Donald Trump has again attacked Nato for not supporting the US in the Iran war, following a private meeting with its Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House.
In a post shared to Truth Social after the meeting, the US President said: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”
Meanwhile, Rutte has described his meeting to CNN with Trump as “very frank” and “very open”, despite clear disagreements.
I dunno… What worries me is that Putin’s ability to escalate is constrained right now, because Ukraine is seen more as military adventurism, not a fight for survival. If he could engineer a war with NATO - especially NATO minus the US - that would justify far reaching conscription, total militarization of the economy, etc, etc. He probably won’t win, but if he’s fearful enough of losing power it might seem like an attractive option.
I’m not considering this a likely scenario, just one that’s plausible enough that we need to plan for it.
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Russia isn’t even close to total militarization. Not yet. Their economy is becoming highly militarized, and you’re right that that’s how they’ve been surviving the sanctions, but their focus is still on keeping the more affluent Russians in the cities supplied with fast food, electronics and gas. They’re trying to make life seem normal despite the strain of the war. Being able to dispense with those niceties would open up a lot more room for applying their industrial capacity.
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