Trump’s war on Europe

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":4.44,"text":"“We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.” Thus, in his inaugural address of January 20 1961, did President John F Kennedy declare the aims of his administration. It was the height of the cold war. For the inhabitants of a divided Europe, the speech was electrifying. In retrospect, this vaunting ambition led to the over-reach of the Vietnam war. But it was also an indication of an ennobling idea — that of a superpower with a moral purpose. Despite all the failures, people continued to believe in its purpose: in contrast to the Nazis and communists, the US believed in freedom and democracy."}],[{"start":59.04,"text":"For no people has this commitment been more significant than Europeans. Ultimately, it led to the collapse of the Soviet empire, the liberation of central and eastern Europe and a new era of unification, peace and prosperity. As so often in history, hopes have been disappointed. They have been disappointed by the rise of xenophobic and anti-democratic forces inside Europe, by the resurgence of an authoritarian, revanchist and bellicose Russia, and by the seething hostility to the core ideas of contemporary Europe from the second administration of Donald Trump."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":99.47999999999999,"text":"The new National Security Strategy of the United States of America has many strange features. But the strangest, and for Europeans the most disturbing, is that they alone are now seen as the only ideological enemies of the US. In the rest of the document, interests are seen as merely material rather than ideological. Threats to democracy and freedom now come only from their opponents within the US and its closest allies."}],[{"start":130.51,"text":"Thus, it asserts, that the powers of the US government must never be “abused . . . under the guise of . . . ‘protecting our democracy’”. Just below (and not by accident) it asserts: “We will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world, especially among our allies”. Furthermore, “American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":185.20999999999998,"text":"The significance is clear: the chief US aim for Europe is to help put rightwing “patriots” into power across the continent. Moreover, it insists, attempts to resist such parties are themselves anti-democratic. Yet it is worth remembering that, unlike the US (until now), Europeans have painful memories of the consequences of granting right-wing extremists the right to seek power democratically. They still recall how Hitler came to power."}],[{"start":217.39,"text":"Alas, this alliance between the US and Europe’s far right is quite deliberate. The document declares the desire to protect Europe from the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure” by the institutions of the EU, mass migration, censorship of “free speech” and suppression of political opposition. The import is made clear: “Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory.” How does the US intend to “correct” that trajectory? Evidently, by helping today’s right-wing authoritarians, neo-fascists and Putin-admirers into power."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":255.82,"text":"Much of the rest of this document strikes me as vacuous or ridiculous. I can see, for example, no coherent strategy for dealing with China. It also contains a firm belief that countries will continue to trust the US no matter how unfairly, irrationally and unpredictably it behaves, notably over tariffs and other means of exacting concessions. It suggests that the US can force South America into a state of subjection, despite the rising influence of China. It is convinced that US technological supremacy will survive the country’s war on science and racist hostility to immigrants. But one statement is indeed important, namely that “We reject the disastrous ‘climate change’ and ‘Net Zero’ ideologies that have so greatly harmed Europe, threaten the United States, and subsidise our adversaries.” This, then, is a way to hand the future to China."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":317.90999999999997,"text":"Yet it is for Europeans, above all, that this new strategy is most significant. It shows that they are on their own in defending Ukraine. Worse, it shows that the US wishes to break the EU as an institution and put power into the hands of Trump’s and Putin’s lickspittles. It will be hugely difficult for the Europeans — suffering from learned helplessness, fragmented, and scarred by the memories of the two world wars — to rouse themselves. But there is no alternative, other than a collapse. Much of this applies, too, to the UK, which decided to embark on Brexit at what turned out to be a disastrous time."}],[{"start":359.76,"text":"So what is to be done? The immediate aim must be to support Ukraine, with whatever means necessary and in whatever way feasible, into a just and stable peace. Europe must also create an effective counter to Russian threats. An excellent proposal from Philipp Hildebrand, Hélène Rey and Moritz Schularick for “European defence governance and financing” is much to the point."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":386.4,"text":"When I re-read Kennedy’s words, I imagined a spoof Trump version: “We shall exact any sum, impose any burden, inflict any hardship, oppose any friend and befriend any foe to assure the wealth and power of me, my family and friends.” Yet even if Trump were as self-interested and transactional as this, Maga is not. Noah Smith argues that the “American right values Europe because they think of it as a White Christian homeland.” If today’s liberal Europe is to endure, these reactionary fantasies must be confronted and defeated."}],[{"start":432.21999999999997,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1765954859_9993.mp3"}