QandO

August 17, 2004

The Bill comes due
Posted by McQ

Mark Steyn, in is usual wonderful way, ably points out that in the world of "alliances", the defense of the free world has largely been billed to the US:

The basic flaw in the Atlantic "alliance" is that, for almost all its participants, the free world is a free lunch: a defence pact of wealthy nations in which only one guy picks up the tab. I said as much in a Canadian column I wrote on 9/11, and a few weeks later the dominion's deputy prime minister, John Manley, conceded that his country was dining in the best restaurants without paying its way: as he put it, "You can't just sit at the G8 table and then, when the bill comes, go to the washroom." But in Nato, for generations, whenever the bill's come, there's been a stampede to the washroom, not just from the Canadians but the Continentals, too.

Like any other form of welfare, defence welfare is a hard habit to break and profoundly damaging to the recipient. The peculiarly obnoxious character of modern Europe is a logical consequence of Washington's willingness to absolve it of responsibility for its own security. Our Defence Editor, John Keegan, once wrote that "without armed forces a state does not exist".

Relatively speaking, its much easier to run a "successful" welfare state if you can pass the bill for the defense of your country off to one of your "allies". That's precisely what Europe and Canada have done for decades. As Steyn notes, when the bill has been presented in the past, they've all headed to the washroom. But their shirking sure has't stopped them from developing quite an anti-American attitude in Europe, has it?

Bret Stephens, the editor of the Jerusalem Post, opened his mail the other day and found a copy of something called "Conclusions of the European Council", a summary of the work done during the six months of the Irish Euro-presidency. He made the mistake of reading it.

Here's item 80: "The European Council expresses its deep concern at the recent events in the Eastern Congo, which could jeopardise the transition process."

Been following that one? 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 Stephens points out, European countries now have attitudes in inverse proportion to the likelihood of their acting upon them.

Much like the recent EU fact-finding trip to the Sudan where the inspector conveniently determined that the 30,000+ who've been killed in Dafur weren't victims of "genocide". A huge sigh of relief was heard among the EU intelligencia because since it isn't "genocide" they don't have to do anything about it. You see, after Rwanda's genocide, they vowed "never again". Since Dafur now "officially" been determined not to qualify as genocide, they can just prattle on about how deplorable it is while essentially ignoring the continued death and destruction.

Steyn then effectively compares our EU "allies" effectively to his "hippy-dippy" neighbors:

They're like my hippy-dippy Vermont neighbours who drive around with "Free Tibet" bumper stickers. Every couple of years, they trade in the Volvo for a Subaru, and painstakingly paste a new "Free Tibet" sticker on the back.

What are they doing to free Tibet? Nothing. Tibet is as unfree now as it was when they started advertising their commitment to a free Tibet. And it will be just as unfree when they buy their next car and slap on the old sticker one mo' time. If Don Rumsfeld were to say, 'Free Tibet'? That's a great idea!

The Third Infantry Division go in on Thursday', all the 'Free Tibet' crowd would be driving around with 'War is not the answer' stickers. When entire nations embrace self-congratulatory holier-than-thou moral poseurdom as a way of life, it's even less attractive. The Belgians weren't half as insufferable when they were the German army's preferred shortcut to France.

Memories are short in Europe. The US is expected to foot the defense bill while those who are being protected by our blood and treasure feel free to whine and cry about the application of force to situations which threaten their own security. Its absurd, but then, when you have no stake in the game, its easy to criticise those who do, even when they're defending your right to do so.

A wealthy continent liberated from the burdens of military expenditure is also liberated to a large degree from reality. Poor peoples have no choice but to live in the real world: if a drought wipes out their crops, they starve. Likewise, rich, powerful nations have traditionally required great vigilance to maintain their wealth and power.

But Europe increasingly resembles those insulated celebrities being shuttled around town from one humanitarian gala to another – like Barbra Streisand flying in by private jet to discuss excessive energy consumption with President Clinton. Just as elderly rockers and Hollywood divas are largely free from the tedious responsibilities of rich industrialists or supermarket magnates – payroll costs and plant upgrades – so the EU can flaunt its "concerns" about the world and leave the logistics to others.

And we're the others. We provincials have a duty, a duty I tell you, to defend those who denigrate our culture, our government, our president and our very way of life.

Well, not anymore. With the announced troop redeployment, the bill is coming due. Europe must once again face its responsiblities to itself in terms of defense. The welfare pie is going to get smaller, because they're actually going to have to, horror of horrors, consider building the militaries necessary to defend themselves!

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. For the wars of the future, it makes sense to have a mobile presence using old colonial bases in the Horn of Africa or old Soviet bases in Central Asia as temporary homes.

The EU, meanwhile, has challenges of its own, and in the coming clash between a shrinking secularised Euro-elite and its swelling Islamist populations it's not clear whether, as James Baker would say, America has a dog in that fight. The only question for the Continent is whether it's over over there in a more profound sense than those singing doughboys ever contemplated.

As we've noted here any number of times, alliances are made out of need, not friendship. Its time that the US address its needs (and it is with this troop realignment which is a very good idea) and let those who can afford to do the same, address their needs. Then, perhaps, we can talk again about alliances ... when we're all on equal footing relative to taking the responsiblity to defend ourselves.

And that goes for you too, Canada.

TrackBack