European defense capacity is pathetic:
The U.S. defense budget, $680 billion by NATO calculations, dwarfs the alliance’s European members, which spend a total of $242 billion.
Europeans have tried for decades to more efficiently build military hardware and organize troops. That effort is littered with failures, delays and compromises. Today European allies spend roughly half as much as the U.S. on defense yet have less than one-sixth of its combat power, European officials acknowledge.
I'd be ecstatic if Europe had 36% of our military capacity to reflect their budgets. But they have just 17% of American capabilities.
And Europe doesn't have to send their military across the Atlantic to reach the theater and doesn't have a large nuclear force that serves as a deterrent to NATO's enemies as much as America's foes.
If Europeans matched America's spending effort and output, I'd likely die from my happiness level.
But no, America has to pick up the slack. And Europe is an objective to fight over even if Europe spent nothing, truth be told. So we must defend Europe.
Europeans seem to be reacting finally to Russian threats and overseas threats making it to their own streets. But it will take time.
Speaking of the Russians, they profess to fear the threat from European NATO. How pathetic is that?
But I digress (as I can).
And for real yucks in the realm of American leadership, America had to take the lead in fighting for the integrity of what Europeans laughably call "football" but which everyone knows is just soccer:
The U.S. investigation of corruption linked to FIFA has indicted or taken guilty pleas from more than 40 people and marketing agencies linked to soccer in the Americas since 2015. Many of the charges involve bribes paid around the organization of regional tournaments and World Cup qualifying games.
Europe couldn't even be trusted to fight corruption in the governing body of soccer. And America doesn't really care very much about it. How sad is that?
