After 40 plus years of casting a protective bubble over Western Europe, and after Western Europe cashed in on a 10 year peace dividend resulting from that protection, the United States looked across the pond for help in late 2002 and early 2003, only to find former allies who were at best petulant, and at worse obstructionist belligerents. What happened? Are our own actions to blame? The answer is yes, but contrary to populist opinion on the left, George W. Bush is not the one to blame.
For over forty years following World War II, the United States found itself facing possible nuclear annihilation. At the same time, the United States found itself with a solid block of devoted allies. It is this solid block of allies that we look to today as our historical allies, but is that really true? Have France, Germany, Japan, UK, Canada, etc., always been our allies? The answer is a decided no. What is more disturbing is how the left in this country ignore hundreds of years of study of geopolitics and expect alliances to be permanently frozen in time instead of what they really are-regularly shifting bonds of self interest.
What did we do to create a European state that loathes us? First, we zoomed past Europe in terms of economic strength and international power and prestige. There was a day when nations the size of Texas or California battled it out for world dominance. Today they look back on their past glory and look jealously at the nations who have assumed their mantle. This transition was inevitable, but the nations of Old Europe hastened their own slide by beginning two world wars in the 20th century. After the Second World War, Old Europe lay in ruins of its own making, and it became very clear that they would need the assistance of one of the two new behemoths, the United States or the USSR in order to ever recover. As the world was divvied up into spheres of influence, Old Europe came to realize that it was much better off under the wing of the Eagle than under the paw of the Bear. This created a false sense of brotherhood towards Western Europe in Americans. Western Europe did not extend friendship to the United States out of love; they did so out of fear of what lay directly to their East, a monster that they could not hope to repel on their own.
Under this false haze of friendship, we first rebuilt Europe, a dramatic break with a world history that required the loser to rebuild itself and simultaneously compensate the victors. Next, we rebuilt Europe’s defenses. Much like welfare can create a sense of entitlement, though, so too did our aid to Europe. Over the years, the United States bore a larger and larger share of the defense of Europe, and Europe felt it deserved it. They also began to take it for granted. By the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union disintegrated, Western Europe had come to understand that it only needed to offer token support to its own defenses, and that the United States would ensure the rest. Throughout the 1990’s, as European states reaped the peace dividend, they also sliced and diced further at their defense budgets to the point that they refused to deal with genocide in their own backyards. Instead, they watched as the only nation with military capability came into their sphere of influence to cool off a boiling pot in the Balkans.
The United States learned a valuable lesson from the inter-war period 1919-1940. A nation cannot neglect its defenses, because eventually they won’t be available when inevitably needed. Europe has not learned that lesson, and that has put the continent in an uncomfortable position. As it coalesces into a sort of nation-state, it sees itself regaining the glory of the Europe of old. The continent, when united, has the economic potential (if not yet the reality) to go toe to toe with the United States and win. The states of Europe still have one major roadblock to overcome, however-their pathetic and inept militaries. Europe cannot project its power in the world because of this. With most states of Europe enslaved to their socialist systems, they cannot find a way to free up funds for even a third rate military. That leaves Europe with only one way to project its power and regain its glory: To hog tie American military power, and to somehow make American military power an agent of its own use.
What we saw with Iraq is an attempt at hog tying the American military. The major states of Europe, most notably France and Germany, need to be able to block the usage of American military force whenever they want, and their Iraq maneuvers were an attempt at this. Once Europe can effectively block any usage of American power, then they can also allow it to be used whenever it is beneficial to Europe. France and Germany are, in effect, trying to hijack the American military for their own use. By requiring the United States to resort to diplomacy without threat of force, Europe can insert itself as the broker of world power. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the mass death and destruction that comes when Europe is the broker of world power.
Life moves quickly, but history trods along slowly. The events leading up to the Iraq war were at least 60 years in the making. We erred in our generosity to the Old World. The Marshall Plan was right, but as the economies of Europe began to revive, we should have required they take on greater and greater burdens of their own self defense. As it was, we created in Europe a disregard for its responsibilities for itself. As Europe has fully blossomed over the past 15 years, that has created a continent which is indulgently in love with itself, but which cannot project its influence without admitting that parts of its very being do not work well. Rather than face that reality, it has chosen instead to acquire the power projection it wants by taking it from somebody else-us. What George W. Bush experienced in the lead up to Iraq would have been experienced by any American President at that time, be it John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Truman, or FDR. What separates Bush from Kerry, Clinton, and maybe FDR is that he chose not to let Europe make our national defense decisions for us. For those on the left who love Truman, perhaps a little inspection of his Presidency is necessary for you, because George W. Bush may be the most Truman-esque President we’ve had since old Give ‘em Hell Harry himself.
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