No. of Recommendations: 3
We have had good, solid reciprocal economic and military relationships with our allies that vastly inured to our benefit for decades. We got to set up the entire world economy, and to design it to our benefit. We got to assume unparalleled dominance in military affairs, and therefore got to the be the guiding hand in international relations for decades. Being "The Leader of the Free World" came with massive benefits for the United States, not just costs.
You make a number of assertions as fact in this statement. But that's the thing, they're assertions. Not facts.
You're also ignoring a large chunk of Post-WWII history, specifically the part where the in immediate aftermath the American economy was literally the only one standing in the world. You think that might have contributed just a teensy bit to our economic and technological advantages?
What is Europe doing?
1. Europe more or less quit funding their defense in 1990.
2. Europe is moving towards de-industrialization.
3. Europe chooses to buy energy from the people they claim to oppose.
4. Europe has repeatedly levied administrative barriers against US goods over the years.
5. Europe has regulated their economies to such an extent that they're falling far behind the US in economic growth. If you doubt that I invite you to compare various European countries' per capita GDP to, say, Mississippi. Tell me what you find.
6. Europe routinely censors its own citizens and now wants to extend that to American platforms. Real champions of human rights.
I could go on.
One would think that somebody with half a brain in Whitehall would be telling Starmer that the Iranian regime is teetering on the brink and that if the Americans think they can tip the balance, maybe it's in Britain's interest to let them do it. Or that somebody over in Thames House is reminding 10 Downing Street that the Iranians are actively plotting mayhem inside the UK.
You'd think. But then again perhaps our "unpopularity" outweighs rational policy making. You know...like a high school cheerleader would.
Our "European allies" take far more from our alliance than they put in. That's not an assertion, that's a fact. That arrangement puts the US economy under pressure and forces us to defend a group of people unwilling to defend themselves.
If "unpopularity" - very much a transient thing - is the driving function behind European decision making, then one must ask: How good of allies were they, ever? Disallowing US use of bases or transit isn't anything new, btw.
Here's the question. How far are you willing to bend over to earn more "popularity" when a democrat retakes the White House?
You willing to let Europe just buy more oil from Russia, or all the solar cells they want from China?
How about we station 150,000 troops in Germany again? Would that make them feel better about themselves?
