Kick Her to the Curb

This article on AIE by David Frum rekindled my frustration at our efforts with Europe.

The Europeans have really bothered me for a long time, I left Europe at the diner a long time ago. We rescue them from the hell of total war, rebuild their economies, protect them from the communists, let them run themselves (unlike our Soviet opponents) and all we get is grief. Britain is the sole exception. A country that continues to elect excellent leaders combined with a national culture of spreading civilization and values around the world (white man’s burden…sorta.) Not that Britain is our best buddy; they are competitors, friendly competitors unlike many of the others.

I don’t know why we should care about loosening our transatlantic ties. Let the Europeans defend themselves. Move the bases where we need them. Countries that come to mind include Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq and maybe some country in Africa, a continental hotspot born from craven despotism and widespread larceny. These countries could do a lot more with the billions spent on and around US bases than the resentful countries, embittered about having to maybe work more than 35 hours a week. And at the same time we get troops and assets in areas that need either stabilization or the threat of power. Our major defense problems exclusively emanate from Asia. We need to project force where force is needed. Afghanistan shares a border with Iran, Pakistan and China (a pretty nice trifecta.) Who are we projecting force at in Germany?

Europe is old news. The real action is in Asia. India alone has more people than the entirety of Europe, and China is bigger still. Then you can throw in Indonesia (fourth), Pakistan (sixth), Bangladesh (eighth), and Japan (tenth). That’s a damn big and growing (well except for Japan) market that will soon be demanding the same things everyone else is: a new car, new TV, new shoes, new computer, new everything. In Europe one has to look hard for positive economic growth and even harder for population growth. There's more money to be made in Asia over the next 50 years than Europe could ever hope to match.

We need to concentrate on building respect and goodwill with the Asian countries. We should concentrate our diplomatic and trade efforts on countries that will increase in importance, not decrease. We should invest in vibrant growing economies, not lazy shrinking ones.

In Europe we’re throwing good money after bad.