U.S. Flips History by Casting Europe–Not Russia–As Villain in Security Policy
wsj.comChina has spent a lot of time and effort trying to work out how to separate America from its allies.
They never thought America would go ahead and do it for them.
I guess Canada can be an appendage of the US or throw its lot in with the EU?
Interestingly the US assessment of Europe described in the article is broadly correct but not really discussed.
I obviously don't know what the US' aim is but I can imagine two things:
The growing integration of the EU is seen as a threat or at the very least against US interests because it creates a competitor. That's not news, the US have always been wary of European political integration.
The other aspect, very politically incorrect to even mention, is that the growing "islamisation" of Europe is seen as a threat because, indeed, over time it may lead to Europe no longer being a reliable ally.
I am not sure that any of this is new in term of thinking in Washington DC., but it is now said publicly in very blunt terms, very much a la Trump.
Islamization is a threat while Turkey is important part of NATO? Hello?
Seems that you might be the only one not to have noticed how unreliable Turkey is and the clashes that have been and are occurring within NATO and outside.
In any case, Turkey is only a regional ally and not "the Western World", another aspect that seems to elude replies to my comment.
> Seems that you might be the only one not to have noticed how unreliable Turkey is and the clashes that have been and are occurring within NATO and outside.
it is called agency and interest. It turns out that every country in the world has agency and interest which may not be compatible with your world view.
> In any case, Turkey is only a regional ally and not "the Western World", another aspect that seems to elude replies to my comment.
You were talking about Europe, not about Western world, so please stop moving goal posts.
Europe and America are the Western world, hence how important Europe is to the very continued existence of the Western world.
Anyway, from the aggressivity and shallowness of your reply, clearly we are not going to have any meaningful discussion, so bye.
If "islamisation" is a problem, why then is Saudi-Arabia a close ally of the USA?
I think it is more that Trump cannot collect bounties in the form of donations in his crypto currency in exchange for favors.
Maybe it is also because they cannot cope with the idea that the 'socialist' Europe is doing well (lately even better than the USA) economical, while this goes to their ideas of what makes a nation strong.
Also in other aspect such as safety, well being, freedom of press, and life expectancy many countries in Europe are doing better than the USA on average.
The fact that the USA is normalizing relationships with Russia is felt as very worrying especially while painting the EU as an adversary.
The USA is the only NATO country that activated article 5 and many European countries responded, but not the USA is saying they will not respond to article 5 if NATO countries in Europe is attacked by Russia.
Saudi Arabia and the US are bound by oil but Saudi Arabia is not a reliable ally beyond that. The relationship with Europe is very different and a much deeper alliance and cultural alignment (the Western world).
Europe is falling behind economically. I certainly don't think that the US see them as a threat in that regards. It's more than European integration creates a single, more powerful bloc that can challenge the US.
> Saudi Arabia and the US are bound by oil but Saudi Arabia is not a reliable ally beyond that.
Oil is not an important part of the future. Why does Trump think it is?
> The relationship with Europe is very different and a much deeper alliance and cultural alignment (the Western world).
Ce n'est plus le cas.
Trumps Agenda schadet den europäischen Wirtschafts- und Militärinteressen.
La agenda de Trump es muy visible en sus intentos de interferir en las agendas políticas internas de la UE.
Trumps dagsorden ses endda som en trussel mod suveræniteten, da den ikke udelukker militær magt til at tage kontrol over Grønland.
(Meanwhile, the US loses its mind over Spanish; Και χρησιμοποιεί μόνο ελληνικά για αδελφότητες και γυναικείες αδελφότητες, which are strange and alien to us).
The extent of cultural alignment today is that we use American software and online services and watch American shows, and through those services the use of the term "Black Friday"; but when we try to enforce our standards on online services, the Americans get all upset and how dare we have our own rules.
Religiosity may be officially quite high in much of Europe, but in practice, we don't take it anything like as seriously as the USA seems to (and I'm saying that as someone who even went to a Catholic school when I was growing up in the UK); E anche quando le nostre valute hanno qualcosa da dire su Dio, troviamo un po' sciocco dire "una nazione sotto Dio". By and large, we don't want things like the 2nd Amendment, which the USA considers to be a "god given right"; and Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, even the UK are a lot more open about sex and sexuality than anywhere I've seen in the USA. Completely different relationship with alcohol and food and cars and planes and national parks. The EU is what "small-government" Republicans say they want from the US federal government, while EU Republicans want to get rid of kings. EU nations are sovereign and free to leave, US states are not. Nie wszyscy używamy tej samej waluty. We celebrate the founding of universities multiple times older than the nation of the USA. Instead of fireworks for Independence Day as in the USA, the UK has them for "remembering a Catholic who failed to blow up the houses of parliament night". The USA does not care for Morris dancing and cheese rolling any more than the UK cares for the Superbowl or Thanksgiving.
