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When JD Vance entered the stage at the Munich Security Conference last week, he published a strict warning. The US Vice President informed the assembled politicians and diplomats that freedom of speech and democracy are attacked by European elites: “The threat that I most obtained about Vines-vis-Europe is not Russia, it is not China, but also. . . The threat from inside. ”
If Vance hoped to convince his audience instead of simply insulting it, he failed. In fact, His speech Spectacularly backfire, many listeners convince that America itself is a threat to Europe. In the crowd in front of the conference hall, a prominent German politician told me: “It was a direct attack on European democracy.” A high -ranking diplomat said: “It is now very clear that Europe is alone.” When I asked him if he was now considering the USA as an opponent, he replied: “Yes.”
The most positive judgment I heard about the speech was that it was “learner bullshit”, but aimed at a US audience and was therefore certainly ignored. But unpacking vances – and in the context of Donald Trump’s decision to hire Vladimir Putin while Ukraine and Europe are used – and it becomes clear that American cultural wars, international security and European politics can no longer be relieved.
Vance did it to undermine the ideas of freedom, democracy and common values that the Western Alliance has underpinned for 80 years. In his world, the struggle for freedom in Europe is no longer about preventing a autocratic and aggressive Russia, as it was for Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan. Vance’s struggle for freedom is a struggle for “western civilization”, as defined by Elon Musk and others, before the twin threats of a mass immigration and the “Woke Mind Virus”.
The ideology of the Trump management means that it is now more affinity for Putin in an important way Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Putin is seen as a warrior who fights for his country and for conservative values; The Ukrainian is released as a freel loader with all the false friends in Europe.
The Trump administration sees European law rights like its true allies. Vance urges Vance to commit to the government in the government (AfD) in the government, in a larger version of Viktor Orbáns Hungary – A soft autocracy with a weakness for Putin’s Russia. It was to be described that Vance found time in Munich to meet Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AfD, but not with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Before we consider the effects on Europe, we should pause to consider his deep hypocrisy. Trump tried to overthrow the US presidential elections in 2020. And his Vice President suspects to inform Europeans about respect for democracy?
Vance’s arguments were classic “cheekboutism” in Russian style-wobia the attention of the attack of the US Democratic Institutions of the US institutions and the impending betrayal of Ukraine-with anecdotes on the alleged persecution of activists against abortions in Great Britain. Whether he believes this is of purely psychological interest. It is the strategic effects on Europe that are important.
Trump clearly intends to complete a deal with Putin about the heads of Zelenskyy and the Europeans. That could be tragic consequences for UkraineWhat can be asked soon to accept territory loss without security guarantees for the future. The alternative would be to fight without American help without American help.
The effects for the rest of Europe are also alarming. Putin wants NATO troops to be removed from the entire former Soviet empire. European civil servants believe that Trump will probably agree to withdraw US troops from the Baltics and maybe further west of what the EU has violated for a Russian army warn Prepares for a larger conflict beyond Ukraine.
It is clear that the United States can no longer be seen as a reliable ally for Europeans. However, the political ambitions of the Trump government for Europe mean that America is initially an opponent – which threatens democracy in Europe and even in European territory, in the case of Greenland.
So what to do? Europeans have to start Preparation Quick for the day when the US security guarantee is definitely removed for Europe. This must include the structure of autonomous defense industries. It should also mean a European mutual defense pact outside of NATO that goes beyond the EU – to include Britain, Norway and others.
Trump will use any leverage to force the European allies of America to comply with questions from trade and security to their domestic politics. This means that Europe now has to start the painful process of “removing” its relationship with the United States, according to areas with dangerous dependence on America and the removal from the system.
The confidence of critical infrastructure with musk would create a great new susceptibility to security. The Trump government will also put enormous pressure on Europeans to buy more American weapons. Under current circumstances that would be foolishness.
Many Europeans will join these ideas and reject them as impossible. But you have to understand that your freedom is now at stake. Vance was right about it. Just not as he thought.
