Ez a cikk megéri, hogy kivonatoljam:
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Speaking up against such blatantly antidemocratic actions is well and good.
But the Trump administration should go further by using this opportunity to draw a firm line in the sand
by announcing it is pulling troops and support from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base.
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Pulling American support for the base would not be out of line with the administration’s 21st-century priorities; indeed, it would support and strengthen them. Trump is clearly interested in realigning American foreign policy with its national interest. That means
disengaging from Europe, pivoting to Asia, and spending American dollars on American citizens instead of on needless adventures abroad.
The administration’s personnel choices, statements, and actions have made these goals crystal clear. These include the appointment of Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defense for policy, who has repeatedly urged Europe to do more and called for an Asia pivot, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statements on multipolarity and
attempts to reopen negotiations with Russia.
The administration has even reportedly told European allies that they will no longer conduct military exercises with Europeans past 2025.
Leaving the 57th Air Base, however, would make clear that things have changed permanently. Romania still seems to think that America needs that base, which may explain why it felt confident in defying the Trump administration’s wishes on Georgescu. But while the last Republican president, George W. Bush, invited Romania into NATO and believed America’s goal should be to spread democracy as far as possible,
this president clearly views the world differently, and with good reason.
Take the base’s location, for example. If America were attempting to hold onto unipolarity, a base on the Black Sea—the presence of which is a permanent irritant for Russia—might make some sense. But from the perspective of a foreign policy concerned with the national interest,
America does not gain much from a presence there. NATO ally Turkey—which also hosts a major NATO base—already controls the Bosphorus. And the Black Sea, while a major regional body of water, is not exactly a feature the United States must have some control over. It
accounts for only about 2.5 percent of international trade. Unlike the western Pacific, which features American possessions like Guam and Hawaii, it is not close to any American land mass whatsoever.
The base is also expensive. Housing thousands of troops and their families is no cheap endeavor. Past expansions have cost a fortune.
Romania’s government claims it will cover the cost of the current expansion, estimated to cost over $2.7 billion with work ongoing until 2040, but it is hard to imagine the government does not hope to recoup the cost somehow down the line.
When all is considered, it is genuinely difficult to imagine what benefit the United States gains from the 57th Air Base. The base is important to Romania, of course, which is currently looking across the sea toward a Russia that has expanded its Black Sea coastline by conquering much of southern Ukraine and turned the Sea of Azov into a Russian lake.
But its importance to Romania does not make it important to the United States.
Even if the Romanian establishment allows some sort of genuinely right-wing candidate to run—and perhaps, if they’re feeling particularly democratic, to win—
it will not change America’s geographic national interests. The Trump administration, with its aid freeze and the Department of Government Efficiency’s recommended spending cuts, is clearly interested in cutting waste and
readjusting American foreign policy. It should start by taking a harder look at our military presence in Romania."