As Lord Palmerston said more than a century and a half ago, we have no eternal allies…our interests are eternal and perpetual. Conditions change over time and it makes sense to revisit the alliances we have contracted from time to time.
NATO was formed when the greatest challenge to the free nations of Europe was an external one and those countries, still reeling from the lasting effects of the Second World War, could not meet that challenge without our help which we provided. The greatest challenge for those nations today is an internal one. What kind of countries will they be? That is not a debate in which we should interfere.
The United States remains committed to Europe and is prepared to render aid to the countries of Europe as we have in the past. We are grateful for the aid that our NATO allies have rendered to us. That commitment to Europe cannot be greater than the commitment that the countries of Europe themselves have. If our NATO allies decide that the alliance no longer matches their needs and they have other priorities, who are we to disagree?
But NATO is “the longest military alliance in the history of the world,” or so I heard somewhere last night.
The job of NATO was to allow the United States to keep a leash on Germany, stop the Soviets from sending tanks through the Fulda Gap, and reassure the French and the Brits and various other nations, that peace has come to Europe and is staying this time.
Mission accomplished.
New mission: keep a leash on Germany, stop the Russians, and reassure Europe that peace has come and is staying.
We keep a leash on Germany because, well, we know why. Germany is economically dominant in Europe and if it ever decided it needed to behave like a power the Russians would freak out immediately, with the French and Brits right behind them. We keep the Russians at bay – and yes, they quite clearly need to be kept at bay – and thus reassure Europe and the world so that Germany can still keep selling me cars, and I can keep selling them books.
Angela Merkel made a terrible mistake on the refugee issue. The far right (what we would call average Republicans) is on the rise in Germany, France, the UK, Greece, Netherlands, etc… Why isn’t the world freaking out? In part because Uncle Sam still has his figurative boot on European necks. There can be no Third Reich so long as the Americans are handling Europe’s defense needs. Europe has been if not infantilized then left in a sort of permanent adolescence – they have responsibilities, chores to do, but they aren’t paying the bills and they still need to ask for keys to the F-16.
I would argue that’s all to the good. Yes, Europe should handle their own shit and it’s irritating, but they’ve never done anything but screw up and start wars. So we handle it, we pay a bit more, and we get seven decades of peace. Worth it.
I wish we had hope.
The US has been more warlike in its brief tenure than has Europe in its long tenure.
But Reynolds prefers giving Europe hip hop trash and Coca Cola to
Russia giving it Borodin and Mussorgsky, and yes, I picked the Russophile/Slavophile composers purposely.
I wonder why the far right authentically European parties all prefer Russia to Washington.
“But Reynolds prefers giving Europe hip hop trash and Coca Cola to
Russia giving it Borodin and Mussorgsky”
??? That was long ago. Now they can give Europe vodka and gas.
Steve