NATO needs to boot some members - Let’s drop Spain, France, and Turkey and then think about good candidates to replace them.
Joseph Puder | April 16, 2026
Henry John Temple, the 19th-century British prime minister, better known as Viscount Palmerston, is claimed to have said, “There are no permanent alliances, only permanent interests.” The late U.S. secretary of State Henry Kissinger added to that: “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has comprised America’s friends and allies since the end of WWII. But it is hard to consider such countries as Spain, France, and Italy as friends and allies when, in an hour of need, they have turned their backs on America, denying the U.S. overflight rights at a time of war.
France and Spain restricted the U.S.’s use of their airspace during Epic Fury, a military operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. When members of the alliance obstruct another member’s ability to wage war against a common enemy, the alliance becomes a liability. In contrast, the world witnessed the effectiveness of the U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran. This dynamic 21st-century alliance starkly revealed the sclerotic NATO member-states of Western Europe.
Whereas Article 5 of the NATO alliance commits its members to collective defense of an attacked member-state, the U.S. war on Iran is preventative. It seeks to deny the fanatical theocracy in Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and the ability to use its lethal missiles from attacking its NATO allies, American bases in the Middle East, and Israel. The U.S. expected NATO’s European member-states to assist in the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, not their help in destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iranian long-range missiles launched at Diego Garcia, the U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean, should have convinced NATO members of their vulnerability. However, there was no reaction and no pledge of cooperation.
This recent refusal was not the first time these so-called allies and NATO members denied the U.S. use of its bases in their countries. During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, most western European states refused to allow the U.S. to resupply Israel from American bases in their countries. Given the history of American aid to Greece, Turkey, and Spain, it was expected that they would cooperate with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee records indicate that during the years prior to the Yom Kippur War, from 1946 to 1972, U.S. military aid to Greece totaled $2.3 billion, to Turkey $3.6 billion, and to Spain $843 million.
In 1973, the European NATO allies showed no hesitation when abandoning Israel to curry favor with the oil-rich Arab states. And now, in 2026, they have chosen to ingratiate themselves with the ayatollahs of Iran, whose human rights abuses are horrific, while denying the U.S. easier access to Iran through the American bases in their countries. Insanely, these European panderers have chosen to disregard the threat to their countries from a potentially nuclear Iran and Iranian missiles that could reach Europe.
In 2016, NATO member Turkey forbade the U.S. from using its Incirlik airbase in America’s war against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, once again in March 2026 reaffirmed that Turkey will not allow its airspace, territory, or bases to be used for military operations against Iran. Moreover, Turkey made a mockery of NATO rules when, in 2017, it bought the S-400 air-defense system from Russia, a chief antagonist of NATO.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. maintains a significant military presence in Italy and Spain, while there are no permanent major bases in France. Italy hosts around 12–13,000 personnel (e.g., Aviano Air Base, Sigonella), and Spain hosts roughly 2,500–6,000 (e.g., Naval Station Rota, Morón Air Base). The U.S. forces in these countries are there to protect these countries (particularly Spain and Italy), whose outlay on their own defense is inadequate, to say the least. And, not to be forgotten, Italy and France were liberated from the Nazis by U.S. forces.
Clearly, America’s interests do not coincide with its European NATO allies’. NATO was established in 1949, with the Cold War in full force, and the U.S. Marshall Plan helped the Europeans rebuild from the ravages of WWII. America protected the west Europeans from the Soviet Union’s threat to overrun the continent while the European states did little to protect themselves. For the last 50 years, however, the western Europeans have invested little to their defense. NATO has therefore become a one-way-street: The U.S. gives, and the Europeans take.
With the Soviet Union and the Cold War behind us, NATO might have found a new role in fighting international (Islamic) terrorism. The western Europeans, however, would rather appease Islamic terror, coming from Hamas, Hezb’allah, or Iran, than fight to defend Western values. So the question must be asked: What is the purpose of NATO?
The U.S. might as well relocate its bases from Western Europe to the former members of the Warsaw Pact, especially Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, and possibly to the Baltic states and the Balkans. According to the BBC (February 13, 2026), the U.S. funds more than 22% of NATO’s operational costs. And whereas Poland spends 4.5% of its GDP on defense, Spain’s outlay is 1.4%, far below the 2% request made by the Trump administration. An April 1, 2026 BBC report noted that the U.S.'s military budget now makes up some 62% of NATO's total defense spending.
NATO does not have to be discarded. Rather, it should be restructured. Some states such as France, Spain, and Turkey ought to be ousted, and Israel might be considered a valuable asset for the alliance. The revamped NATO should include only those member-states willing to fight Islamic terror and triumphalism to preserve Western civilization and Jewish and Christian values.