Should we reimagine NATO as a force without America that will hold Europe against Russia's threats and send military forces to help us fight China if it comes to war? That must be a wonder planet of cotton candy and unicorns one author lives on.
This is a strange argument against my preference that we keep Russia as far east as possible:
But this argument can only be taken seriously if the events of the last year are ignored: Russia, which cannot get troops to Kyiv, will not get past Poland, much less France.
One, Russia hasn't lost the war and been forced to give up its territorial gains yet. Does conquest not count for the victims if the cost to Russia is high?
Two, if Poland is the frontline, that means Belarus is controlled by Russia.
Three, in time Russia will rebuild its power. It may even learn from the beating with the clue bat it is enduring.
Four, if Poland is the frontline, the Baltic states are at risk.
And FFS at five, if your fallback position is that France will hold, Russia already won.
Fine. I accept that last one is hyperbole. But as long as
France is being brought up as a road block to Russian expansion, let's
talk about France: six brigades. That's a speed bump and not a road block.
But at least the author didn't rely on Germany to hold the line west of Poland.
Finally, this is the author's foundation for arguing America should rely on Europe to hold Europe:
This is not to say that such a shift would be easy. While the EU has some defense mechanisms, the creation of some sort of EU—or, if the UK and Norway were to join, European—Army would require sustained effort. But if America were to make clear that it was shifting its focus to Asia, pulling out a significant number of troops, and had a president willing to make good on such a declaration, Europe could be jump-started into getting the process done.
The nonsense of arguing the EU would allow America to pull out a significant number of American troops is obvious when you consider America has already removed the vast majority of our troops to take into account the reduced Russian threat to NATO Europe and to focus on China as the pacing threat!
What more should we do, dig up our dead soldiers in European cemeteries and bring them home?
Europeans can increase their defense effort within the existing NATO structure built to defend Europe. If abandoning NATO in favor of creating a new EU structure is the answer, you don't really value defending Europe. You value the proto-imperial EU removing the prefix.
America should not want "Europe"--that is the EU--to be capable of defending Europe without America-led NATO keeping the primary role. Face it, we'd be replacing the USSR with the EU--but with all of Europe under its control.
I don't trust the EU to hold our wall.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
