In his Wall Street Journal column William Galston rains on Joe Biden’s “America is back” parade and underscores a point I made earlier:
President Biden set out to declare a triumphant U.S. return to the trans-Atlantic alliance. “America is back,†the president said in his speech this week to the Munich Security Conference. The leaders of France and Germany promptly made it clear that the four years of the Trump presidency had changed the relationship.
he goes on to explain:
Underlying the muted response to Mr. Biden’s speech is what the European Council on Foreign Relations calls a “massive change†in European public opinion toward the U.S. The group’s recent poll finds: “Majorities in key member states now think the US political system is broken, that China will be more powerful than the US within a decade, and that Europeans cannot rely on the US to defend them.â€
These beliefs are driving fundamental changes in European policy preferences. “Large numbers think Europeans should invest in their own defense,†the poll found, “and look to Berlin rather than Washington as their most important partner. They want to be tougher with the US on economic issues. And, rather than aligning with Washington, they want their countries to stay neutral in a conflict between the US and Russia or Chinaâ€â€”a stance endorsed by at least half the electorate in each of the 11 countries surveyed.
I believe that the Biden Administration is proceeding under incorrect assumptions. During and following World War II, European countries were our clients. Japan was our client. Israel is our client. None of them are or have ever been our allies other than on paper. They’ll follow our lead so long as where we’re leading them is where they want to go anyway.
Rather than focusing on rebuilding diplomatic bridges we should concentrate our energy and attention on building actual bridges and rebuilding the U. S. economy. The countries of Europe are operating under incorrect assumptions of their own. They’re assuming that if they maintain neutrality or throw their lot in with China they’ll be eaten last but make no mistake. They’re on the menu, too.
“They’re assuming that if they maintain neutrality or throw their lot in with China they’ll be eaten last ”
But there you go. That’s democracy. Churchill is gone, isn’t he.
Maybe we should vote on that too, China’s vassal state in the west. How bad could that really be? Isn’t anything better than war?
Not allies but we have shared a lot of common interests. In theory we should both have fairly common interests when it comes to dealing with China, but I think the Europeans are correct in their assessment that we cannot be relied upon to work with them towards those common interests. They just might be better off on their own. Hard to put some broken things back together.
Steve
How so? Germany’s economy is by far the largest in Europe. Up until about the last five years Germany has run a trade surplus with China. The vastly oversimplified explanation of that is that the Germans built China’s factories. Their present deficit with China remains tiny compared to ours.
Give Joe a break. We’re back. Why, we’ve freed ourselves of the existential threats of the Muppets, and too, too white Coca-Cola, haven’t we?
White Coca-Cola is not much to write home about.
“How so?”
Someone said…”They’re assuming that if they maintain neutrality or throw their lot in with China they’ll be eaten last but make no mistake. They’re on the menu, too.”
Also, I will go recheck the map, but pretty sure Germany isn’t the only country in Europe.
Steve
It might as well be. The German agenda drives EU policy.