America and Russia have a common interest in a strong NATO that keeps the proto-imperial European Union from getting rid of the prefix and becoming a threat to Russia and America. A strong NATO will free both to face China, which is the biggest threat to each of us.
Putin has wrecked American-Russian relations by pointlessly invading Ukraine. But there is a basis for repairing relations after Russia is defeated in this war.
America has a long history of opposing a single hostile entity from controlling Europe. World War I, World War II, and the Cold War prevented that threat from arising. Russia has a long history of pushing west in Europe to keep a hostile entity from conquering Russia.
I've said the Russians are paranoid self-destructive nuts for thinking that NATO is a modern-day threat. But is America any different if it worries about Europe under hostile ownership?
Yes. America isn't ignoring a real threat while pretending a non-threat is the main worry the way Russia is doing. America has been shifting power and emphasis from Europe to Asia for more than thirty years to cope with China. Oddly, America is formally pro-European Union. The best you can say is that China is a pressing threat while the proto-imperial EU is a future theoretical threat not worth resisting until it is clear that Europeans won't defeat its effort to remove the prefix. Brexit was a good start.
Russia in contrast screams about a threat from NATO and from America in particular:
President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a new naval doctrine which cast the United States as Russia's main rival and set out Russia's global maritime ambitions for crucial areas such as the Arctic and in the Black Sea.
I'm thinking Putin fell off those horses he likes to ride and hit his head one too many times. You build that blue water fleet, Vlad! As long as you insist NATO is your enemy every ruble spent on that is one fewer for your army and air force.
Putin can say all that while denying there is a threat from the east to Russia's Far East. There is a threat from the east. Perhaps an imminent threat.
Operating on old thinking, Russia thinks it would benefit from a politically unified Europe to eject America--the bigger military power--from Europe. The Russians just aren't thinking of the next steps that lead to a united Europe that isn't as committed to democracy as it has been under American influence since 1945.
Russia should justifiably worry about a threat from the west if the EU becomes the empire it aspires to be.
To prevent that EU threat, America should be a de facto ally, notwithstanding Russian paranoia and American wishful thinking about the EU.
China is a looming threat to Russia that Putin has risked making far worse by invading Ukraine. A united Europe under the EU flag is a potential additional threat to Russia that will reduce Russia's ability to block China.
Europe won't be a potential threat to Russia as a multi-nation Europe that is united only under American leadership in NATO. Which requires Russia to accept NATO as the least of Russia's defense problems in order to face the looming threat from China. America can help in Russia's west and east. Russia should seize that opportunity. Perhaps failure in Ukraine will be the clue bat to finally gives Russia a moment of clarity.
NOTE: My most recent war coverage continues here.
