NATO and Europe's Ridiculous Fantasies

The latest NATO meeting was about how Europe can continue to get the US to keep protecting it from its hungry neighbor to the East. Europeans like the idea of being protected without having to make more than symbolic efforts to protect themselves. Tiny countries with the population of a small world city think they should be able to keep their own customs, borders, toy armies and national independence without bearing much of the cost.

Europe has sufficient population and more than sufficient economic power to protect itself, but it is unwilling to make the kind of sacrifices of petty jealousies that would make it strong. What it needs is what the thirteen colonies of the original United States finally recognized they needed - a unified nation with a unified politics, economy and military.

Chances of that actually happening anytime soon would probably challenge the probabilistic fantasies of Star Trek's Mr. Spock.

If Putin's man Trump wins the election, though, Europe might find out the cost of its inability to unify.

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