Posted on 07/16/2002 6:31:30 AM PDT by 1bigdictator
Europeans: From Venus?
by Daniel Pipes New York Post July 16, 2002 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/432 http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/52533.htm
Whatever the current burning issue is - trade with Iran, war with Iraq, support for Israel, building a missile defense system, accepting the International Criminal Court - Americans and West Europeans often find themselves on opposite sides of the argument.
Americans tend to dismiss the Europeans as soft-minded appeasers lacking moral fiber or strategic vision. In turn, Europeans depict Americans as cowboys under the sway of a "culture of death."
These current attitudes tend to be seen as immutable facts of life, arising out of the respective national characters. But these differences are hardly permanent. Two centuries ago, when Americans acted cautiously around the tough-guy Europeans, the roles were roughly reversed.
Today's attitudes, Robert Kagan writes in a brilliant analysis in the Hoover Institution's "Policy Review," follow logically from deeper realities. In particular, they result from two post-1945 developments so momentous they tend to go unnoted:
* Europe is weak: For 500 years before 1945, Europe dominated the world. Tiny Portugal and Holland took turns ruling the seas. Mid-sized Britain and France built empires that spanned the globe. But that was then.
Today, the European Union spends far more on social problems than on arms. Despite a population and an economy roughly similar to America's, it is a "military pygmy" that lacks the ability to project force or even handle a minor problem in its own neighborhood (as the Balkan fiascos revealed).
In contrast, Americans have continued massively investing in defense, creating a true superpower no other state can challenge. "In military terms there is only one player on the field that counts," observes Yale historian Paul Kennedy. Looking at the contrast between the United States and the rest of the world, Kennedy finds that "Nothing has ever existed like this disparity of power; nothing."
This huge gap in capabilities causes Europeans and Americans to approach problems very differently. In their strength, Americans predictably see it as normal and legitimate to use force against enemy states such as Iraq. In their weakness, Europeans no less predictably find this approach worrisome and even immoral.
* Europe is post-modern: For the 80 years before 1945, the demon of German aggression haunted Europe, causing two world wars. Then, through a lengthy process of negotiation, multilateralism, building commercial ties and applying international law, the Europeans engineered what Kagan calls "perhaps the greatest feat of international politics ever achieved" by integrating Germany into a totally peaceable Western European state system.
As the German lion lay down with the French lamb, Europeans widely congratulated themselves on a world-historical breakthrough and concluded that their future global mission is to develop a "postmodern system" that resolves problems without even the hint of force. (Along the way, they conveniently forgot that this transformation was only made possible because U.S. forces defeated Germany.) They aspire, Kagan argues, to replicate their success on a global scale, by taming a North Korea or an Iraq as they did Germany.
From this vantage point, American use of force challenges the universal validity of Europe's soft approach. Worse: if the European methods of cajoling and paying off adversaries do not always work - as they clearly do not - this suggests that Europe's own hope for perpetual peace among states may be illusory. The European Union's highly emotional reaction to American use of force derives in large part, then, from its horror at facing war again in Europe.
The differences, in brief, are stark: Americans are from Mars; Europeans, from Venus. Europeans spend their money on social services, Americans continue to devote large sums to the military. Europeans draw lessons from their successful pacifying of post-1945 Germany; Americans draw lessons from their defeat of Nazi Germany and of the Soviet bloc. Kagan's insights have important implications:
* U.S.-European differences are not transitory, but long-term.
* They are likely to grow with time.
* Europe is highly unlikely to develop a military power to rival America's.
* As Europe settles into strategic irrelevance, Americans need pay it less and less attention.
* Contrarily, because Washington so predominates, it should make gestures to win European goodwill.
* NATO is little more than a shell.
* Americans should look increasingly to countries outside Europe - Turkey, Israel and India come first to mind - for meaningful military alliances.
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Yeah, this pretty much sums it up.
Ironic considering Europe's unquestionable love for abortion and euthanasia of older/sick people
What bothers me deeply about this whole analysis is the air-headed assumptions of U.S. Superpower supremacy. This smacks of hugely smug overconfidence and arrogance. And this is the same attitude we had prior to Pearl Harbor, and 9/11.
Anyone actually conversant with the numbers in our military knows that in real terms our strength has been continuing to be dissipated without replenishment in huge sectors. Without even mentioning what we are doing to our Strategic Missile force, just looking at the conventional Army, Navy, Marines. All hurting Big Time. We are mothballing the Tanks. We are decommissioning our submarine fleet. Three carriers may be on the chopping block despite the clear evidence of their need from Operation Enduring Freedom.
They are phasing the F-14 out without a close replacement in 4-6 years, and even planning on prematurely retiring ALL the F-14's Phoenix missile (for a meager $1.8 million savings over 4 years!!!!)this missile is...the only thing which gives the Navy a chance against the Russian AN-S22-25 Mach 3 cruise missile. Even the AirForce which has traditionally gotten all it wanted is looking at huge scale-backs on its wish-list F-22 and JSF that will drastically inflate the cost of its air craft buys on a per-unit basis (the old false economies of the bean counters who are at it again).
And apparently no monies for 'transformation'. IMHO, What we need is to properly fund the things we do well, and then develop our strategies to make most effective use of those same things we do well...our seapower and airpower, and heavy armor, and not get into situations (strategic 'feints') where we are not prepared or good at it. That is the way to stay out of trouble.
And we are confronted with a hostile China and duplicitous Russia who are developing armaments and tactics that pinpoint our numerous vulnerabilities of our best strengths so that we can be attacked on the relative cheap with asymmetric warfare. I.e., Super-fast Cruise missiles and IRBMs, really quiet Kilo submarines, wake-homing torpedos, and neutron warheads, hacker attacks, EMP and ASAT weapons. We need to be prepared to fight without GPS. And we clearly aren't right now.
We know liberal polititians have inflated spending on worthless social programs while simultaneously cutting spending on our defense and security capabilities.
North Korea nor Iraq is Germany. For all their history of hostility towards each other, the people of Europe share a history, culture and religion. It was more like brothers fighting over an inheritance. With just a little give and take, they could once again be brothers.
This can not be said of Iraq (or for that matter, in country in the middle east) or North Korea. The only reason that North Korea or Iraq “lion” does not eat the helpless “lamb” of Europe is not because of lack of desire, but the lack of capability, (and that the American Cowboys are around to protect Europe.
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