In this essay for The Washington Post, written after President Trump publicly shamed NATO allies over defense spending at the 2018 Brussels summit, Elliot Ackerman argues that the alliance's real flaws, seen up close in his own combat experience, won't be fixed by bullying.
A Medevac Denied
Ackerman recounts an ambush during a special operations mission in western Afghanistan that left one of his own dead and a dozen wounded, and how the NATO-member country on medevac rotation that day refused to fly into the "hot" landing zone, until an unrelated pair of American Blackhawks happened to hear the radio calls and diverted to help.
A Colonel's Different Approach
Ackerman recalls his Special Forces colonel's response to the incident: rather than confronting the allied unit, he traveled to their headquarters to thank the pilots and medics, understanding that national caveats, not cowardice, had kept them grounded, while quietly instructing his own staff to always arrange an American medevac backup afterward.
Encouragement Over Shame
Ackerman concludes that the gentler diplomatic approach of the Bush and Obama administrations hasn't solved NATO's commitment problems either, but that his colonel's strategy of encouragement paired with contingency planning offers a more effective model than a president's public shaming of allies.
Read the Original Article
This essay originally appeared in The Washington Post.