Former Army general exposes Trump's systematic betrayal of his closest allies

In the wake of President Donald Trump's betrayal of a key ally in a vulnerable position, a former U.S. Army general and Europe commander revealed for The Bulwark why this decision was more destructive than the administration, or anyone, truly realizes.

In a move that reportedly left some in his orbit "blindsided," Trump announced last week that a planned deployment of troops to Poland had been cancelled. The move swiftly drew heated criticism from all across the political spectrum, with one Republican hailing Poland as a "model ally" and calling Trump's decision "embarrassing." Poland is also considered notably vulnerable to aggression from Russia, given its proximity to Ukraine and its history with the Soviet Union.

Mark Hertling is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who also served as the commander general for the Army's forces in Europe. On Monday, he became the latest expert to speak out against Trump's treatment of Poland with this cancellation, writing for The Bulwark that the president is "hurting" the country's vital alliances because he "can’t understand why our forces in Europe matter."

Hertling noted that Trump appears to be making decisions about military deployments to allied nations based on their support of his political agenda, with the Iran war being the current centerpiece of this dynamic.

"Managing alliances this way is extraordinarily dangerous. These actions aren’t part of thought-out process; they seem to be policy on a whim," Hertling wrote. "The leaders of our allies make decisions based on their own national security requirements, constitutional processes, coalition politics, and the support of their populations—just as American leaders should. Our allies are partners; they do not function as automatic extensions of the White House. Democracies debate military action. Democracies weigh risks differently. Democracies sometimes disagree, even among close allies. That is not a flaw in our alliances; it is how sovereign nations operate and engage with other allies."

He added: "The way Trump treats deployments as political rewards and punishments based on whether allied governments publicly support a particular American operation is strategically shortsighted. Worse, it misunderstands who actually benefits most from America’s military posture in Europe. The fact—and the strategy—is that the force structure in Europe today exists primarily for the strategic benefit of the United States."

Many Americans, Hertling continued, have an antiquated, Cold War-era imagining of foreign troop deployments, thinking of "huge garrisons sitting idle on old bases, detached from modern security realities." This conception is "profoundly wrong," and underlines why Trump's latest actions are so dangerous. European outposts, he explained, act as "a launching platform for American global operations."

"Our bases in Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, and elsewhere support U.S. missions far beyond Europe itself," Hertling explained. "Those installations provide access to the Middle East, North Africa, the Arctic, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe. They support air mobility, missile defense, intelligence operations, cyber activities, medical care, prepositioned equipment, naval operations, and command-and-control functions that would be extraordinarily difficult to replicate from the continental United States."

He added: "Europe is not a strategic burden. It is one of America’s greatest strategic advantages. And that advantage is built not just on bases or equipment, but on relationships."