The Biden administration likes to say it is "restoring" frayed relations with allies. Because "you know who" allegedly wrecked them. But when we just submit to their objectives, why wouldn't allies like us more?
So bravo you Smart Diplomacy geniuses at the State Department! You got the Germans to agree to what they want:
Germany and the United States are in talks to intensify their economic ties after the Biden administration waived sanctions on the company behind Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.
"President Biden has now moved toward us a bit on the Nord Stream 2 conflict, where we have different views but where we will now talk further about what are the necessary commonalities in relation to Russia," Merkel said in an interview with public broadcaster WDR.
"We are in talks with each other in many areas ... we are also in bilateral talks, for example, especially with regard to intensifying our economic cooperation," she added.
Biden "moved toward" the Germans? Seriously? I guess that's polite of Merkel to put it that way. But Biden caved completely! The Russian pipeline to Germany will be there--under the Baltic Sea no less!--and Russia will gain the ability to blackmail Germany or Ukraine on energy supplies without harming the other! Nice divide and conquer, there. And we gave our stamp of approval for it.
Despite their pledge to spend more on defense during the Obama administration, the Germans want trade and don't want to pay for NATO defenses. And that's what we've given them. Those mean tweets about Germany not carrying their weight are gone.
Naturally the Germans are delighted to not be reminded that they have no realistic plans to reach spending 2% of GDP on defense by 2024, as NATO agreed to in 2014.
Lord, we're not even trying to "lead from behind" any more.
