Europe: The Reality of Responsibility

Today I listened to a fascinating interview by Dennis Prager of Leon de Winter, a Dutch columnist. He confirmed something that I had long suspected: the presence of George W. Bush in the White House was exceptionally convenient for the leaders of Western Europe because they could disagree with him on most everything and their anti-American stance would benefit them in the polls. But now that there's an American leader with whom they can "sit down and discuss things", they now actually have to . . . well, DO SOMETHING!

Ever since World War 2 the countries of Western Europe have been able to avoid many responsibilities and the associated spending. Why? Because the United States of America has done it for them. Never was this so apparent than during the last 8 years.

Now that Barack Obama is the President, he's willing to give Europe much but in exchange he's requesting that Europe do their part too. And as de Winter said, this is scaring the European leaders beyond belief. Because now they . . . wait for it . . . are going to have to pay their own way (much connected with defence and NATO responsibilities), these politicians are wondering where they're going to get the money. Cut social programs that most Europeans have deemed as rights? That's a sure recipe for defeat at the next election.

Interesting times!

If you read Dutch, you can visit his website here.