If the US wanted to destroy its credibility in Europe deliberately, it could hardly have done it better.
The casual cancellation last week of the long-planned nine-month rotation of a brigade combat team (BCT) to Poland exemplified everything that European allies find baffling and repellent about the Trump administration.
No warning. No consultation. Not even a cursory explanation, from the Pentagon or from American officials in Europe.
At the Lennart Meri Conference in Tallinn this weekend, a big security shindig, I watched an excruciating performance by a supposedly senior US official, Thomas DiNanno, who merely blathered when asked about the move.
I think he said that the presentation could have been better (note to the organisers: next year can we please have simultaneous translation from Trump-speak into English?).
