© AFP 2016/ CHRISTOF STACHE
Salvatore Babones, National Interest: Can Germany Defend Europe On Its Own?
Most of NATO’s frontline members in eastern and southern Europe are doing their part. Germany is not.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has reaffirmed her position as the unlikely superhero of Europe’s liberal elites. Twelve years in power and facing a difficult election in September, she struck out at the least popular man in Europe: Donald Trump.
Fresh from last week’s G-7 summit, Merkel took a dig at Trump that won her liberal friends around the world. At a Sunday election rally in Munich, she declared that “the times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over -- I experienced that in the last few days.” The last few days, that is, meeting with Trump.
That’s not rousing rhetoric, to be sure, but the world took her point. Alarmist headlines about the disintegration of the postwar order appeared throughout the world. Even in the United States there was talk of the United States losing its “closest and oldest allies.”
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WNU Editor: German Chancellor Merkel's rhetoric is one thing .... reality on the ground is something else as the above commentary points out.