Posted on 01/03/2017 10:33:51 AM PST by Kaslin
Donald Trump gets what John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and a bevy of hidebound American elites -- Republicans and Democrats -- refuse to get. America's relationship to, and military involvement in, Europe is long overdue for a big overhaul.
World War II ended in 1945. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Yet nearly a generation after the USSR went away, the U.S. is still, broadly, non-Russian Europe's principal defender.
Why?
The nations of Western Europe, primarily, affluent for decades, have benefited from American protection at American taxpayers' expense. All this time, Western Europe's progressive leaders enjoyed the luxury of diverting untold treasure into their social welfare systems. Cradle to grave, they call it. Americans provide a disproportionate share of NATO's hardware and soldiers, while the French, for instance, practically give workers every August at the beach. Lose your job? No worries. In Denmark, you can live off the public teat for up to 104 weeks at 90% your previous salary.
The USSR had global ambitions. It was meddlesome and scheming, aiding and abetting bad players across the planet. Russia was then infected with communism, which dovetailed smartly with the historic Russian desire to expand its empire. Communist Russia posed multiple threats to the U.S.
But Putin and the Russians no longer promote or even speak off world revolution and domination. Putin is attempting to reclaim some turf, namely in the Ukraine and Georgia. He has a covetous eye on the Baltic States.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
History shows they don’t appreciate the bailouts anyway, and they just go back to making the same mistakes that led them to needing our help.
They are voluntarily importing their demise.
Islam has no intention of assimilating.
They are there to take over.
Any money spent on defending them is wasted.
They have forgotten Charles Martel and Jan Sobieski.
I have always been in favor of helping defend Europe but now, NO! At least, not the several countries there whose ruling elite has Sold Out to the IslamoNazi invasion.
Those places are already going down the toilet and soon will have nothing to defend anymore.
I am still happy to help defend countries that have NOT sold out to the enemy ...
YES, YES, YES
I’ve been saying this on FR for the last few years - and am accused of being a Putin fanboy
NATO’s real mission ended 25 years ago. It has now morphed into a statist, globalist organization whose job is to stand guard over the leftist social-engineering of Western Europe. It started with Clinton’s Kosovo misadventure and establishment of a Muslim gangster state in Europe. Its now playing out with Obama and Clinton’s utter destruction of Libya and the subsequent “refugee” flow into Europe.
Forget about Putin - Europe will be instead destroyed by Brussels and the likes of Merkel, all while NATO maintains the fraud of alliance and security theater.
And by so doing, we have allowed Europe to use the money they would otherwise had to pony up for their own defense, to run their little socialist/Marxist countries as public welfare states on our dime. Time for it all to end, along with UN membership.
I am not! Where does it say that the US can use taxpayer funds to support any other country? With Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, we don't need Europe as some sort of military buffer any longer. They cannot continue to “prosper” on our dime.
By defending Europe after the cold war all we did was subsidize suicidal socialism in those countries after the Berlin Wall fell.
Europe is kaput. Might as well let those who oppose the muslim invasion escape the continent, then nuke it from orbit until their cockroaches surrender and plead for mercy.
If I were a European, I would rather be invaded by Russia than the Muslim hoards that destroying them as we speak. We watch as they go down in flames (literally) and still believe it can’t happen here.Hey Lil’ froggy, but it is....already.
Reminds me of an old Johnny Cash song ...”how high’s the water. mama? Ten foot high an risin’......Now its “ How hot’s the water, Froggy ? Is it boiling YET !
A couple of minor historical quibbles with the author: Germany was a successful case of "nation-building" only in hindsight. Recall that at the end of WWII it had only been a unified nation since 1871, roughly the same period that Iraq had been a nation as such at the end of the second Gulf War. Moreover, there definitely were U.S. strategic interests in play in 2003 that no longer exist, at least to that degree, in view of greater U.S. energy independence. Anyone who recalls the 1973 oil embargo can attest to those interests.
That aside, nation-building for "democracy's" sake is demonstrably a futile effort. So, incidentally, is the unfortunately similar act of "exporting revolution" as the Soviets found out to their dismay and the Saudis and the Iranians are learning at the present, the former arguably less bloody than the latter but no less expensive.
It is ironic but perfectly predictable that European redirection of defense-related resources to social welfare programs has created enviable societies, a generous piece of which their neighbors have decided they would like to enjoy for free; and that the moral strictures that made such societies "peace-loving" are the same that impel their leaders to sell them out or give them away. Perhaps if you have to defend these resources you value them more, or at least feel the right to say "no". The socialist tendency to regard property as never rightfully yours has the unfortunate effect that others will tend to regard it as rightfully theirs. That is, to be sure, the ethics of locusts, but locusts are a reasonably successful species for all that.
Europe is worth defending. But it can't be defended if the Europeans won't do it.
I understand your sentiment. Well, defending sold-out places like Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, UK...won’t make ANY sense at all ... very soon, unless they immediately start repatriating the millions of Islamic invaders/”immigrants” (sic) their traitor-leaders have imported
Had their leaders let almost any other group of people in, it might (probably would) have worked. Sfaik, ONLY the Moslems are trained from birth to hate and want to conquer and subjugate (or just slaughter) Christians and Jews.
The national leaders who did this to their countries should be tried and executed, imho.
The minute those chamberlains opened their borders to the hoards, we should have packed up and left like the Grinch stealing Christmas.
They are toast anyways
Trump knows the demographic future of Europe: It will be dominated by Islam in 30 years based on Muslim population growth alone — NO MATTER WHAT WE DO!
Merkel just advanced that timeline by several years by inviting 1,000,0000 mostly young MALE sexist/racist Islamicists into the EU.
Trump should convey to the people that in the long run it’s FUTILE for us to spend another red cent defending Europe from its own demise. Withdraw ALL of our military from Europe NOW!
Instead, perhaps Trump is thinking we should LET PUTIN HAVE THE EU and let him deal with the Islamic problem. He’s good at it! He doesn’t cower to Political Correctness! He’s the only hope for Europe to have a semblance of Western Civilization in 30+ years from now.
The PC Euros are way too impotent to do anything about the horrible future they face.
Exactly.
Well said.
Almost like it was a plan, naw we wouldn't do that.
Right-Pulling Europe’s chestnuts out of the fire TWICE in one century, is ENOUGH!
I can largely agree with this text but...
1. NATO these days isn’t about defending western Europe as they are far away from the potential front line.
2. US isn’t “Europe’s principal defender”, some folks should check out the current US forces in Europe, they are tiny.
3. If Trump is going to shut down NATO (which I doubt will happen) he should do it ASAP, discussing it for years can only provoke war.
It's never been a charity. With all of Europe (+ North Africa and ME) under control, 3rd Reich would dominate the world. With western Europe under control, the Soviet Union would dominate the world, they wouldn't have to launch an attack on America, they would just win the cold war having all that additional industrial potential. Same here now with US military bases in Japan or South Korea, let China take control over these economies and they will dominate the world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.