THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

The Eurodollar began its official existence on January 1, 1999. This new currency will replace the currencies of seventeen European countries three years from now. As one Dutch official said, this is a first step toward Europe "enjoying the power in the world that the size of its economy deserves".

But Europe is going to have to do a lot besides adopt a common currency if it is to take its place in the world. It will have to stop being a military dependent of the United States. If Europe is to take its place in the world, it will have to stop leaving every serious problem in the world to THE LAST REMAINING SUPERPOWER.

In one discussion about Europe's refusal to deal with terrorism or Balkan problems, Pat Buchanan said, "Europe will have to grow up eventually." Among today's media-selected commentators, only Buchanan would see this reality, much less mention it.

What Buchanan is referring to is this: Since 1945, Europeans have been in a state of permanent dependence on the United States. People who are protected from reality never grow up. This is as true of countries as it is of individuals.

Europe has been a military welfare case since 1945.

Don't let NATO fool you Despite its contributions to NATO, Europe has very little responsibility for living - and living very well - in the post-WWII world. NATO was set up by the United States, and the poor little Europeans were never asked to carry anything like their share of the costs in men or money for the defense of Europe.

But Europe's small share of the NATO burden is the LEAST of the situation.

Europe would not have lasted a month if someone didn't protect the rest of the world from a Communist takeover. The United States could survive economically if we were limited to the Western Hemisphere, to the area the Monroe Doctrine already covered before World War II. But Europe has to trade with the third world to survive. And Europe leaves the protection of its lifeline almost entirely to the United States. When I speak of Europe as an American military welfare case, NATO is totally irrelevant. Europe doesn't even do its share in protecting its own, tiny territory. But in the struggle to keep its lifeline open all around the world, Europe does absolutely NOTHING! And nobody notices.

If the United States had not protected the rest of the world, Europe would have been doomed. But Europe never gave a penny or a man to help this enormous job that the Untied States was doing outside Europe. In fact, Europe simply sat back and criticized American policy in fighting the Reds all around the globe.

When the United States based nuclear defenses in Europe to protect them against the USSR, Europeans rioted and protested our Evil Imperialism. When we held the Communists out of all the countries outside Europe that Europe could not live without, Europeans talked about how immoral we were.

Europe said, essentially, "Self-righteousness is our most important product."

This is the sixth decade in which Europe has been a military welfare case, dependent on the United States. This welfare mentality, this utter lack of realism, is by now welded into the European mindset.

In the 1950's, this silliness took the form of huge Communist Parties in Western Europe, and in the 1960's, every ridiculous leftist cause, such as a demand for unilateral nuclear disarmament by America, got enormous support in Europe. In every case, Europe could play its absurd little morality games because someone else was taking care of them.

In the 1970's, the United States, sick of carrying the whole weight of defending the world, cut back dangerously on its military commitment. Europe was not about to question this. And Europe did not increase its own military commitment by a single nickel. Post- World War II Europe reminds me of Peggy Bundy on Married With Children The very idea of Europe having to do anything for itself elicits nothing but an unbelieving horse laugh.

In the 1980's, the Reagan military buildup helped the ongoing Soviet economic breakdown. It was the Strategic Defense Initiative, what Teddy Kennedy and therefore all the media called "Star Wars," that finally broke the Soviet resolve. Gorbacev simply could not afford a new breakthrough program to match the American high-tech advantage.

So the left tried one last, desperate move to save the Soviet Union: Stop SDI. Every American liberal media source and practically all official opinion in Europe pulled out all the stops.

I remember the last gasp. There was a costly television flop called The Morning After, a movie demanding an immediate nuclear freeze. A lot of other shows had pushed this last desperate attempt to stop the nuclear race the USSR had lost. But, even for the leftist media, it was simply too late.

With the USSR gone, as Buchanan said, it is time, at long last, for Europe to try to begin to grow up.

But in the post-Cold War age, there is a last, desperate drive to prevent Europe from having to deal with the real world. Both the left and the respectable right in America support it. Since it is utterly divorced from reality, European opinion is trendy left, and the liberals like it that way.

The American right likes European opinion just the way it is, too. The respectable American right wants, above all else, for the United States to spend lots and lots of money on the military. They LIVE for that. If Europe began to grow up and bear its share of the military burden, the United States could cut back. The one thing ALL respectable conservatives demand is this: MORE AMERICANS IN SOLDIER SUITS. What for? Respectable conservatives don't give a reason. They talk vaguely about "obligation." But what they have wanted fifty years for is more American money on defense, and more Americans in soldier suits. So they want it now. This means European military welfarism MUST continue.

Both the left and right in America have found a slogan to keep Americans providing military welfare for Europe. Both the left and the respectable right repeat it all the time.

On the left and on the right, the slogan they use for their crusade against European adulthood is seven words long.

And here it is

"WE ARE THE WORLD'S LAST REMAINING SUPERPOWER"

The whole world can just sit back and let The Last Remaining Superpower do all the work. If anything happens anywhere in the world to threaten Europe or Europe's lifelines, Europeans can just sit back and relax. Taking care of the whole world is America's job.

There is plenty of oil in the Western Hemisphere for the United States. But Saddam and every other problem in the Middle East, where Europe's oil supply lies, must be taken care of by The Last Remaining Superpower. The United States will attack Saddam. Our "allies" (what a joke!!) just have to sit back and approve or disapprove.

Which is what our "allies" have been doing around the world for over half a century now.

Lake High has pointed out that many people oppose Southern secession because secession would mean we would no longer be part of The Last Remaining Superpower.

As Lake tells them, "I can live with that".