Conrad Black, American Greatness: What’s the Matter With Europe?
For all the flak President Trump gets for insufficient deference to America’s allies, Americans should be aware of the parlous condition of Europe, which long was regarded as the co-equal half of the Western alliance to the United States and Canada.
It does not require a geriatric to recall the piping days when it was commonplace to hear someone announce the coming supremacy of a united Europe. This was a fantasy wedged between the imminent economic surpassing of America by Japan, and then by China. The United States has potential rivals, some less cordial than others, and complacency is always unwise. But the decline of Europe, not its rise, is now the threat that should worry foreign policy specialists.
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WNU Editor: Had lunch this past Saturday with two web developers who immigrated a months ago from Belgium to Canada. When I asked them on why they made the decision to leave, I got nothing but a lecture on how much Europe has declined in the past few years. And protests in France, Brexit, and Germany's dysfunctional political system is just the tip of the iceberg. They also gave me a prediction on Europe's future. Bottom line .... it is going to get worse.
10 comments:
When overwhelming majorities of Western Europeans detest half the American voters, there is no longer a trans Atlantic link. It's a fiction that will eventually be noticed.
Then you have Brexit and the awful conduct of the Parliament, PM May and Corbyn. Corbyn on the cusp of power will destroy the "special relationship" with the USA, he's promised to do so. Once gone, its over for NATO as well. Given all that, the EU is militarily defenseless, economically lacking innovation, investment, relief from regulation and increasingly preyed upon by China and Russia.
Not a promising future.
Bottom line; leftist politics...
What do you know from Europe mn .... you are russian, you dont like the "west" but you live in Canada, give me a break. Europe is much more than 2,3 countries...
WHy EURO is almost passing the dolar? ...
We will always have Paris
The information is readily available on the web and all you need to to is watch and listen. What, we have to be euro to understand!??
WNU Editor listens from two web developers from Belgium, opinions of two individuals, and takes that as a concrete consensus. Which falls into a certain pattern of his. I mean not surprising, everyone loves a good moan.
But its just laughable at times. Especially considering Canada's own political situation, immigration issue and the host of other problems.
Guess that's why it's a prediction?
I spent the last 8 years living in Italy, UK, and Hungary (I'm American). My perception is that the pan-European movement and pan-European identity has declined steeply in that time, despite the power and reach of the EU also expanding.
Now granted those three countries have some of the strongest anti-EU sentiment, however, I think Euroskepticism and increasing EU authority rising together is very telling; there is a widespread perception that the continent is in decline, and individual nations are looking increasingly inward for their own survival / long-term interest. After all, when times are good it's easy to care about your neighbors, but when resources get tight, who wants to make sacrifices on behalf of strangers in Brussels or Berlin? It would be like if the state of Idaho was enduring recession, increasing poverty, austerity and a host of other strains while having to abide by the California Governor dictate to Idaho state policies they don't want and can't afford... combine that with different languages and historical grievances going back millenia and you get Europe today...
I have to agree. It is the leftists - powered by Russian propaganda - the influence almost all of eastern Europe and now much of western Europe. It is looking really dim. Luckily some people wake up, but in Europe too, they got in through media and university. Indoctrination nonstop.
Well meant but lacks knowledge: The EU was formed in tough times - to help each other - as it was obvious to all that small nations have little chance in surviving long term. The English were always the exception and are still imagining a grand old empire and like to dwell in the paSt, nodding to each other how bad Germans are and how good they were (ignoring that even the term concentration camp was formed by them in colonial times, but such is the state of the UK - declining, that you've nailed. EU is leaderless and without vision. That's the main problem. Merkel is pretty much gone. Macron is a joke. The two biggest nations are without leaders and merkel is suddenly very close to Putin, but the leftist press tells us to worry about Trump. Got it.
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