NATO’s cracks show: Time for a controlled demolition?

When they’re first built, skyscrapers and other towering buildings are impressive. But there comes a time when structural weaknesses raise the danger that one will collapse, injuring or killing many people going about their daily business. Shoring up the building works for a while, sometimes, but often things reach the stage where the most prudent action is to demolish it in a controlled way.

The United States faces similar structural threats today. The two most urgent and fundamental dangers are the unchecked administrative state at home — and, by extension, among globalist NGOs — and the declining condition of many NATO partner countries. Both the administrative state and the U.S. role in NATO were products of postwar efforts to create stability and order after World War II. However, these institutions have grown far beyond their original purposes and now pose significant risks to our national security, economic stability, and core constitutional freedoms.

Both the entrenched administrative state and our current alliances with Western Europe now show serious structural weaknesses.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency project is exposing the depth of corruption and waste within the administrative bureaucracy and its NGO partners. As a result, Americans are starting to see how these networks leave ordinary people struggling to afford basic needs like food and rent. The findings also reveal the extent of the country’s precarious financial situation.

However, fewer Americans realize how European countries have drained U.S. resources — and arguably poisoned the relationship — through their actions. While the United States has shouldered most of NATO’s expenses and defense efforts, European nations have neglected their own militaries and failed to meet their defense commitments.

European nations have made things worse by burdening their own economies with unsustainable welfare programs and excessive regulations that stifle innovation. At the same time, they have imposed unfair tariffs on U.S. goods, increasing the economic strain.

Even more troubling, they are trying to impose regulations on U.S. energy use, free speech, information flow, and even the participation of popular parties in national governments. Recent examples are easy to find, and Vice President Vance recently highlighted some of these issues at the Munich conference.

Meanwhile, they expect the United States to continue draining its resources, admit Ukraine into NATO — which would commit U.S. forces to respond to Russia — and silence any criticism of their actions on social media.

The hypocrisy is both staggering and offensive. For proof, just look at how much Russian oil and gas Germany is buying today, even as it refuses to allow imports of Israeli natural gas.

Is it time to consider a controlled demolition of NATO? Possibly. The alliance should have been restructured or dissolved after the Soviet Union fell 34 years ago. Instead, President Clinton and his successors expanded NATO incrementally by adding former Soviet and communist countries on Russia’s border. That this strategy would provoke a response was entirely predictable.

We must not be drawn farther into this folly. Alliances based on mutual interests and fair contributions are valuable. But having U.S. troops deployed in combat at the whims of Great Britain, France, and Germany — rather than based on American assessments of threats and costs — is not.

The bottom line: Both the entrenched administrative state and our current alliances with Western Europe now show serious structural weaknesses. It’s time to consider dismantling or reforming them before they collapse on American citizens and the nation as a whole.