Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte actually told Germans on Dec. 11 to prepare for war against Russia on the scale faced by the Germans of World War II—yes, the Nazi regime. Speaking in Berlin, he said: “We are Russia’s next target. And we are already in harm’s way. Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.”
The drive to get NATO member countries to militarize their economies from a 2% level to a 5% level of gross domestic product is the right direction, Rutte said, but more is needed. A “wartime mindset” is necessary. “This is not the time for self-congratulation. I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don’t feel the urgency. And too many believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now.”