The European Union's power duo demonstrates its values:
France, Germany and Britain have set up a European mechanism for non-dollar trade with Iran to avert U.S. sanctions, although diplomats acknowledged it is unlikely to yield big commercial transactions Tehran says it needs to keep a nuclear deal afloat.
And Britain goes along ... why? When the French/German-dominated EU continues to punish Britain economically for wanting to leave the EU, why would Britain go along?
Do the British think this gets them any credit in the EU to make Brexit less of a 33-month colonoscopy?
The European Union is prepared to take Brexit down to a last-minute, high-stakes summit rather than cave into U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s demands over the next few weeks, diplomats said.
We'll get more of this EU-compliant British behavior contrary to our policies if Britain remains in the EU. The special relationship will be dead.
And the EU will gain more weight with Britain yoked to the EU wagon to be an anti-democratic imperial state. Perhaps it is true that an integrated EU defense effort will provide more defense capability. But any imperial state would be able to command more defense.
Is that the kind of Europe we want? After preventing the Kaiser and Hitler from doing that under German rule? After preventing the Soviet Union from doing that?
And is that what Europeans want? I suspect a pan-European defense establishment will be directed most enthusiastically against restive member states rather than foreign threats. Just compare how the pro-EU side in Europe treats Britain in contrast to how they treat Iran for a taste of things to come.
Remember, while we and Europe share a Western heritage, until American influence surged through Europe after World War II, European democracy was not widespread as it is today:
It is easy to forget--and this was a useful reminder to me--that Europe with its autocracies and monarchies was not fully part of a free West (although obviously part of the Western tradition) until we rebuilt Western Europe in that template after World War II. And NATO expansion after defeating the Soviet Union was more explicit in demanding democracy and rule of law for new members.
Does Britain really think the EU will treat them better if Britain demonstrates that it is willing to go along with the EU even as it tries (thus far unsuccessfully) to leave the EU? As the expression goes, when you start to take Vienna, take Vienna. Or perhaps this pre-vote advice is better.
Europe as a geographic expression is a friend; but as a political term "Europe" will be no friend of America, freedom, and democracy.
And if Europe reverts to their norms, the EU elites will get their wish for the exit of America from Europe because Americans will decide they do not wish to spend money and lives to defend non-democracies as energetically as we have defended Europe through NATO when its member states were increasingly democratic.
