Intellectual giants are in painfully short supply in the Trump administration, but if there was anyone who might lay claim to cerebral weight of any sort,Elbridge Colbymight be one of them. Self-styled as a China hawk, the US Under Secretary of War for Policy must privately be bemused by the changeling that has become US foreign policy, one now latched onto, yet again, the issues of the Middle East and the shaking tail that is Israel.President Donald Trump, the man who promised to end wars and terminate the state of permanent conflict the US has found itself in for decades, is sticking to bad habits.
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These bad habits have not been appreciated by various allies, notably members of NATO. Spain, France and Italy have shown varying degrees of icy reserve to the use of their bases and airspace by US forces in striking Iran. The UK has been less firm on the issue, though its unpopularPrime Minister Sir Keir Starmeris adamant that no troops will be committed to the operation. These countries have also given the cold shoulder to deploying troops in any forceable operation to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Of all the allies, Spain has proven a model objector, arguing that the pre-emptive war launched by Israel and the US on February 28 was and remains illegal. SpanishPrime Minister Pedro Sánchezhas stated at length, both in writing and in the press, that the assault was a chilling reminder about what happened in February 2003, when US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, spun that now all too familiar lie before the UN Security Council that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but was bound to use them, directly or through some unscrupulous proxy.
“Today we face a similar situation,”wroteSánchez inThe Economist, “and my government’s position is the same as that voiced by Spanish society two decades ago: NO TO WAR. No to the unilateral violation of international law. No to repeating the mistakes of the past. No to the idea that the world’s problems can be solved with bombs.”
Spain has also peeved officials in Washington for being the least enthusiastic of the NATO partners in increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP. At the June 2025 NATO summit held at The Hague, Sánchezinsistedthat all members of the alliance had “the right and the obligation to choose whether or no to assume those sacrifices, and we as a sovereign country choose not to do so.” Spain would, he promised, spend 2.1% of its GDP on defence “to acquire and maintain all the personnel, equipment and infrastructures requested by the alliance to confront these threats with our capabilities.” Spain’s opposition reaped the appropriate concession from NATOSecretary-General Mark Rutte, whoconfirmedthat Madrid be granted “the flexibility to determine its own sovereign path for reaching the Capability Target goal and the annual resources necessary as a share of GDP, and to submit its own annual plans.”
At the time, Trumpragedthat he would make Spain “pay twice as much” through tariffs if they continued to maintain their more frugal stance on military spending.
“Spain is the only country that refuses to pay. They want a free ride – but I won’t let that happen.”
With Trump officials seething at European reluctance to muck in regarding the Iran conflict, options for retaliation are germinating in Washington. Some of these are available in a disciplinary note penned by Colby in considering the reluctance on the part of some allies to grant the US ABO (access, basing and overflight rights). ABO was the “absolute baseline for NATO.”
Source: Global Research
