Europe Doesn’t Need the United States Anymore Until EU leaders accept that the continent can stand on its own feet and Americans give up the role of global police, dependency on Washington will continue. :

 

An expert's point of view on a current event.

Europe Doesn’t Need the United States Anymore

Until EU leaders accept that the continent can stand on its own feet and Americans give up the role of global police, dependency on Washington will continue.

By Rajan Menon, the director of the grand strategy program at Defense Priorities, a professor emeritus at the City College of New York, and a senior research fellow at Columbia University. , and Daniel R. DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek.

French President Emmanuel Macron, followed by French Armies Minister Sebastien Lecornu (2nd R), walks past a Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft at the Mont-de-Marsan air base, on Jan. 20.

French President Emmanuel Macron, followed by French Armies Minister Sebastien Lecornu (2nd R), walks past a Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft at the Mont-de-Marsan air base, on Jan. 20. BOB EDME/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

JANUARY 30, 2023, 2:02 PM

The Russian military’s weaknesses have been apparent since the early days of the war in the Ukraine. The staggering losses in troops and equipment, Moscow’s inability to adequately equip or even supply its troops, and the multiple shifts in command—Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov being Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest choice—have exposed the myth of the Russian army’s supposed invincibility.

The jostling between Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group—a private army active in the key battles of Soledar and Bakhmut—and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as well as Russia’s high command attests to deep and persistent friction among the very people Putin counts on to run the war and attain victory.

Still, nearly a year since the invasion began, Russia is still regarded by many as a formidable military power and a dire threat, not only to Ukraine itself but also to Europe as a whole. This continues to be the predominant lesson drawn from the Russian military’s decision to invade what is—the European part of Russia aside—Europe’s largest country in land area and one of its most populous.