On Wednesday, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted the following.
Looking at latest decisions of @realDonaldTrump someone could even think: with friends like that who needs enemies. But frankly, EU should be grateful. Thanks to him we got rid of all illusions. We realise that if you need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) May 16, 2018
Who needs enemies?
The vacuous stupidity of that statement is defined by what lies east and south of Brussels, where Tusk is based.
After all, to the east lies massed Russian combined arms formations. Those formations are not deterred by the European Union’s rhetoric, but by the raw power of U.S. armored brigade combat teams and U.S. Air Force strike fighters.
To the south lies the threat of the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations. And the ability of those enemies to slaughter Europeans would be greatly empowered if not for the unique capabilities of the U.S. intelligence community.
Of course, Tusk knows full well that Trump could withdraw all these defensive capabilities against “enemies” at a moment’s notice. But he also knows that the U.S. won’t do that.
Correspondingly, Tusk’s is the most pathetically ironic of tweets. He fires off his tweets while sitting secure in his office shielded by Europe’s alliance with America. Now the European liberal intelligentsia applaud Tusk’s insults to Trump, and thus to America, but soon they shall go to bed secured under the umbrella of American security.
Unfortunately, Tusk’s attitude is an increasingly common refrain in Europe, shared, for example, by German Chancellor Angela Merkel who claims that Europe now handles its own security (it doesn’t).
But if rendered to its fullest actuation (America’s withdrawal of friendship from Europe) Tusk’s arrogance would render truth to Europe in the hardest form. Or as Shakespeare put it in “Henry V“: “His jest will savor but of shallow wit, when thousands weep more than did laugh at it.”
Fortunately, not all Europeans agree with Tusk. For one, Tusk’s home nation of Poland is a strong American ally.
