Decanus 🇩🇪🇪🇺

🇺🇸🇪🇺 MARCO RUBIO: "If Europe won’t allow us to use the bases we man and fund for their defense, we ought to close them down and remove our troops."

What if America is already far richer than anyone in the swamp is allowed to admit? What if the real drag on the Republic isn’t taxes, isn’t debt, isn’t even the deficit, it’s Europe? What if NATO was never a mutual defense pact, but a 75-year subscription America forgot to cancel? What if “burden sharing” is the most expensive euphemism in the English language? What if the City of London cabal is draining our banks? What if the advice from globalists is terrible advice that’s costing us big? What if every European basing agreement, every forward-deployed brigade, every Ramstein runway, every Aviano hangar, every Souda Bay pier is a tax American workers pay so Berlin can run a welfare state and Paris can run a 35-hour week? What if foreign aid to Europe isn’t aid, it’s tribute, flowing the wrong way? What if transporting the vast majority of trade on European owned ships costs more than we realize? What if the NGO archipelago in Brussels, Geneva, and The Hague is just a money-laundering loop where US taxpayer dollars get rinsed through a “civil society” conference and returned as lectures about our democracy? What if the UN isn’t a parliament of man, it’s a Manhattan timeshare with diplomatic plates, an accounting black hole, and a Human Rights Council chaired by people who’d jail you for tweeting this? What if “the rules-based international order” was always code for: Americans build it, Americans pay for it, Americans bleed for it, and Europeans grade it? What if $36 trillion in debt looks a lot smaller the second you stop underwriting a continent that sneers at you in three languages? What if you zeroed out the Europe line, the NATO line, the UN line, the NGO line, and woke up tomorrow in a country with the fiscal headroom to rebuild every shipyard, every foundry, every rail line, and every Navy hull we’ve let rot since the Cold War ended? What if American tourists went to American cathedrals, American opera, American museums, American cities instead. I’m not saying I believe all of it. I’m saying maybe, just maybe, we could pay down all our debt and wouldn’t have to pay taxes at all if we cut Europe loose.

Übrigens: das gilt auch für unsere Rolle im Nahen Osten. Der Schaden dadurch, dass wir die Amerikaner hängen lassen, wird immens sein. So einfach kann man es sich nicht machen - gegeben, dass der Konflikt nun existiert.

BIG: After evacuating the second crew member of the downed F-15E, the U.S. had to destroy two HC-130J Combat King II rescue aircraft and two helicopters that, for unknown reasons, were unable to leave Iran. The aircraft were blown up on the ground to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands after landing at an improvised refueling site. Three additional HC-130J Combat King II aircraft were then dispatched to continue the combat search-and-rescue mission.

I am and always have been a fan of France. I started studying French in 4th grade. I minored in French in college and love travelling there. But France today is a problem. France is guided by “France first.” Unlike “America First” which strengthens and benefits the world militarily, commercially and morally, France First sells out to the highest bidder. It’s the underbelly of French historical collaboration with Nazi Germany. It undermines the West, and Ukraine, as France cuts deals with Russian and is a top buyer of Russian natural gas. It’s why they work with the IRGC in Iran so French ships can transit the Straits of Hormuz. There’s no one they won’t cut a commercial deal with. Their immigration policies have turned their country substantially over to Muslims whose motives and influence are even more problematic. All that is bad enough. But now they won’t give the US overflight rights as we fight in Iran. We don’t want their troops or their ships. We want and should have overflight rights. France is a historical headache for the US and much of the west. French governments relish playing that role. France is only sometimes an ally. France is a real problem for the West.

When this is over, the western part of NATO will never be the same. Spain, England, France and Italy have sold us out, as they too often have a history of doing. Eastern European nations are the heart of NATO. They spend money on defense, know how to fight and love the US. France particularly deserves fault and blame. From supporting China and Russia at the UN to denying Americans overflight rights, they’re doing what they’ve always done - showing weakness, while cutting deals with terrorists. (The reason the US has a Marine Corps and Navy is unlike France, we refused to pay a ransom to the Barbary Pirates. France is always happy to cut a deal.) Wars have unintended consequences as nations show their true colors. NATO will never be the same, and Western European weakness and acquiescence is the cause.

This exchange was a perfect illustration of how American rightoids have been brainwashed into believing that Israel, a country of 9 million with a GDP of $600 billion, was somehow a huge power multiplier for the US, whereas the European alliance is a millstone around their neck.

Footage of Iranian police firing small arms at a pair of USAF HH-60Ws searching for the downed F-15E crew earlier today.