OPINION:
Even before President Trump’s National Security Strategy was released, European governments were nearly frantic with worry that the United States was no longer a reliable ally. In European terms, that means that the U.S., which has shouldered the burden of defending Europe since World War II, is no longer willing to bear that burden alone. Mr. Trump, as he should, has made it profoundly clear that we no longer will.
The Europeans are now in a huge snit over the National Security Strategy’s use of the term “civilizational erasure” to depict what will happen to the European Union’s members if they don’t come to their senses. It would be enormously funny if the situation weren’t so serious.
The National Security Strategy reads: “But this [European] economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure. The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the EU and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.”
The document calls for the restoration of the “Western identity” without which a civilizational erasure will occur.
Mr. Trump said last week that European leaders were “weak,” which is rather obvious. What the National Security Strategy said about “civilizational erasure” is entirely accurate.
Mass immigration from Muslim countries is changing the face of Europe. The largest Muslim populations in Europe, according to 2016 estimates, are in France (8.8%), Germany (6.1%) and Britain (6.3%). Those numbers have certainly increased in nine years. The Muslim populations are growing quickly because of essentially unrestrained immigration and the fact that Muslim populations are younger and multiply faster than the national norms.
According to the Pew Research Center, Muslim populations in Europe are expected to rise from the current average level of 4.9% to 7.4% by 2050. As the Pew report said, “In this scenario, Muslims could make up 14% of Europe’s population by 2050, nearly triple the current share, but still considerably smaller than the populations of both Christians and people with no religion in Europe.” That may well underestimate what will happen. Europe may be unrecognizable before 2050.
Immigration is only one problem, albeit the most obvious. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, European social welfare economies are unsustainable. These economies cannot maintain their social and welfare programs without a financial bailout, which neither the U.S. nor any other nation is willing to provide.
Mr. Trump’s National Security Strategy points out many facts about Europe, and they all add up to this: Europeans haven’t been willing to defend their cultures, which brought enlightenment to the world after the Dark Ages. Europe should be proud of its sovereignties, cultures and religions, but instead it has gradually surrendered them all to the quasi-socialist EU.
In 1961, French President Charles de Gaulle rebelled against NATO because it was dominated by the U.S. Speaking of NATO, de Gaulle said, “Any system that would consist of handing over our sovereignty to august international assemblies would be incompatible with the rights and duties of the French Republic.” De Gaulle was unconcerned by the EU, of which France was a founding member in 1958.
Since then, the EU has taken control of much of France’s sovereignty and those of other EU members by enacting laws and issuing regulations and standards that control members’ industries and cultures. Were European leaders stronger, they would be defending their cultures, religions and free speech.
We have done little better. America is a proudly Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian values and principles. We, too, have fallen into the fear that people refer to as “political correctness” and “wokeism.” Those concepts are mere cowardice and require the surrender of our freedoms, religions and culture.
Why do we accept or even welcome criticisms from nations and leaders far below us on the scales of freedom and liberty? Why, for that matter, do we as Americans not denounce the words of those who want to tear down our culture and create in its place something not founded upon freedom?
If we continue to follow the European Union’s example, it will result not only in Europe’s civilizational erasure but ours as well. American exceptionalism isn’t just a theory; it’s a fact. Our Constitution is a guarantee of freedom that no other nation can match. We dare not forget that.
• Jed Babbin is a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Times and a contributing editor for The American Spectator.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.