There have now been three concrete incidents in which European allies have refused the United States assistance or access, in direct contradiction to the premise of NATO cooperation. They are doing this despite the fact that Trump and Marco Rubio have signalled that a lack of support, specifically with regard to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, will have consequences. Yet instead of attempting to smooth matters over, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and – of all: Poland – have struck the United States in the face.

The most well-known cases concern denial of bases and denial of flights. The Europeans are not content with saying that the war constitutes a breach of international law. They have now gone well beyond that into actively sabotaging the war effort.

If one prevents one party from conducting the war as it wishes and is capable of doing, one thereby contributes to his enemy. European allies are weakening the effort against Iran and strengthening the regime’s capacity for resistance. That they will never admit, but in practice that is what is happening. War is a “zero-sum game”: the strength of one is the death of the other. The Europeans are weakening the United States’ capacity for action. They have chosen to support Tehran.

This is a choice with incalculable consequences. It destroys the moral foundation on which the Europeans claim to stand. The continent that emphasises human rights in all contexts and purports to be better than the ugly Americans – to such an extent that they have participated in indicting a sitting Israeli prime minister for genocide – is so moral that it supports the regime that killed around 30,000 of its own citizens in two days. That is just under half the number killed in the Gaza war over the course of three years.

The Europeans are so moral that they do not have the stomach to support an ally at war. They would rather that a bloody regime willing to use all means against its enemies remain in power.

But a continent that is so moral that it disconnects from the consequences of its own actions no longer has the right to exist.

That is where the Europeans are now, and the whole world sees it.

What has been revealed about the regime in Tehran has justified Trump’s decision: their missiles can reach Oslo and London. They can and will close the Strait of Hormuz. They have armed the Houthis, who can close the Suez Canal. They have financed and armed Hizbollah, which is willing to sacrifice the population of Lebanon in order to continue attacking Israel.

Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says that he is “very, very, very concerned” that Israel will remove the threat and have control all the way up to the Litani River.

Eide is always concerned when Israel defends itself.

Norway is fully in line with Spain and France, which have refused the use of bases and closed airspace to flights and deliveries from the United States and Israel. That is what one calls an unfriendly act.

The final straw was Poland, which refused to lend a single Patriot system to Turkey. Turkey has been attacked with Iranian missiles several times. Both countries are NATO members. The alliance states that one should assist one another when under attack. Poland is not under Iranian attack. Yet Poland refused. The government of Donald Tusk has no sympathy for Trump’s war, nor for Israel’s. But Poland is keen to receive American assistance and security guarantees.

It is here that the alliance fractures. If one party can choose cooperation when it itself finds it convenient, it is no longer an alliance.

The United States intervened on Turkey’s behalf and asked Poland to reconsider. Poland maintained its refusal. At that moment, the alliance fractured.

The United States intervened diplomatically. Washington raised Turkey’s case directly and asked Poland to reconsider the matter. Poland refused again. Consider what this second refusal entails. The United States has 10,000 of its own soldiers stationed in Poland, approximately 80 kilometres from Russian territory. These soldiers are accompanied by 170 Abrams tanks, hundreds of Bradley fighting vehicles, F-16 aircraft, F-15 aircraft, and periodic deployments of F-35 aircraft. American forces in Poland are not a symbolic gesture. They are a trigger mechanism, and everyone in Warsaw knows it. If Russia were to attack Poland, it would not merely be an attack on a NATO member. It would be an attack on American soldiers, which means that Russia would be at war with the United States. That guarantee, backed by American blood and American money, is the sole and most powerful deterrent Poland possesses. It overshadows everything else in the Polish arsenal, including the Patriot batteries Poland chose to retain for itself instead of temporarily sharing them with an ally under attack.

The Europeans treat NATO as a service, not as an alliance. They have done so ever since the Wall fell in 1989. Now that they allow the United States to pay the price for the Iran war, it is over.

It is over because the Europeans are eager to wage war in Ukraine and expect the United States to participate in that as well. For the Europeans, that is the real war; they do not wish to participate in a war “far away”. The same was said about the Sudetenland in 1938.

But there is no such thing as “far away” in today’s world.

Europe has 50 million Muslims who come from “far away”. They shape the continent more and more, but the authorities and the media refuse to address it. Muslims have no difficulty in perceiving the connection between Europe’s hostile attitude towards Israel and the United States and the prophecies of death and destruction for the United States in the Persian Gulf. The moral veneer gives way to hypocrisy.

All the more so as the same Europe wages war in Ukraine, with the same weapons that Iran uses: cluster bombs and drones.

Norway is investing 12 billion in the development of Ukrainian drones and has no moral scruples. Norway is keen to participate in the development of weapons technology in the war of the future, yet sees no contradiction between its moralising over Israel/the United States and Norway’s own policy in Ukraine.

The Europeans have introduced an Orwellian logic: their war is just, that of the United States and Israel is questionable. Especially Israel’s. An entire Muslim world sees how the continent is turning in a direction in which anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish merge into one another. Old spectres rise from the grave.

This is, of course, the core of the NATO alliance. It was meant to be qualitatively different. It was meant to stand for values that the West considered worth dying for. But do Europeans recognise themselves in the Europe that turns against the country that gave us back our freedom in three wars, and the country that gave us the faith upon which Europe was built?

For ten years, the media have cultivated hatred of Trump and his United States. At some point, Europeans will realise that they have ended up on the wrong side of history. It will be a moral bankruptcy of immense proportions. Instead of representing the highest stage of civilisation, Europeans will stand stripped bare. The jobs have gone to China, the cities have been taken over by Muslims. There is nothing left but to bend the knee.

Something fundamental has changed. At this moment, there are reports that the Emirates will enter the war actively and will open the Strait of Hormuz by all means. They will exert pressure on Europe and the United States to do the same.

Europe has become a spectator to its own history. Europeans are willing to win a war against a nuclear power that possesses 6,000 nuclear weapons, yet they are unwilling to participate in a war against a theocratic regime that has openly declared that it will remove Israel from the map if it acquires nuclear weapons. The manner in which Iran wages war against Israel shows that they are serious. The neighbouring countries have understood this, and they are willing to participate in removing the threat.

The Iran regime will become even more dangerous if it survives. They immediately began rebuilding nuclear facilities and missiles after the bombing in June 2025.

Arab leaders understand a threat from an eschatological Islam that Europeans refuse to see.

When nations respond by casting aside the only power capable of defending them against deadly attacks, denial and repression have tipped over into self-destructiveness.

Europe has embarked upon a course that leads to the continent’s downfall.