Guy Shepherd writes for Spectator World a brutal assessment of European geopolitics. It isn't even a little nice, but I fear it is accurate.
The whole column is worth your time, here is the Cliff Notes™ version:
The story of history is the story of the Strong Man plundering the Weak Man. In short, if you can’t defend what’s yours, it’s not yours. This is how borders are drawn and peoples forged.
And Shepherd concludes:
It’s time for Europe to man up. It’s time for you to stop imagining a world you cannot afford or defend unless you go from 2 percent of GDP to 20 percent. If you do this, you’ll like the European Man in the mirror, and the nineteenth-century men — and the nations they command — just might leave you to enjoy your peace and prosperity.
V. Putin is a prime example of "nineteenth-century man."
