Humpty Dumpty & Old World Order

30 May, 2003 by John Hawkins

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Humpty Dumpty & The Old World Order: There’s no question that the relationship between America and Europe has changed drastically in the post 9/11 world. Victor Davis Hanson explains what the difference is…

“Our troubles with Europe are said to arise from differing views of the world order and an imbalance in military power. Yet these new tensions cannot truly be understood without the appreciation that there are no longer 300 Soviet divisions poised to plow through West Germany. With such a common threat, natural differences between Europe and the United States – from the positioning of Pershing tactical missiles on German soil to prevent Soviet nuclear intimidation, to continental criticism of the American role in Vietnam and Central America – always were aired within certain understood and relatively polite parameters of common history and interests.

America, after all, was appreciated for ending Hitler’s rule – and immediately after for pledging its youth and national security in an effort at keeping a murderous totalitarianism out of a recovering Europe. With a common and deadly enemy nearby, Western Europeans had no utopian illusions that the United Nations, rather than NATO and America, could stop an aggressive Soviet premier should he choose to fire up his tanks. The idea that a German president would bark out anti-American invective at a mass rally would have been inconceivable 20 years ago. But now Herr Schroeder does so routinely – not because his people hate us or because we his deserve antipathy, but simply because he can.”

Bingo. No matter what America or Europe does, it’s not going to be like it was before the aftershocks of 9/11 decimated the last remnants of the world order formed in response to the Cold War. Humpty Dumpty has been shattered into a thousand pieces and nobody is going to be able to put him back on his wall…