Nigeria, Dec. 18 -- It was a speech unhinged in millenarian zeal. It was unapologetically hysterical in urging war while claiming to protect peace. It was also delivered with a note of profound self-denial: the US administration's 2025 National Security Strategy had belittled Europe's efforts in terms of ensuring its own security, not least of all its claims to civilisational supremacy. President Donald Trump has tirelessly insisted that the continent bloat the military industrial complex and confront its demographic problems.

From the opening, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte reflects on a piece of the Berlin Wall kept in NATO headquarters. "It was a barrier to keep people in, and ideas out. Now it is a monument to the force of freedom...