The Decay of European Security
Wow! Look at this picture of Kim Jong Il! Crazy!
At any rate, most of the stuff on the AFP SpaceWar service today isn't worth mentioning, but this article certainly is.
I'm not the only one who's been saying this. I've cited, and other bloggers have as well, this article from the Washington Post on the occasion of the entry of several new countries into NATO a couple of years ago.
Whether folks want to admit it or not, Europe has spent the last sixty years or so downsizing its military and seeking to solve every problem it faces with endless, meaningless, pointless discussions and negotiations. In the meantime, European security, prosperity, and peace has been built on American military power. Whether they were Soviets or Islamist radicals, the enemies of Europe kept their hands off because they knew that picking a fight with Europe, even a rusting, complacent Europe, meant picking a fight with their bat shit crazy American cousins. Whether it was intentional or not, our diplomatic European cousins diverted their national security budgets into social programs, like universal health care, pension schemes, and the like.
So now we're in 2005. European economies are shrinking, some of them on the verge of collapse. Liberal economic policies, such as months of standard holiday time for workers, high minimum wages, and short work weeks have coupled with the aforementioned social programs to become an albatross around the collective necks of European officials; because of political necessity, most of these individual can't push conservative reforms through, for fear of massive strikes by workers with a sense of entitlement.
The dividend for this, even in England, is an underpaid, understaffed, overworked military infrastructure. As unlikely as it sounds, if there was any sort of invasion attempt on the United Kingdom, the British people would be pretty much screwed, at least initially; and the Brits have the strongest military in the bunch. This system can't afford to continue much longer; not only are the social programs and liberal economic policies crippling the economies of these nations, but they no longer have any capacity to defend themselves, even with their fancy new battle groups.
These generals are absolutely right. Europeans need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and realize that the most important duty, the primary duty, of a central government is not to provide free health care or a government pension. The primary duty of a central government is the protection of its citizens; without citizens, government doesn't exist, nor do economies, medicines, banks, or even the freedoms that many of us enjoy blindly every day.
At any rate, most of the stuff on the AFP SpaceWar service today isn't worth mentioning, but this article certainly is.
Europe risks being unable to meet mounting security risks like international terrorism unless it reverses a failure to pool its defenses, two retired NATO commanders warned Wednesday.
US General Joseph Ralston and General Klaus Naumann of Germany said bluntly that European leaders have "lacked the political will" to improve military capabilities.
Their warnings were contained in a 97-page study presented to European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders in Brussels, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
"Failure to meaningfully improve Europe's collective defense capabilities in the coming years would have profoundly negative impacts on the ability of European countries to protect their interests," they said.
In addition such failure would harm "the viability of NATO as an alliance, and the ability of European countries to partner in any meaningful way with the US," they said.
I'm not the only one who's been saying this. I've cited, and other bloggers have as well, this article from the Washington Post on the occasion of the entry of several new countries into NATO a couple of years ago.
Whether folks want to admit it or not, Europe has spent the last sixty years or so downsizing its military and seeking to solve every problem it faces with endless, meaningless, pointless discussions and negotiations. In the meantime, European security, prosperity, and peace has been built on American military power. Whether they were Soviets or Islamist radicals, the enemies of Europe kept their hands off because they knew that picking a fight with Europe, even a rusting, complacent Europe, meant picking a fight with their bat shit crazy American cousins. Whether it was intentional or not, our diplomatic European cousins diverted their national security budgets into social programs, like universal health care, pension schemes, and the like.
So now we're in 2005. European economies are shrinking, some of them on the verge of collapse. Liberal economic policies, such as months of standard holiday time for workers, high minimum wages, and short work weeks have coupled with the aforementioned social programs to become an albatross around the collective necks of European officials; because of political necessity, most of these individual can't push conservative reforms through, for fear of massive strikes by workers with a sense of entitlement.
The dividend for this, even in England, is an underpaid, understaffed, overworked military infrastructure. As unlikely as it sounds, if there was any sort of invasion attempt on the United Kingdom, the British people would be pretty much screwed, at least initially; and the Brits have the strongest military in the bunch. This system can't afford to continue much longer; not only are the social programs and liberal economic policies crippling the economies of these nations, but they no longer have any capacity to defend themselves, even with their fancy new battle groups.
These generals are absolutely right. Europeans need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and realize that the most important duty, the primary duty, of a central government is not to provide free health care or a government pension. The primary duty of a central government is the protection of its citizens; without citizens, government doesn't exist, nor do economies, medicines, banks, or even the freedoms that many of us enjoy blindly every day.
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