European Hypocrisy on Pacifism and China

It appears Ward is not the only one who is laughing at the European twin pillars of pacifism and military might. Tom Friedman is noting that at the moment Europe is spending almost nothing on its own defense while it is selling China billions of dollars of war-making machinery. The problem is not just that Europe is leaving itself open to attack, but that it is strengthening what is likely to be an enemy in some future war. What happens if war breaks out that threatens Europe and the U.S. is unable to respond (perhaps due to our own domestic crisis)?

God save the Europeans if they ever felt the need to confront a nuclear-armed Iran. U.S. defense spending will be over $400 billion in 2005. I wish it could be less, but one reason it can't is that the United States of Europe is spending less than half of what we are. And the U.S. and E.U. really are the pillars of global stability...The U.S. is building 180 C-17 long-range lift aircraft to transport troops and tanks anywhere in the world, and 112 C-5's, to replace the aging C-141's. The European NATO members have exactly four C-17's. They all belong to Britain and even those are leased from Boeing. The Europeans are so short of long-range lift aircraft that they basically have to depend on leased Russian and Ukrainian Antonov transports to get to the battlefield. George Robertson, the former NATO secretary general, used to ask them what they would do if a war broke out during the Christmas season, when most of the Antonovs are leased to toy companies shipping electronic games around the world. Ride, mister? ...If Europe wants to go pacifist, that's fine. But there is nothing worse than a pacifist that sells arms - especially in a way that increases the burden on its U.S. ally and protector.

How long can the U.S. be both the world's policeman and the world's punching bag? Eventually, Europe is going to have to help with this task... unless they want the rising Middle East democracies to be the next real forces for freedom in the world? Wow, talk about a turnaround.