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Mark Rutte, the Dutch NATO secretary general, endured a tough onslaught of public abuse this week from European politicians and media.

The squabbling has nothing to do with a principled opposition to Rutte’s support for Trump’s war on Iran. The angst has to do with a fear that the conflict is weakening the proxy war against Russia, which the Europeans want to prioritize.

Nicknamed “Teflon Mark” for his flexible character and political dealmaking during 16 years in office as the Netherlands prime minister, Rutte was straining to keep shape after being pummelled for being too servile to U.S. President Donald Trump.

It is saying something when European politicians, who largely act as vassals for Washington, hit out at one of their own for being a “Trump cheerleader.”

The contentious issue is the war on Iran that Trump has waded into, along with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. After four weeks of conflict that has inflamed the Middle East, the world is bracing for spiralling repercussions.

European leaders, with honorable exceptions, have shown an abject cowardice by not condemning Trump’s illegal aggression against Iran. Pathetically, the Europeans have censured Iran for its legally entitled response of self-defense and retaliatory attacks on U.S. and Israeli bases. Closing down Iranian-controlled waters in the Persian Gulf is also a legally entitled response.

The shameful justification of American and Israeli aggression by the Europeans is not enough for Trump. This week, he repeated his rebukes against them for not doing enough to help the U.S. military campaign in the Persian Gulf. Trump called NATO allies “cowards” for not participating in the aggression. The U.S. president is half-right. They are indeed cowards – for not standing up for international law and condemning the United States.

Mark Rutte shows no limits for self-abasement. He has publicly fully supported Trump’s war on Iran, claiming with astounding cynicism that the American president “is doing this to make the whole world safe.”

Rutte, who previously lavished praise on Trump as “NATO’s Daddy,” went further and declared that European allies were going to send military forces to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure the passage of oil tankers. Iran closed the Strait four weeks ago, and the impacts on commodity prices and the global economy are mounting. Market analysts project that the price for a barrel of oil could hit $200, a nearly fourfold increase from what it was before Trump attacked Iran.

At various times, the Europeans states have vowed to send naval forces to unblock the Strait. Last week, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, as well as Japan, issued a joint statement “expressing their readiness to ensure safe passage” of oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But these pledges have been hedged with vagueness and unspecified operations.

The impact of the crisis is particularly severe for European economies since they followed the American policy of cutting themselves off from affordable Russian energy four years ago. Now, they are being hit with a double whammy of no oil and gas from the Middle East, caused by their American patron.

However, the NATO head went too far by making an explicit commitment from Europe to join Trump’s war, and European leaders reacted angrily to Rutte’s eagerness. He is an unelected NATO bureaucrat who is taking it upon himself to commit other countries to war.

“NATO chief riles Europe by backing Trump’s war in Iran,” headlined the Financial Times.

The New York Times reported “Trump whisperer” faces blowback from European leaders who stated that the war was “not a NATO matter.”

Rutte’s humiliation and the squabbling with European allies are not due to any dispute over principles of international law. In many ways, the European NATO allies are already complicit in the aggression against Iran. Britain and Germany, for example, provide air bases for U.S. warplanes to carpet bomb the country, killing thousands of civilians.

The driving issue of contention is that European Russophobic leaders are worried that Trump’s criminal escapade in the Middle East is diverting the focus from the proxy conflict in Ukraine against Russia.

The New York Times quoted European officials as well as Ivo Daalder, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, who criticized Rutte for backing Trump over Iran, not because it violates international law and the UN Charter, but because, in their view, the “main goal is to weaken Russia”.

European politicians like Finnish President Alexander Stubb and the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Commissioner Kaja Kallas also expressed misgivings precisely because, they said, “Russia is the top threat to the transatlantic area.”

According to other reports, the Trump administration is planning to redirect weapon supplies from Ukraine to shore up its depleted positions in the Middle East as Iranian missiles and drones wreak havoc on American and Israeli air defenses and radars.

This is what most concerns the European vassals. They are alarmed that Trump’s rampaging against Iran is jeopardizing the proxy war against Russia. They have invested huge political and financial capital in the Ukraine project; they can’t afford to let it go.

The pathetic NATO chief also shares the same concerns. He is an ardent supporter of sending weapons to the NeoNazi Ukrainian regime. The difference is that Teflon Mark calculates that the best way to achieve this is to appease Trump’s every move. Even when Trump lashes out and slams NATO as a “paper tiger” and a “bunch of cowards,” Rutte bends over backwards to congratulate “Daddy” for being a strong leader.

The European vassals have no backbone or principles. They are not opposed to Trump’s illegal war against Iran or the mass murder of civilians, including children in schools and hospitals. Their hesitation is only because they feel it is a diversion from their criminal machinations in Ukraine to defeat Russia.