Sparks: NATO anniversary overshadowed by Trump’s threats

The arithmetic of mutual defense so plainly favors the many, yet the many still look to a single voice for permission to stand together.

A man will tear down the very house that shelters him just to prove to the plaster and the timber that he is its master and not its guest.

Any alliance built on the fleeting virtue of its members rather than the permanent architecture of mutual interest is but a parchment fortress.

Another man's threat concerns only his character, while your own preparedness alone lies within your power.

To anchor the security of infinite worlds upon the shifting mood of one sun is a theological error of the highest order.

An institution educated into dependence on a single protector has willingly traded its reason for the illusion of security.

One observes the true strength of a bridge not when the sun is upon it, but when the first storm waters rise.

How hateful, the single loose thread that, when pulled, threatens to unravel the entire, carefully woven garment.

A covenant written in the ink of shared principle is rendered invisible when one signatory decides the paper is his alone.

One threat is an incident; a pattern of them, carefully dated and attributed, reveals the system beneath.

Nothing so confirms the value of a well-built fence as watching your neighbor test its strength with his own shoulder.

The safe house remains safe only so long as the conductor is willing to make the return trip into the danger.