RIP the Transatlantic Alliance, 1945-2018Both take the view that, at long last, Europe and the United States will go their separate ways, the Iran deal breakup being the final straw. Who knows? Maybe they will prove to be correct. Permit me to be skeptical.
Trump’s decision to blow up the Iran deal is a massive attack on Europe
Since 1945 Europe has graciously allowed the U.S. to provide its military defense. This has literally saved European countries trillions of dollars which they’ve spent on elaborate welfare schemes that purchased social peace at a very high price. Their post-1945 lack of military has also kept them from killing each other wholesale, as they did during the prior century.
If Europe chooses to go their own way, apart from the U.S., do they propose to do so unarmed in a dangerous world? Are they ready to exchange “orders from Washington” for substantially less friendly “orders from Moscow?”
Is there even a possibility European nations are ready to shift to having serious military formations in non-trivial quantities? Will their electorate, accustomed to handouts and nanny state caretaking, be ready to forego some of their cherished perks and spend a few years of their youth in the military?
Permit me to doubt any of that will happen. Like younger children in wealthy families, they’ll whine and complain ... and fall in line when the patriarch insists ... because actually being independent is too hard, too ugly to contemplate, too much like unaccustomed drudgery.
