Speaking Truth to Impotence

Niall Ferguson is one of our pre-eminent economic historians. If such were not the case I would be tempted to say that his latest foray into analysis of Trump foreign policy is anything but coherent.

Let’s see. Trump is working to undo the horrors that befell the world during the Biden administration. He is working to end the warfare in the Middle East. He is working to end the senseless slaughter in Ukraine. His Secretary of State is travelling to Saudi Arabia to meet with his Russian counterparts, the better to find a way out of the Ukraine morass.

Yet, Ferguson would rather look at the Trump tariff strategy. He also examines Trump’s words about Greenland and the Panama Canal. And he concludes that Trump is looking for a fight. The term warmonger comes to mind.

To my mind, which knows far less about economic history than does Niall Ferguson, Trump was making moves in something like a chess game. He wanted to obtain certain actions by these other countries and he was doing what he needed to do to incite them to act. He was not looking for a fight. He was looking for a deal.

And yet, Vice President JD Vance went to the Munich Security Conference and excoriated the European left for its war against free expression. According to Ferguson, Vance was picking a fight.

In truth, Vance was pointing out some simple facts. Europe, for all of its noble sentiments, was being overrun by violent Muslim migrants. Not a day passes without one of these migrants turning an automobile or a machete against the locals.

Worse yet, the authorities in these countries, whether in Great Britain or Germany, are positively supine in the face of the threat.They are far more likely to attack anyone who speaks ill of the oppressed Muslims than who calls for closed borders.

Vance was not speaking truth to power. European nations have long since rejected the notion of being powerful. He was speaking truth to the impotent, to those who are too weak to control their borders and who are bowing down before a wave of Muslim migrants.

It was a wake-up call, one that Europe would do well to heed.

Instead, when President Trump set out to open negotiations with Russia over Ukraine-- and perhaps more-- the grandees of Europe could do nothing but whine, The Ukrainian president, Vokensky, was whining about feeling excluded. The president of France was whining that France and the rest of Europe was being sidelined. 

And yet, these once-powerful European nations cannot effectively defend themselves against aggression. They are dependent on the United States for their defense. Many of them do not even meet the requirements set down by NATO. Among the most flagrant derelicts is Canada.

As for Niall Ferguson, he is preparing for war in the Far East. He is persuaded that the evil empire of China is about to invade Taiwan.