The War in Iran Was a Test for Europe. It Failed.

The New York Times came in for some deserved mockery over a recent headline that misstated what “NATO” stands for. “A North American Treaty Organization Without America?” the headline snarkily read.

Of course, NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

All journalists make mistakes—including very embarrassing ones like this one. But what made this gaffe so uniquely worthy of derision wasn’t just how many editors it made it past at the vaunted New York Times. It was the way it sneered down at the United States from atop that mountain of ignorance. In so doing, it replicated the exact problem with NATO right now: It is the “American Treaty Organization” insofar as we fund it—yet Europe insists on sneering at us while freeloading off our generosity, even when we’re fighting its battles. European leaders have now gone so far as denying our military planes access to their air bases to refuel—even as they blame America for cooling relations.

The New York Times piece (now with a corrected online headline) lambasted President Trump (surprise surprise) for “undermining NATO with his repeated threats to pull out of it.” The piece cites sourcing calling the U.S. “part of the problem of world disorder,” and it cites a former NATO ambassador lamenting the poor Europeans who can now no longer rely on the U.S. to fight their battles: “It’s hard to see how any European country will now be able and willing to trust the United States to come to its defense.”

Are you kidding me? Europe can’t trust the U.S.? It’s Europe who is currently hanging us out to dry, all but rooting for Iran to win because, like Iran, Europe’s feckless leaders are at war with Trump.