Wait. What? Biden won't save trans-Atlantic relations and stand up to the Russkies? What other conclusion can I draw from new propaganda in favor of European Union military power?
I addressed this pro-EU military article already, but this nonsense deserves its own post:
Macron’s dream [of autonomous EU military capabilities] is no threat to the United States. It could be a big improvement on the current reality, where a bunch of allies punch well below their weight. In their weakness, these allies are more likely to strike separate bargains with America’s real rivals. It became clear that this could happen with Macron’s tentative and ultimately failed attempt last year at forging a friendlier relationship with Russia. Macron was motivated in part by the perception that the White House wasn’t interested in standing with the Europeans against the Russians. Macron has no love for Putin, but he was not about to take any big risks by opposing him alone. A stronger Europe could.
What fantasy world is that author living in? I guess it at least isn't the fantasy world where Trump caused the trans-Atlantic defense rift, because doesn't President Biden solve that by his mere existence?
European states today aren't trying to cut deals because they are afraid of the Russians. European NATO states have been cutting defenses since the American-led West won the Cold War. Once a much stronger Soviet Red Army stood on the Elbe River in the middle of divided Germany. Today a weakened Russia is pushed east beyond the Baltic states, Belarus, and non-Russian-occupied Ukraine.
If Europeans were afraid of Russia their defenses wouldn't have reached dangerous depths by 2013. The Europeans wouldn't have had to be forced into pledges in 2014 to boost defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2024. Face it, European states cut deals with Russia because they aren't afraid of the Russians! Individual European NATO states hope to get bilateral advantage while counting on the rest of NATO to be a defense safety net.
Except for the NATO states close to Russia (plus non-NATO Ukraine, Sweden, and Finland) most NATO states dismiss the Russian military threat. Those further west figure the new NATO states and non-NATO states are a buffer. If Russia rises, they will absorb the first wave of Russian conquests. Only then would the other Europeans want to boost defenses. That's why Trump needed to browbeat Europeans to meet their 2014 pledge.
And the Germans are a whole separate category of bizarre logic for disarming. I'm not sure what their major malfunction is.
Have no doubt that an autonomous European military will be far less effective than the established NATO alliance military it will replace. And I'm just counting the European effectiveness transferred from NATO to the EU. How will a EU military replace what America brings to NATO?
And if you say that a EU military will also have American power to help it, I swear I will once more beat you with the clue bat.
A European Union military replacing national European military forces may be mostly para-military or light infantry better suited for fighting civilians. And it will cripple NATO and eject America from Europe. That EU military will have one purpose only. To enforce a Brezhnev Brussels Doctrine that forbids any more exits from the paradise on the continent that the EU pretends it is building. Brexit them once, shame on Britain, exit them twice and shame on the empire.
Resist the EU. Freedom requires it.
UPDATE: Related:
You probably won’t agree with all of Mr. Embery’s policy prescriptions, but he will force you to think outside your usual political grooves. “Despised” makes a compelling case that “global governance” is radically incompatible with democracy, civil liberties and broadly shared prosperity. Supranational agencies like the EU inevitably concentrate power in unresponsive bureaucracies and concentrate wealth in multinational corporations. The left should have resisted their rise, but conservatives too were slow to recognize that globalization subverted everything they valued: traditional communities, patriotism, religious faith, stable families, unintrusive government and personal freedom. Mr. Embery’s goal is to build a society where citizens no longer feel like colonial subjects in their own country. He reminds us that the British exited the EU due to “the desire for self-government and sovereignty”—the same reason that the Irish and the Indians exited the British Empire. [emphasis added]I was never deluded about the EU. Brussels is building an empire. Don't support that.
