But behind Washington’s repeated call for Europe to “do more” usually came a second one: “Not like that.”
This is right on the nose. The US wants the EU to pay its own way, but also continue doing exactly everything the US wants.
That whole “the French are cowardly” trope in the Anglosphere was born and stoked entirely not from France’s actual war record, but in response to France’s post-war reluctance to toe the US line; first by de Gaulle ejecting US nuclear bases from the country, and then again decades later when they refused to join the US’s Middle East misadventures.
This is right on the nose. The US wants the EU to pay its own way, but also continue doing exactly everything the US wants.
That whole “the French are cowardly” trope in the Anglosphere was born and stoked entirely not from France’s actual war record, but in response to France’s post-war reluctance to toe the US line; first by de Gaulle ejecting US nuclear bases from the country, and then again decades later when they refused to join the US’s Middle East misadventures.