What makes you think European nations can’t or don’t want to defend themselves ? We’ve had 3000 years of that, and got very good at it.
We don’t need America.
Particularly since America, rightly, only fights wars in her own — often foolish — interest. And desperately grabs at any other nation to join in *, whining pitifully and bullying ruthlessly. If Trump cuts down on both wars and alliances that’s dandy.
I think you have outdated information. Here is his latest comment on the subject.
Pussy Riot is going to take down Putin, Remember? Any day now…
Why exactly do you think Trump crossed out that line from his speech in Europe?
He just forgot?
No, he did it on purpose. So what was his purpose on deliberately not saying it during the Europe trip?
I’m not sure you’re getting this; the stupid fuck is a narcissistic, infantile game show host.
There’s a whole world out here with a bunch of problems and the grown ups have to take care of that. The world has no choice other than to put the USA to one side for the duration.
So you think the United States created NATO in a fit of altruism? Like, those ungrateful European socialists would have been happy to surrender to Stalin until the US bullied them into joining NATO?
And we give and give and give, and get nothing in return, not even a thank you?
Hey, if the world wants to solve poverty / the Israeli-Palestinian conflict / global warming / war and suffering / proliferation of nuclear weapons / etc and not involve the US, more power to 'em. I’ll applaud their efforts if / when they succeed. We’ve tried, and have an admittedly mixed record, so maybe it’s best if someone else takes a stab at it, and we can have our turn to sit back and sling shit at their best efforts.
America has tried to solve poverty and global warming? Really?
And you’re implying that Europe would do better by relying on Trump’s administration to help with those things? Really?
Yeah, don’t you remember this?
I’m not trying to imply anything about what would be better for Europe. They are big boys and girls, they can make their own choices about what they think is best.
Putin may have awakened a sleeping giant, but for now it’s mostly just yawning and scratching itself.
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There’s a whole world out here with a bunch of problems and the grown ups have to take care of that. The world has no choice other than to put the USA to one side for the duration.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, sure it does. I’ll just be holding my breath over here on the sidelines waiting for the ‘grown ups’ in Europe and the rest of The World™ to start tackling those issues, shall I? 
Yeah, it’s a giant that won’t commit to getting up and will soon fall asleep again. And that’s just the European nations, the US giant is half stupid and wondering what that sound from the alarm clock is.
Poverty = Forced Libertarian Austerity economics + Charity in place of Welfare.
Israel-Palestine = Any day now Trump ( or Special Rapporteur Obama ) will bring peace and unity, with an entire refrainment of chucking drones at the problem.
Global Warming = Seriously ?
War and Suffering = Trump makes further billion dollar arms deals with the good guys. Or at least the Saudis.
Proliferation of nuclear weapons = I don’t feel any different about any nuke being owning by another country: one is too many. Especially if pointed at me.
Best Efforts ???
eh?
I can’t speak for all those issues, but poverty and global warming are issues that China seems to be taking the lead in solving.
Now China is forming trade deals with Africa which will hopefully lift that continent out of poverty.
Also China is by far the #1 spender on renewable energy. The globe spent maybe $286 billion on renewables in 2015, of that about $103 came from China. About $45 came from the US.
So China is creating a massive market for renewables, as well as producing solar panels cheaply which is helping the world transition.
I’m glad too, I don’t want to live in a unipolar world. A world where the US, EU and China are all superpowers would probably be better for everyone. A world where China leads on science and technology, anti-poverty efforts, etc and the EU leads on promoting liberal values globally (democracy and human rights) would be nice. I think the US is becoming too dysfunctional to lead anymore.
Europe is doomed. They have lost the will to stand up for themselves.
Putin / Russia or being over run by Muslims from immigration they will not stop and birth rates. Take your pick, they won’t stand up to either. Europe as we know it know will be a long dead relic in 100 years.
This is so parochial. Like Europe doesn’t exist outside a USA context.
I suggest you people start to re-think the significance of the USA as portrayed in US media. You could start by reassessing the value of those giant cocks the USA insists on floating around the world.
Add India and the developing world into this mix and you see the new game in town:
‘New game’ meaning an article 3 years old about a Russian/Chinese trade partnership that hasn’t really done that much to help either countries economy out of the doldrums they have been in for years now?
Of course, if I ask you how the world sees either China or Russia today, I’m sure I’ll get an equally rose colored view, right? Especially since you are a big Putin fanboy and all.
As for Europe, well, they certainly exist outside of a US context…I have to reluctantly agree with you there. But I don’t think that Europe is quite in a position to dump the US for the brave new world of friendship and trade paradise with Russia. You have a very anti-American slant to your worldview, and a very pro-Russian one, but even you should be able to see that from the perspective of markets Russian’s one trick pony isn’t going to allow for the Europeans to shift away from American in any meaningful way…even if you do have some fantasy that Europe can ignore America wrt military alliances and rely solely on the new German ‘leader of the free world’.
I always find these discussions very ironic when folks talk about the US and all the bad stuff we have, admittedly, done…only to bring up the brave new world awaiting us all with the clear eyed leadership of China and Russia. Or threads that talk about how China is the clean energy leader, poised to bring Africa out of the dark ages and into a new world of prosperity and trade…without actually bothering to look into some of the things that China has actually done in Africa, or has done wrt their own environment and environmental policies. It’s certainly a double standard, but to me it’s also willful ignorance…it’s not like stories about what China and Russia actually do aren’t available out there.
I don’t know that I see it as the europeans telling the US to go take a walk, but more that the US has decided to go take a walk, and so europe is doing what it can to pick up the slack in our absence.
The other gist of the argument is that europe has not needed to stand up for itself, with the US acting as an umbrella. With us out of the way, they need to stand on their own. There is no reason to suspect they can’t, it’s just that they haven’t had to.
The US is withdrawing itself as a influential world power in leadership, culture, and economics, and threatening to do the same militarily. The rest of the world’s reaction to that will be mixed. While I think there will be some improvements, I think there will be quite a number of worsening of situations as well. In either case, the world will continue to spin, and people will go about their business with or without us.
One might not like, or trust, China or Russia nor any other large power, but there’s no reason to continue with the USA in preference.
Which USA probably won’t be still around at all, or at the least as the same unitary entity, in a 100 years. It’s only 250 years old now, very young by European or Chinese standards, and already in deep stress.
Putin/Russia are actually fairly weak; they are not the Russian Empire in the 19th century or even the USSR in the 20th. Muslim immigration is annoying, if one is not keen on that religion, but they are still a small percentage; and by the time they become much larger our secularization will neutralize their religion.
It’s kind of WEIRD for a country which willingly decided to go from around 85% white up to the 1960s to a projected white minority by 2050 to wag it’s finger and lecture Europe on the dangers of racial change. If you ascribe Europe’s baby changes to European Weakness, what does that say about America ?