Although I am not the chairman of the “We Love Europe!” fan club, a little perspective is needed here. According to the BBC, Germany’s deployment in Afghanistan is its first major combat mission since World War II, so frustration over how it ended is deeply ingrained. Before the elections to be held later this month, Germany’s conservative Chancellor candidate Amin Raschelt called the U.S. withdrawal “the biggest disaster that NATO has experienced since its inception.”
Czech President Milos Zeman increased the bet, calling Biden’s failure “cowardly” and adding: “The Americans have lost the prestige of global leaders.”
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt told the BBC that Europeans’ expectations of Biden proved to be too high.
When Joe Biden came in, the expectations were high-maybe too high, they were unrealistic. His “America is back” hints at the golden age of our relationship.
But this did not happen, and it changed in a relatively short period of time. The complete lack of consultation on the issue of troop withdrawal left scars.
Actually needless to say it, Nathalie Loiseau, who served as France’s European Minister until 2019, almost told the BBC that Europe is now experiencing Trump’s withdrawal.
Many EU countries are in a state of denial. They think they should wait until Trump is gone and we will return to the “old normal”. But that “old normal” no longer exists. I hope this is a wake-up call for us.
to be honest. A large part of each of us must like the regrets of the generally smug European leaders and the remorse of buyers, right? Oh, hell, yes, we do.
.@POTUS @vice president Speaking of repairing relations with EU/UK allies… well, how is it going? #LiftTheTravelBan https://t.co/yFD8u4k58O
-Sebastian Wolf 🇳🇱🇺🇸 #LiftTheTravelBan (@ wulffman89) September 1, 2021
So what is Europe’s attitude towards Trump?
Nathalie Tocci, an adviser to the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and a visiting professor at Harvard University, told the BBC that Europe’s problem with Donald Trump lies not in his foreign policy, but in “America first” and in how he “seems to cheer on” Russia’s Freud. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping of China.
The main differences under Trump’s leadership have nothing to do with specific foreign policy decisions, but more that we suddenly did not share the same values.
The true trauma of Trumpism lies not only in “America First”, but also in his closer relationship with Xi Jinping and Putin. The fact that we are on the same side with Afghanistan has not been questioned.
What has changed is that Europe is increasingly concerned that as the United States withdraws from the world, it may be very committed to protecting American values-but what about other places?
Former French Minister Lovaso said that European leaders are now worried about their safety.
[C]Countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany have always believed that they can rely mainly on the United States to ensure safety. So of course they worry that the times have changed. But we often say that we should reconsider the way NATO operates. We should not stay in a state of denial.
Europeans even opposed Biden because of COVID vaccination.
Margaritis Schinas, Vice President of the European Commission, told the BBC that he had cancelled plans for his next trip to the United States [this] Zhou “Because I think it’s fair for travel rules to lack reciprocity.” The European Union has now removed the United States from its travel “safe list”-seen by many as an example of growing tensions.
“Once upon a time, the United States talked about maintaining the global order,” Sweden’s Bildt told the BBC.
But this is not the language now coming out of the White House. Expectations for the revival of transatlantic relations have fallen through. One succumbed to an America that behaved in its own way.
I’m confused. Didn’t Joe tell us that not only did he hear zero complaints from European leaders, but how many people actually called to tell him they supported his actions?
After Macron criticized him for “abandoning” his Afghan ally, Boris Johnson called on him to put him in the dark:
“The leaders of the Group of Seven and the leaders of the European Union, NATO and the United Nations all agree that we will treat the Taliban as one.” pic.twitter.com/NQfS6GWIi0
-Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 24, 2021
Wait—you don’t think Joe is…I dare to say… lie, you? Why I never did.
