Yes, Donald Trump’s Putin comments were unhinged – but he’s right to question Nato’s future | Simon Jenkins

Saying he would encourage' Russian attacks on non-paying members was outrageous. Europe needs a vision for peace, with or without US support

Donald Trump is appalling and unhinged", says everyone. His invitation to Vladimir Putin at the weekend to invade Nato and do what the hell he wants" if Europe does not spend more on its own defence, puts all our security at risk", warns Nato boss Jens Stoltenberg. The alliance is supposed to be the bastion of liberty against dictatorship, not about who pays for what.

We might start by pointing out to Trump that the most outrageous abuse of Nato has been by the US. Washington's demand that the alliance support its retaliatory invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 was a costly, drawn-out fiasco that had nothing to do with western security and everything with American neo-imperialism. Likewise, its summoning of allies to join other militaristic interventions, from Vietnam to Iraq and across the Middle East. The US's withdrawal from empire" is proving as bloody as was Britain's, and if anything, more ham-fisted. For a former US president to incite Putin to war on Nato is outrageous.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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