Biden is turning his back on Europe

opinion

by kevin williamson

The European Union is good at coming up with non-offensive-sounding terms to talk about unpleasant things.

For example, the phrase “strategic autonomy” is a perfect way to say “we don’t trust Americans,” but Donald Trump is leading in the polls and Vladimir Putin has given European countries a It’s impossible to blame them since they brag about encouraging invasions. they.

It is important to accurately understand the context of President Trump’s remarks. President Trump told an unnamed NATO partner, a NATO member state that has not met its defense spending goals: “No, I won’t protect you. I won’t protect you. I won’t protect you. “I have no intention of protecting the people,” he said.In fact, I encourage [Russia] do whatever they want. ”

Despite the fact that Mr. Trump, a habitual liar, probably did not say what he said, what he is saying now is how he intends to run our country’s affairs if elected. This is a statement about.

Forget trying to explain that NATO has a treaty with the United States but not with Donald Trump. NATO members and the rest of the world are also getting this message.

And this message doesn’t just come from Trump. The European Union is the United States’ largest trading partner in terms of total goods and services, and it has not escaped the attention of civil servants and private sector executives in Brussels. Speaking from Stuttgart to Copenhagen, he argued that the Biden administration is continuing, and in some cases exacerbating, the anti-trade practices of the Trump administration.

The Biden administration is as disdainful as the Trump administration when it comes to Europe, ambushing France with the Australia-UK-US deal, excluding allies with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and keeping German forces in check. When it came to their energy policy, I had always believed that their most important negotiator in Europe was François Mitterrand, who has been dead for nearly 30 years.

Moreover, concerns are not limited to EU or NATO member states.

Israel found its alliance with the United States undermined by Democratic party politics. That includes political pressure to address persistent anti-Semitism within the party’s urban progressive wing. As Ukraine finds its alliance with the United States undermined by a Republican Party that has become increasingly open in its support of President Vladimir Putin and his authoritarian rule, Tucker Carlson writes a new story about us against New York’s Walter Duranty. He decided to end his career as a response to his generation. A Times reporter whose disdain for Moscow in the 1930s personified the term “useful idiot.”

In the end, some good things may happen, such as the European Union having an army and substantial independence in policy making.

But there are other ways to accomplish that without relinquishing America’s hard-won position at the top of world affairs.

Those who think the United States will retreat from a world leadership role want to hide behind the hem of fiscal conservatism, which is as morally ignorant as it is economically ignorant.

All diplomatic spending in 2022 combined will account for only 1% of federal spending, and foreign aid itself will be just under half that amount ($29.4 billion of the $60.4 billion foreign affairs budget in 2022), small enough to be cut off. It’s a number. To zero.

If Washington gave Kiev everything it asked for, the expense would be equivalent to several weeks’ worth of Social Security spending.

“So, it may not be a lot of money, but it means that billions of dollars are being sent overseas to foreigners that could be spent domestically,” the answer came.

In reality, most foreign aid comes in the form of subsidies for military acquisitions from US-based companies.

A legitimate complaint about US aid to Israel is not that it is a subsidy to a wealthy ally, but that it is a subsidy to Raytheon.

And while there is certainly a corporate welfare aspect to military aid, Washington is getting something for its money. One is to deepen practical cooperation with day-to-day defense experts from allied countries, and the other is to improve system interoperability.

The United States’ relationships with its European allies, including the European Union and NATO countries, are the United States’ most international connections, both economically and militarily.

If the next century is to be one in which the globally prevailing values ​​are those of liberal democracies rather than those of backward authoritarian states, it will be the one in which the United States and Europe succeed in doing so. Because I did.

If the prevailing global values ​​of the next century are illiberal and authoritarian, it means that figures like Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Xi Jinping will have more influence than we expected. Perhaps because while it had right-wing supporters, the Jewish state had too many enemies. on the left.

But let’s stop pretending that this is about money.

Yes, it costs a certain amount for the United States to rise to the top of the world power structure — but it would cost a lot to cede that position to Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and the Ayatollahs in Tehran. Deaf more.