It's Not You Europe, It's America

By Chris Rossini

When it comes to foreign policy, Europe has a de facto senior partner in the United States. Such a situation germinated after the two World Wars. Here we are many years later and the senior partner / junior partner relationship has hardened.

At the end of 2015, Russia's President Putin said: "The problem of Europe is that it does not have its own foreign policy ... It has transferred part of its sovereignty to NATO and the United States."

As a result of teaming up with a country that is steered by self-proclaimed "exceptionalists," Europe is now reaping the brunt of its decisions. Millions of migrants are streaming into Europe from war torn nations that have experienced a good dose of American "liberation".

The news (especially foreign and non-mainstream U.S. news) are filled with one story after another of crimes, rapes, and violence that have resulted from these massive migrations. 

Sadly, European nations have been on the receiving end of blowback for the wars in the Middle East as well. Terror attacks have now occurred on multiple occasions in Europe. It doesn't stop there. Governments usually respond to terror attacks by enacting police state-like laws. Such draconian measures have now been thrown around European necks as well, eroding away at any liberties that still remain.

The results of Europe tag-teaming with the U.S.'s militaristic neocon agenda do not appear to be fruitful at all. It seems to have caused nothing but trouble.

But worry not Europe. 

It's not you...It's America.

You're just along for the ride.

One of the chief protagonists for America's string of neocon war failures, Robert Kagan, spelled it out in his 2004 book: "Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order":

---

When Europeans took to the streets by the millions after September 11, most Americans believed it was out of a sense of shared danger and common interest: The Europeans knew they could be next. But Europeans by and large did not feel that way. Europeans have never really believed they are next. They could be secondary targets - because they are allied with the United States - but they are not the primary target, because they no longer play the imperial role in the Middle East that might have engendered the same antagonism against them as is aimed at the United States.

Perhaps it may be time for Europeans to rethink their alliances with the U.S. Perhaps being the "secondary target" is not such a good deal anymore. Perhaps, in addition to "no longer playing an imperial role in the Middle East," Europe should not ally with, nor support America, which does play that imperial role.

Over here in America, perhaps it may be time for citizens to push for a foreign policy that does not make us the "primary target" and that does not "engender antagonism" against us.

A foreign policy of non-intervention, no entangling alliances, peace, travel, commerce and trade would serve us much better.
​