Trump is shaking Europe from slumber

President Trump has a plan to save Europe, and the results of Sunday’s election in Germany show it’s working.The center-right Christian Democrats won the most seats in the Bundestag, and the party’s leader Friedrich Merz pledges that once he becomes chancellor, “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”The legislature’s largest opposition party, the hard-right Alternative für Deutschland, might not agree with Merz’s support for Ukraine — it’s often accused of favoring Russia — but it too wants Germany to have more military independence, and will pressure Merz to live up to his words.Surely this means disaster for NATO — and won’t that be catastrophic for Europe?In fact, a Germany with greater strength of its own is exactly what NATO needs.Responsibility for defending Europe was shared more fairly between America and European allies during the Cold War, when West Germany, the United Kingdom and others maintained significant military establishments of their own.But in the decades since the Soviet Union’s implosion, Europe’s most advanced nations have let their capabilities atrophy.More than 500,000 West Germans were serving in the military when the Berlin Wall was torn down.Today the number of citizens on active duty in a united Germany is about 180,000 — even as Europe’s largest war since 1945 rages in Ukraine.These paltry service numbers are not only an indication of military unreadiness, they’re a symptom of widespread European unwillingness to fight.Gallup International polling last year found less than a third of adults in European Union member states would agree to take up arms in defense of their homelands.Worldwide, according to Gallup, the places citizens are “least willing” to fight for their country “are Italy (78%), Austria (62%), Germany (57%), Nigeria (54%) and Spain (53%)”— one developing African state and ...