{"id":604979,"date":"2025-12-01T09:17:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/604979\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T09:17:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:17:20","slug":"washington-sees-europe-as-inconsequential-former-us-commanding-general-in-europe-tells-euronews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/604979\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Washington sees Europe as inconsequential,\u2019 former US commanding general in Europe tells Euronews"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interview with Euronews\u2019s flagship morning show Europe Today, General Ben Hodges, former commanding general of US Army Europe, warned that the continent is \u201cslowly waking to the realisation\u201d that it cannot count on Washington as a fair partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States really sees Europe as inconsequential except maybe for some business purposes,\u201d Hodges told Euronews.<\/p>\n

In his view, the US administration\u2019s approach to the conflict was \u201cdoomed from the start\u201d because they treated the war like \u201ca massive real estate deal\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/a><\/p>\n

Apple podcast<\/p>\n

\"Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n

Spotify podcast<\/p>\n

\"Castbox<\/a><\/p>\n

Castbox podcast<\/p>\n

Hodges pointed to recent revelations involving Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, as evidence that Washington\u2019s primary interest is \u201cbusiness with Russia after this is all concluded\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it goes the way that Mr Witkoff and Jared Kushner wanted to go with the Russians, (it) is going to be a massive problem for Europe\u201d, he said, warning of millions of more refugees if Ukraine is forced into an unsatisfactory deal.<\/p>\n

This shift in priorities was laid bare this week as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to skip a key NATO meeting in Brussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unusual but that\u2019s part of the problem,\u201d Hodges noted, adding that under the current administration\u2019s list of priorities, \u201cEurope is number four\u201d behind the western hemisphere, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Despite the grim outlook, the general insisted that the situation is not hopeless. He rejected the premise that Ukraine is losing, noting that after 11 years of war, Russia occupies only 20% of the country and parts of its economy are \u201cin deep trouble\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Hodges, \u201cUkraine and Europe together\u201d have the industry, wealth and population to stop Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason that Europe, including Ukraine, cannot stop Russia,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat they lack is the self-confidence and the political will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an interview with Euronews\u2019s flagship morning show Europe Today, General Ben Hodges, former commanding general of US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[189594,2000,82909,299,5187,129858,6202,332,7070,189595],"class_list":{"0":"post-604979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-ben-hodges","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-euronews","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-jared-kushner","14":"tag-president-donald-trump","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-steve-witkoff","17":"tag-us-army-europe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115643564152589855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}