Europe screwed
The US administration has made its position clear. The tragedy is that Europe seems incapable of organising a coherent response.
This is Iain Martin’s newsletter exclusively for subscribers to Reaction.
Well, no-one can say we weren’t warned. For years, senior military, analysts, historians with their brains switched on, and some commentators have been saying that European countries while preaching in a sanctimonious fashion are spending an insufficient share of our GDP on defence and security. That we are overly reliant on the US for all elements of our defence. That the US has almost all the heavy lift capability required to move forces around and without it we are stuffed in a European conflict. That our forces are too small in number and underpowered even if we could move them the distances required at speed. That our leaders - barring a few honourable exceptions - are afraid of the bulk of the public who mostly do not want to hear the truth about what kind of world we have moved into, and would rather carry on consuming an excess of “free” stuff that is unaffordable, rather than accepting that security is existential and all of us, our freedom and our way of life, are in grave peril if we do not build up our defences to establish peace through strength. That time was running out and the US had signalled as early as the Obama era that its attention was turning to Asia and the Indo-Pacific. That eventually a US President would turn up and accelerate this process in an aggressive manner, leaving Europe on its own with Russia, waging a shadow war, at our door.
All this was said, over and over again, for years. Almost nothing was done by the largest countries.
And now, here we all are.