To die for Estonia?

"And yet Trump deliberately, defiantly refused to simply say it: America will always honor its commitment under Article 5." Charles Krauthammer

The 1938 words of a British Prime Minister, reflecting the mood of a pacifistic nation, that opened the door to the most murderous war in the history of the world: "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. It seems still more impossible that a quarrel which has already been settled in principle should be the subject of war."

Charles Krauthammer  "So what if, in his speech last week to NATO, President Trump didn’t explicitly reaffirm the provision that an attack on one is an attack on all?

"What’s the big deal? Didn’t he affirm a general commitment to NATO during his visit? Hadn’t he earlier sent his vice president and secretaries of state and defense to pledge allegiance to Article 5?

"And anyway, who believes that the United States would really go to war with Russia — and risk nuclear annihilation — over Estonia?

"Ah, but that’s precisely the point. It is because deterrence is so delicate, so problematic, so literally unbelievable that it is not to be trifled with. And why for an American president to gratuitously undermine what little credibility deterrence already has, by ostentatiously refusing to recommit to Article 5, is so shocking.

"Deterrence is inherently a barely believable bluff. Even at the height of the Cold War, when highly resolute presidents, such as Eisenhower and Kennedy, threatened Russia with “massive retaliation” (i.e., all-out nuclear war), would we really have sacrificed New York for Berlin?"  . . . 

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday (without mentioning his name) that after Trump’s visit it is clear that Europe can no longer rely on others. It’s not that yesterday Europe could fully rely — and today it cannot rely at all. It’s simply that the American deterrent has been weakened. And deterrence weakened is an invitation to instability, miscalculation, provocation and worse.

"And for what?" . . .

There is reason to doubt America's resolve:

In the 2013 phase of the Syrian crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on 7 September 2013 "this is our Munich moment" in which the West should not remain "silent spectators to slaughter", an invocation to other countries to support a U.S. led strike against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Ironically, that strike never took place, despite Obama's invocation of the "red line", chemical attacks, which he asserted Assad had crossed.

Why Die for Tallinn?