How many NATO countries actually step up.

It is highly unlikely that a USA led by Trump would, and what could anyone do about it if it didn't? Nothing basically.

NATO itself could in such circumstances fall apart as others follow the US lead, leading to a very bad situation for all of us.

I think we and the French who have nuclear weapons should form a strong alliance with each other which also includes other potentially powerful European states like Germany.

In a world without US support, western Europe certainly reverts back to a situation where Britain, France, and Germany are the big players, the ones who will need to lead and where others should follow. We all three probably need to be spending more on armed forces and weaponry, and expanding our army and air force. In a dangerous world we might all have to accept spending 5% of our GDP on our military forces, with integrated weaponry so we are all supplied with the same high grade weapons, and not as at present wasting resources on a lot of non-integrated suppliers.

The money to pay for this is not suddenly just going to appear. We will need to raise taxes to pay for it, and do it in ways that do not damage us economically because that will only weaken us. We should be considering a big expansion of our TA forces so that we have more trained reserves. I dont think most of the public will buy full conscription right now, especially the ones who will have to do it, but we should be doing all we can to recruit more people into expanded armed forces, or to volunteer for the TA. We should be expanding the RAF and training more pilots. We should be building more frigates and submarines as part of a naval expansion too.

As a first step, our European allies should be required to increase their own military expenditure to the same level as ours in terms of percentage of GDP, and then for us all to increase it still further in lockstep. We also need to be making plans for some sort of integrated allied command that can function without the US if necessary. For the first time since 1941, we in Europe might have to be prepared to stand up for our freedoms against aggression without US support. At least this time, Germany will be our our side.

We need to get our heads around such harsh realities. And for the time being supplying Ukraine with the arms it needs to keep fighting, even if the US does not, must be an essential part of European strategy. Because Russia is far less likely to launch aggressive moves elsewhere whilst it is still tied down there. We need to keep it tied down there for as long as possible.

In theory, but we already see differences in whether we need to fight or arm. 

I meant the question of whether we need to fight and therefore arm. 

First post on this forum. It will be interesting to see if this place is more conducive to grown up debate than the previous one.

Anyway, calls for yet more military spending. To me logic seems to go out of the window whenever this subject is discussed. The lesson of the last couple of years surely is that the great bogeyman Russia which apparently threatens to invade London any moment now has in fact proven itself incapable of reaching Lviv, albeit against some Western military support. Yet still the military complex suggests they are capable of rolling thousands of miles across Europe to reach London, Paris , Berlin, Madrid unless those countries divert vast resources from schools and hospitals to yet more weapons. It seems nuts to me.

The truth of course is that while it is probably true that the US is no longer reliable, UK, French and German military spending alone combined is already double Russia’s spending. Why on earth would we want to spend more if we truly want a defensive rather than an attacking force.

And perhaps if we don’t have overwhelming military dominance we may be a little more inclined to work with nations like Russia understanding their fears and strategic imperatives to avoid the empire building that lead to the current disaster in Ukraine.

Big fat no to more war spending from me.

France fears the invasion of Poland.
Iceland? www.government.is/topics/foreign-affairs/war-in-ukraine/
They are glad to be in NATO.
They have provisions to accommodate P8 Poseidons and the equipment of other NATO members.

In my lifetime Iceland has never had a standing army, only a coastguard, look at where they are on the map. But they do cooperate in NATO and allow the use of their land for NATO.