America came close to abandoning Europe when it was crippled and unable to resist an outside threat on its doorstep. The struggle continues to hold Europe as an asset.
Despite understanding that the Soviet Union was a major threat after defeating Germany and Japan, FDR had no plans to contain a triumphant USSR and even planned to get out of Europe after the war and leave it to the Europeans:
Roosevelt had known what he wanted in the postwar world: a new international body, the United Nations, to replace Wilson’s failed League; an open global economy to promote shared prosperity; a concert of great powers to keep the peace. But he hadn’t devised any real formula for stability in Europe, much less a backup plan if the Allies’ wartime comity gave way to postwar enmity. ...
And despite Churchill’s concern that the rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops would leave Europe at Stalin’s mercy, FDR had pledged, before his death, to do just that. “You really ought to bring up and discipline your own children,” he airily told Churchill in 1944; Europe was not America’s ward.
Fortunately, events forestalled that short-sighted withdrawal from Europe as the reality of the Soviet threat suddenly in the heart of Europe became clear.
Little did we know how close that threat was, actually.
Nor was Europe anywhere near to being able to handle that responsibility without America. Which shows that the impulse to leave Europe is not really based on Europe stepping up. It's just the impulse to bury our head in the sand and pretend all is well, for as long as our enemies grant us that delusion.
You can add chrome and tail fins to that basic 1945 model by pretending Europe without America will remain fully part of the West as an American ally. And by pretending you only oppose the current threat in order to face the more urgent threat. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Defending Europe isn't charity. It matters.
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NOTE: I made the image with Bing.