Trade just isn't that much of a tie, and what tie it does bring is weakened by Trump's tariffs.
The historical connections are mostly the USA being filled with people whose ancestors fled Europe rather than current knowledge, and again this is likely to get worse thanks to Trump's behaviours here.
I agree with your point, but feel I must add a pedantic note on Morris dancing. It's a pretty niche pursuit in the UK, and I have seen Morris dancers in the US (without even trying to). I wouldn't be surprised if the US has more Morris dancers than the UK.
You highlight cultural differences to, frankly, labour your point. Cultural differences exist between every countries even of course within Europe itself. The point is the scale. The US and Europe are close culturally. As said, they created and are obviously part of the "Western Civilisation". Now, compare to, say, Afghanistan and suddenly all the cultural differences you highlighted between the US and Europe fade into insignificance. This is the whole point.
Those examples demonstrate that the US and the EU are not, in fact, close culturally. A lot of Americans would hate losing the 2nd A, and most of the Brits would be horrified to have it forced upon them. Vice versa for the NHS.
Instead of hypothecating about Afghanistan, ask yourself who is closer culturally to a typical European welfare state, the USA or China's officially-but-kinda-soft-really communism? What about the USA or the still-not-coming-into-the-EU-but-says-it-wants-to Turkey? The USA or former French département Algeria? Hollywood or Bollywood?
Or worse, when it's a question of the bad behaviour rather than the good, e.g. the USA now acting suspiciously towards Canada and Greenland and supporting Russia, versus the present active threat that is Russia?
The US are much closer culturally to Europe than China is. Obviously. And I know both. China or Afghanistan are not "hypothecating", they are concrete and obvious examples.
You keep trying to take contrieved examples to prove your (odd) point but that does not work because you are trying to prove something that is false. I don't understand why you are doing that... Too much Kool-Aid is bad for health.
> You keep trying to take contrieved examples to prove your (odd) point but that does not work because you are trying to prove something that is false. I don't understand why you are doing that... Too much Kool-Aid is bad for health.
No, you are.
Your example was Afghanistan. The only Afghans coming to Europe in any quantities (small though they are) did so because of western intervention in Afghanistan, and even then a lot of those people were locals who worked with us in our attempts to change it and who had to flee because America didn't care any more.
America *used to be*, past tense, a friend of Europe. Now it's made it clear it thinks it is our suzerain, that we should bow to its will, for half us to be under its sphere of influence and throw the other half under the bus to Russia.
Even before Trump, American governance hates European social policy. We're "socialists", and "socialist" is akin to "communism", and "communism" means we must be living in dictatorships "just like Stalin", those comments pop up even here with enough frequency to make a pattern. That, plus Europe's lack of freedom to bear arms, and that we have such different perspectives on libel, that some of our nations even have (had until recently) blasphemy laws. Every time I see an issue in America that's uniquely American, where Europe doesn't have that problem, someone suggests America copies Europe, a whole bunch of Americans chime in to say that America is "special" and can't possibly, doesn't matter if that's school shootings or broadband access or trains, they're actively hostile to learning from our experiences.
The current US administration is *actively hostile* to us and our ways of life and arrogant enough to not care to learn from our successes. Their hostility is both as a trade issue (e.g. wanting us to give up car rules so US vehicles are allowed when they'd be physically unsafe on our roads), and in terms of our internal and external affairs, where the recent national security strategy document is essentially calling for regime change in Europe.
The EU values something very close to Westphalian sovereignty. The USA under Trump, does not.
Trump is to Canada and Greenland, and by extension their allies across NATO i.e. us, what Xi Jinping is to Taiwan and their allies: hostile.
And a "Kool-Aid" reference? That both dates you and tells me you're fairly American-centric. If you think the current form of the USA is a good system to be promoted across Europe, you're drinking the poison'd cup.