Europe is one demagogue away from causing an earthquake in global finance such that the current problems seem a tremor in comparison. If Silvio Berlusconi – the only truly populist politician the continent has produced in the last half a century – were 20 years younger, I fancy it would have been him. As it is, a great deal now depends on whether a man will emerge somewhere in Europe capable of pushing nervous and resentful electorates over the precipice to outright default.
Is a man on a white horse really so far fetched?
And if Western Europe--the forward line of NATO--falters for even a bit, would Russia--which has dangerously promoted the idea that NATO expansion was a stab in the back--take advantage of the disorder to engineer an anschluss with Belorus and Ukraine?
Do you really wonder why I keep beating the dead horse of keeping a robust American Army presence in Europe?
