"What does it say about it's allies who have so far gone along...

"What does it say about it's allies who have so far gone along with it?
Do they just continue to comply with what Washington says onto the next catastrophe and the next one and so on?"

Markco,
It's the national security thing again. Anything to do with national security is top secret, and also above politics. That means we don't get any say. And that probably translates to Washington calling all the shots.
So, with all the human fallibilities we see in the media these days we must trust that none of those controlling our national security are fallible, and that their key concern is us and not themselves.