Reference News Network, September 14 report: The Bloomberg website on September 12 published an article titled "America's Friends Will Never Trust America Again" by Andreas Kras. Excerpts of the article are as follows:
A group representing over 300 senior U.S. diplomats, intelligence and national security officials wrote a letter to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate intelligence committees, urging Congress to ask relevant agencies to conduct a secret intelligence assessment to answer the following questions: Do America's allies still believe that the United States is a stable democracy; do they view the United States as a reliable partner; are they seeking to hedge their bets by forming alliances without the United States; or even are they developing wartime contingency plans?
Conducting such an intelligence assessment is almost impossible. But the concerns exist, and with each news cycle, these concerns become more urgent.
If the incident of Russian drones entering Poland highlighted President Trump's capriciousness within NATO, and the attack on Qatar showed his weakness toward Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, then the U.S. actions in Greenland point to sheer malice. This semi-autonomous territory belongs to Denmark, a country that is one of America's oldest and most solid allies. However, Trump has repeatedly threatened to seize Greenland "no matter what."
The list of friends and allies who are mocked, humiliated, and despised continues to grow: Trump wants to annex Canada. Canada shares the longest undefended border with the United States, but it now sees Washington as one of its top threats.
Graham Allison, a senior scholar of international relations at Harvard University, said that Trump's reckless destruction of the alliance assets the United States possesses is baffling. When dealing with allies, Trump seems like a landlord exploiting tenants in Dickens' novels or a gangster extorting money.
America's allies are responding as predicted by the "balance of threat" theory in international relations. They are building other trade and security networks, excluding the United States, to hedge against the hostility of Trump or future presidents.
EU countries known for their lack of unity are drawing closer. The UK, France, and Germany are signing backup defense treaties in case NATO proves unreliable. They are all discussing how to adjust their nuclear postures to adapt to a world where the United States offers no "umbrella" when it rains.
Some Americans realize that the current direction leads to disaster. Gregory Meeks, a senior member and former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, believes that Trump "is isolating the United States": "He is not leading. He treats our allies as enemies."
Meeks asked rhetorically: "Will our friends and allies ever trust the United States again?" The answer may be simple and sad: No. (Translated by Liu Xiaoyan)
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7549921319036207626/
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