The following is just an idea which I've been entertaining now for a few months. Any input you may offer will be read and considered- thanks for reading...
It is time for us as Americans to realize and stop pretending that the world view which we posses is embraced by our neighbors across the Atlantic, it is not, nor ever could it be. The EU is the historical consequence of the two-world wars, waged for the sake of competing imperial powers, each desiring to lay hold of their self proclaimed right to power and sovereignty. The fall of Hitler’s Reich left Europe in ashes, yet in the European mind the Allied victory did not leave Europeans free from fear. Communism frightened the West as much as National Socialism did, yet it was the latter’s plain aggressiveness that in the mind of the Allies warranted immediate military action, thus began the war. Following the war, two superpowers met in the center of the continent, Soviet Russia, with Stalin as its spokesman and the mighty U.S., with George Patton as ours, each possessed a equal distrust and suspicion of the other, an enmity that would soon bloom into the Cold War. Hear is where the optimistic whims of a new Europe would be given the perfect breeding ground for which their implementation could take place and actually come to fruition. The flames of nationalism had smoldered into nothing and amongst most Europeans the idea of breathing fresh air into the sentiments which had birthed such a disaster as the last two wars seemed lunacy at best. Europe did not need power to achieve peace, and they did not need power to preserve it either; America wasn’t leaving. Up until the collapse of the Soviet juggernaut Europe lived under the assumed threat of world war three being fought on their continent, all that kept the red beast at bay was the American military force build up in Germany and Italy. But the end of the cold war left Europe in a unique position, by removing the external danger of Soviet Russia, this now allowed the European new order and its idealism to evolve into in grand model for other nations to follow, a model which other nations should follow, a model which other nations would follow if they were to receive the blessing of the EU. Europe’s successful multilateral governance produced an ambition to convert the world to the new European model. The rule of law, economic sanctions, and a weak appeal to a universal morality replaced the power politics of, "speak softly and carry a big stick". And it is here where I see the first signs of trouble, our power and our willingness to use it, unilaterally if necessary- constitute a threat to Europe’s overall new sense of mission. The threat as I see it is in addition a paradox; Europe’s rejection of power politics and the use of military force as a tool for international relations have forever depended on American military forces on European soil. European idealism as we see it in the EU could only have flourished under the American power umbrella exercised in accordance with the old power politics slogan of, "speak softly and carry a big stick". American power led Europeans to believe that power was no longer necessary. The final irony is the fact the U.S. military solved the European problem, what was then called the “German problem” and has now lead Europeans today and Germans in particular to believe that the American military power which sustained Europe is now dangerous and outmoded.
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