{"id":750,"date":"2012-05-29T22:04:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T22:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=750"},"modified":"2013-02-21T22:07:05","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T22:07:05","slug":"the-eu-at-the-abyss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-eu-at-the-abyss\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU at the Abyss"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the last four years, almost all of the news about the shaky European Union has been financial, with some attention paid to southern Mediterranean tabloid attacks on Germany and the German media counter-stereotyping of irresponsible siesta-loving sunny Mediterraneans.<\/p>\n

But as Greece falls apart, and as panic spreads to other debtors, we are starting to see a stage II political crisis, with socialists and extremists, both left and right, revolting over \u201causterity\u201d \u2014 or rather over the mere taste of austerity that has never been really swallowed in whole. But all the defiant nationalist showboating and whipping up of domestic constituents will not bring salvation, just more polarization outside their borders. (Witness Greek \u201cnationalists\u201d damning Germans as Nazis as they use war-guilt and conspiracy theory to beg Germany for more money without ever acknowledging why it is that they are in need of it.)<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s next? Unless there is some sort of miraculous political fix, the bankruptcy and internal volatility will start to transcend domestic politics and manifest itself, as it always has in Europe, in blame-gaming against \u201cthem\u201d (pick your foreign bogeyman). Then the question will be not just a common currency but the very viability of the European Union itself, and perhaps of the NATO alliance, such as it is in its present eroding state.<\/p>\n

Not since 1940 has Europe found itself so weak and incoherent in comparison to a unified and solvent Germany. And the present disconnect of nations that did most things wrong publicly demonizing Germans for doing most things right \u2014 while privately begging them for more bailout cash and guarantees \u2014 simply is politically untenable. If this continues, I would not be surprised to see a Mediterranean Franco, Salazar, Mussolini, or Metaxas emerge soon, albeit in pinstripes and with a tasteful villa on the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n

The lead-from-behind US is of little or no help. While private consensus grows in Europe that the entitlement state got them into this mess, we in America areracing<\/a>\u00a0to embrace the old failed EU paradigm of exploding unfunded entitlements, vast deficits, high taxes, bigger government, and class warfare. And as our first \u201cPacific president\u201d turns toward Asia, and cuts back on defense, the message is that the US has neither the will nor the resources to offer any financial, military, or political guidance to Europe. We simply are no longer a credible alternative model or a reliable partner for Europe, either materially or financially. I believe that the long-term political worry may not be the present cheap demonization of Germany \u2014 but just how long Germany is going to put up with it.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92012 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner Over the last four years, almost all of the news about the shaky European Union has been financial, with some attention paid to southern Mediterranean tabloid attacks on Germany and the German media counter-stereotyping of irresponsible siesta-loving sunny Mediterraneans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[282],"tags":[42,77,1050,149,107,63,1056],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-c6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":667,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/germany-may-destroy-europe-for-the-third-time-really\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":0},"title":"‘Germany May Destroy Europe for the Third Time’–Really?","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner In open worries that the EU disaster may spread to the US and thereby endanger the reelection of Barack Obama, campaign consultant Bob Shrum recently\u00a0wrote: If Chancellor Angela Merkel remains unyieldingly wedded to austerity or finally reacts too slowly and too late to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":698,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/austerity-versus-growth\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":1},"title":"‘Austerity’ versus ‘Growth’","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Who would not prefer \u201cgrowth\u201d to \u201causterity\u201d? That is the false dichotomy that insolvent Western governments, both here and abroad, are now constructing. After all, everyone prefers growing things to starving them. Yet in truth, there is no such clear-cut choice. In other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1077,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-coin-toss-on-eu-crisis-for-germany-heads-we-lose-tails-you-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":2},"title":"The Coin Toss on EU Crisis For Germany: Heads We Lose, Tails You Win","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's \u00a0The Corner Watching the current EU dramatics over southern Mediterranean debt reminds me of the farm crisis of 1982\u20134 when lots of big farming concerns around here defaulted on what they owed banks. At first, the banks with tough talk demanded sharp cut-backs, immediate overdue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The EU"","block_context":{"text":"The EU","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/the-eu\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/which-way-greece\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":3},"title":"Which Way Greece?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's The Corner One question that rarely arises about Greece is \u201cwhere did all those hundreds of billions of Euros really go?\u201d I think most visitors could easily answer that they were not all squandered on pensions and inflated government staffs and salaries. The Greece of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Greece"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":760,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/let-sleeping-germans-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":4},"title":"Let Sleeping Germans Lie","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The newly elected French Socialist president, Francois Hollande, is warning Germany that Mediterranean ideas of \"growth,\" not Germanic \"austerity,\" should be the new European creed. No surprise there \u2014 reckless debtors often blame their own past imprudence on greedy creditors, especially if the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Germany"","block_context":{"text":"Germany","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/germany\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":706,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dont-let-america-imitate-a-burning-eu\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":5},"title":"Don’t Let America Imitate a Burning EU","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Traveling through Europe can obscure the looming crisis threatening the continent. Visiting the medieval villages of Alsace, the castles on the Rhine, or the magnificent cathedrals in Basel or Cologne, it\u2019s easy to forget that Europe is on the brink of disaster. But these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}