Europe sees the Ghost of Kissinger
Europe suddenly clutching pearls and pretending to be all aghast at the slightest display of American Hegemon power shows how long overdue this moment was needed. Sitting under the shade of the security provided by the US this last 80 years has led many to believe this arrangement was a natural way of things they were entitled to. A birthright of sort that came out of the post-WWII order. A situation that would remain eternal.
This subcontracting of Europe's defense provided many benefits. For instance, lavish social spending in Scandinavian nations, spending many American politicians like Bernie Sanders pointed too as a model (as well as failure of the US not doing the same) was helped greatly by not requiring said nations needing to pay for a robust defense.
Even as the flurry of articles from outraged sources like the UK Guardian and Washington Post pour through with shouts of "How dare they!" and other laments at the very thought of the US recalibrating NATO involvement, there are acknowledgements of this hour of decision had been drawing near.
Fourteen years ago, (2011) as he was leaving the post of defense secretary, Robert M. Gates used his last speech in Europe to warn of what was coming. “The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress, and in the American body politic writ large, to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources” to the military, and “to be serious and capable partners in their own defense.”
Even further back than 2011 during the first few months after 9/11, I happened to have a conversation with a German officer while on the response deployment regarding NATO and I recall asking why countries such as Germany did not have a more robust military force.
“We’re not allowed,” he said.
As a young American serviceman this did not make much sense at the time as the world appeared to be getting more dangerous, thus the need for an upscale in defense was seen as a needed change. Now, years later I understand more on how the geopolitical machinery and long shadow of World War Two continues to distort and handicap European nations to an extent.
As Lord Ismay, a former Secretary General of NATO is reported to have said, “the purpose of the Alliance was to keep the Americans in Europe, the Russians out, and the Germans down.”
The continual upkeep and maintenance of European security by the United States is no longer a viable status quo moving forward. Reality is slowly setting in with European leaders waking up to a new paradigm shift. They can pile the blame on the Trump administration, yet the fact remains that this change was inevitable.
Its not aberration or a betrayal, its a mere return to the world that existed prior to 20th century - great powers dealing with each other on basis of their interests. Liberal moralising turned out to be what it always was - lecturing from a superior position, which Europe suddenly realised it does not have.
The funny part is that most people were talking this lingo in the early 2000’s, Obama administration. The war in Ukraine has really changed this dynamic, making many of our older and younger generations believe it is a moral imperative to take jabs at Russia.