America Is Back?

Maybe French President Emmanuel Macron was right. Here he is as quoted by the editors of the Wall Street Journal:

French President Emmanuel Macron took considerable flak in 2019 for saying NATO is experiencing “brain death.” He warned that with or without President Trump in office, the U.S. was becoming a less reliable ally and argued that Europe would need to “reassess the reality of what NATO is in light of the commitment of the United States.” Mr. Biden has made him seem prescient, and the wonder is that Mr. Macron has been too polite this week to point it out. French leaders are now planning for the refugee crisis Paris fears Mr. Biden has unleashed on Europe.

I think that withdrawing from Afghanistan was a 9 on policy, has been a 2 on execution up to this point, and could deteriorate. I also think that NATO is barely an alliance at all at this point. I don’t know how our putative allies will respond or what they’re thinking. I’d speculate that whatever they’re saying in public they’re mostly thinking about themselves.