(2004-08-31) Steyn Us Defense Welfare

Mark Steyn wonders whether the European Union/EU is ready for the end of US Defense Welfare (as the US discusses withdrawing troops from parts of the world where they don't seem to be doing much). Europe is free to flaunt its "concern" - and even its "deep concern" - over the Eastern Congo precisely because it's entirely irrelevant to events in the Eastern Congo. As BretStephens points out, European countries now have attitudes in inverse proportion to the likelihood of their acting upon them... The US security umbrella, along with the Eurovision Song Contest, was really the prototype pan-European institution. The Americans helped build a continent in which you could sing Waterloo rather than fight it, and, if in their excessive generosity they accelerated an inclination to softness and decadence, well, it's not their problem.