunted international law by kidnapping the Venezuelan president.
But now, inevitably and as Churchill warned, the crocodile President has turned its jaws on Europe.
It may have sounded like a joke when in 2019 Trump raised the prospect of acquiring Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark. But seven years on and the rubber has hit the road.
With the announcement over the weekend of further tariffs on European countries unless they give way, America has made it plain that this is no rhetorical game. It has genuine intent to seize and annex the autonomous Danish territory.
Allegedly, this is to protect the island from falling under Chinese or Russian influence: ‘The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland,’ Trump wrote in a letter to the Norwegian prime minister this week.
But with a US military base already on the island along with other Nato troops, the lucrative prospect of rare earth metals is likely also to be on Trump’s mind.
It may have sounded like a joke when US President Donald Trump raised the prospect of acquiring Greenland from Denmark. But seven years on the rubber has hit the road
When it comes to this Trump administration, we have to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And, in this instance, to show our intent – that means being open to the prospect of European forces fighting a ground war against the US in Greenland.
This would, of course, spell the end for Nato, an alliance which has kept us safe for coming on 77 years and an organisation in which I proudly served as deputy supreme allied commander in Europe for three years, after leaving the Army.
And so, as Trump continues to threaten and goad, my message to European leaders is this: America is no longer our ally but a predator and a bully. Stick together and prepare for war. Because the only way to deal with bullies is to push back.
As early as last February, at the 61st Munich Security Conference, the US made it clear that its support for Nato was far from ironclad. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington ‘will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship’ with its defence allies, exposing a rift in the decades-old alliance.
At the same time, Hegseth reiterated Trump’s demand that Nato allies increase their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, up from the then 2 per cent target, and added that Europe must provide the ‘overwhelming’ majority of funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
That conference should have sounded alarm bells across Europe. Political leaders should have prepared immediately for a world in which the US was no longer on our side.
Danish forces prepare for exercises with Nato allies in and around Greenland as they continue their increased presence on the island
The truth is that since Nato was formed in 1949, Britain has allowed its military arsenal to slip towards oblivion. In 1989, the British Army could count on around 156,000 soldiers. By 2010, that number had fallen towards 110,000. Today, it is closer to 70,000.
In the 1990s, Britain bought 400 Challenger 2 tanks. Today, we have just over 200 with – staggeringly – just 25 deemed battle-ready.
Similarly, while the Air Force has around 130 fighter jets at its disposal, the US Air Force has closer to 1,800.
While other countries such as China, Russia and the US have continued to spend money on defence, fixing the roof while the sun shines, Britain and the rest of Europe have become fat and happy on welfare handouts.
We did this assuming that the post-Second World War world order would hold and that America would for ever underwrite security for the West. As Trump has made clear again and again, that is no longer the case, and Europe has been left defenceless.
Keir Starmer’s immediate response to this new dawn has been – like most of Europe – to try to appease Donald Trump. The President was offered an unprecedented State visit during which he was wined and dined at Windsor Castle; and there was no more telling image of Europe’s desperation than that of its leaders sitting like schoolchildren in front of Trump in the Oval Office in August last year.
Protestors in the Danish capital Copenhagen, Denmark, march in support of Greenland, holding signs including one that reads, 'Yankee go home!'
Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Nazi Germany ended in catastrophe. History, I fear, is repeating itself.
So, what to do next?
If America does invade Greenland, Nato – in its current form – will cease to exist overnight. The threat is clearly existential. However, that does not mean the alliance of European countries should also fall by the wayside. Europe and Canada have to stick together like limpets.
No doubt, Trump will seek to divide and conquer. Indeed, his plan is already afoot. For by announcing fresh tariffs on Europe, Trump will hope each European leader buckles under the pressure and quietly seeks to strike a deal, thus shattering the continent’s unified front.
Sadly, Europe looks anything but united. France’s Emmanuel Macron has called for the continent to unleash its ‘trade bazooka’ against the US, but Starmer yesterday played down the threat of retaliatory tariffs. Similarly, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni has described the conflict with the US as a mere ‘misunderstanding’.
Until the whole of Europe appreciates the scale of the threat, there is little hope of serious action.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper with her Norwegian counterpart Espen Barth Eide watch British and Norwegian soldiers take part in a Nato cold weather training exercise last week
Second, we must plug the military gap now. That means defence spending must increase today.
The Government pledged to increase spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035, but that will be too late. The money must be available immediately, and spent not on back-office bureaucracy but on our ability to fight a war. Mark my words, tomorrow will be too late.
At the same time, we must forge closer military alliances with European partners. That means war-gaming potential scenarios, running drills and exercises in coordination with France, Germany, Norway and Denmark.
Yesterday, Trump wrote an extraordinary letter to the Norwegian PM, first bemoaning that he wasn’t awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and then arguing that Nato should ‘do something for the United States’.
It is worth noting that only one country has invoked Article 5 of the Nato Treaty – which demands all members come to another’s defence. And that country was the United States following the 9/11 terror attacks.
In the ensuing war in Afghanistan, Britain lost 457 service personnel while Denmark lost 43. Two decades on and Europe is the one under attack, but – in a development that has snapped the thread of history – it is the US who is the aggressor.
General Sir Richard Shirreff is a former deputy supreme allied commander of Nato in Europe
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