{"id":100827,"date":"2026-02-12T05:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=100827"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:17:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:17:24","slug":"pro-tip-be-suspicious-of-any-reporting-on-nato-from-europeans-especially-from-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/02\/12\/pro-tip-be-suspicious-of-any-reporting-on-nato-from-europeans-especially-from-brussels\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-tip – be suspicious “of any reporting on NATO from Europeans, especially from Brussels”"},"content":{"rendered":"

CDR Salamander<\/a> reacts with some exasperation to how European mainstream media are choosing to report pretty much anything involving the US\/NATO relationship:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve about reached my limit on lazy, high-emotion\/low-reason, or performative reporting from Europe on the NATO\/U.S. relationship. If the EuroLeft\/EU-uber-alles<\/em> crowd was really concerned about keeping the relationship between the U.S. and European NATO as good as possible, they would be making an effort to bridge and salve over some of the tough-love comments coming out of DC.<\/p>\n

However, that is not what they are doing. No, they are seeing a gap, and are trying to pound a wedge into it. They see a spark, and look to throw a litre of petrol on it.<\/p>\n

I guess what galls me the most is that their actions are, in operation, producing exactly the opposite condition they will tell you they are concerned about.<\/p>\n

These are not dumb people. They, or the ones they work for, know what they are doing. At best, they are farming rage clicks. At worst, they are moving towards a desire the core of the EU nomenklatura<\/em> has been driving for over decades \u2014 get the U.S. out of Europe.<\/p>\n

They have found allies in part of the U.S. right-of-center coalition … and they will leverage that as well.<\/p>\n

The below is just another example. A ham-fisted one, but one nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Let’s dive in.<\/p>\n

I don’t like to call out people by name … wait … yes I do.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this isn’t personal; this is professional. No, wait. This reporting is so bad that, as a former proud NATO staff officer, I cannot let this stand. It is kind of personal. Plus this makes a larger point.<\/p>\n

It isn’t petty either. As mentioned above, very serious people who are not our friends or our NATO allies’ friends \u2014 most of whom are citizens of NATO nations \u2014 are trying to seize the moment to push a multi-generational effort to wedge conflict between the U.S. and the Europeans in NATO.<\/p>\n

Yes, there are some who are unknowingly doing their bidding, but make no mistake \u2014 bad reporting is allowed for a variety of reasons and should be called out when it happens.<\/p>\n

First the larger point, then the details.<\/p>\n

The reaction in Europe to the clear and direct peer counseling of our European allies by the U.S. over the last year has just demonstrated the fact that many of the people who put themselves forward as “experts” simply do not have either the knowledge or inclination to be anything of the sort.<\/p>\n

For ideological, political, or standard issue look-at-me’ism<\/em>, reporting about the state of the alliance and the American place in it drifts from farcical to the edge of a PSYOPS project by the usual suspects of the EuroLeft who have been trying to prove their anti-American bonafides<\/em> since they first flirted with the cute socialist girl at the anti-NATO march in college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In related news, Chris Bray<\/a> discusses Canada’s “Muscular New Anti-Trump Strategy\u2122”, showing that it’s not just EU-based media to be suspicious of:<\/p>\n

Recall the recent discussion here<\/a> of the “Carney Doctrine”, after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney threw down the gauntlet<\/em> at Donald Trump’s feet. Orange Man Bad, so Canada is going to become a rising power and lead a new international coalition to challenge the cruel American hegemon and stuff. The deeply silly opinion pages of the deeply silly New York Times<\/em> celebrated<\/a> Carney’s deeply silly speech, and declared the potential emergence of “an economic and defense alliance that rivals American power.” Back when all of this happened, I discussed the obvious condition of the Canadian armed forces, and advanced a sophisticated argument that LOL.<\/p>\n

Reality keeps making the same joke. At the Federalist<\/em> this week, I wrote about<\/a> the recent notifications in the Federal Register about a series of arms deals that will allow Canada to make large purchases of American weapons. So as Carney spoke about challenging American military power on the world stage, he knew that his plan for doing that was to get the weapons from America. It’s an I want to punch you in the face, but first I need you to teach me how to throw a punch<\/em> maneuver.<\/p>\n

And then, this morning, Politico<\/em> dropped this bomb<\/a>, by which I mean that Politico<\/em> has been eating a lot of Taco Bell and dropped into a stall in the gender-neutral office bathroom:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Muscular! Canada’s been puttin’ in work at the world order gym.<\/p>\n

Note subhed: This is a story about “the new international order”. America is being shoved into the global background, now, as Canada flexes its haaaard new muscles. The story is illustrated with a ship, so obviously a huge announcement about naval powe\u2014 nope.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CDR Salamander reacts with some exasperation to how European mainstream media are choosing to report pretty much anything involving the US\/NATO relationship: I’ve about reached my limit on lazy, high-emotion\/low-reason, or performative reporting from Europe on the NATO\/U.S. relationship. If the EuroLeft\/EU-uber-alles crowd was really concerned about keeping the relationship between the U.S. and European […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,62,28,5,53,13],"tags":[1037,724,572,220,30,213],"class_list":["post-100827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-cancon","category-europe","category-media","category-military","category-politics","category-usa","tag-donaldtrump","tag-greenland","tag-leadership","tag-nato","tag-navy","tag-newspapers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-qef","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100827"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100832,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100827\/revisions\/100832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}