[continued from previous message]   
      
   Rocks summarizes the Trump administration’s attitude toward Europe:   
      
   [I]mmigration is elevated to the central national security problem. The   
   text declares, bluntly, that “the era of mass migration must end,” and   
   that “border security is the primary element of national security.” It   
   frames mass migration as a driver of crime, social breakdown, and   
   economic distortion, and calls for a world where sovereign states   
   cooperate to “stop rather than facilitate destabilizing population   
   flows” and tightly control whom they admit…   
      
   [P]rotecting American culture, “spiritual health,” and “traditional   
   families” are framed as core national security requirements…The document   
   insists that “restoration and reinvigoration of American spiritual and   
   cultural health” are prerequisites for long-term security and links this   
   to an America that “cherishes its past glories and its heroes” and is   
   sustained by “growing numbers of strong, traditional families” raising   
   “healthy children.” America is thus cast as defender of so-called   
   traditional values, while Europe lacks “civilizational self-confidence   
   and Western identity.”…   
      
   [T]he strategy elevates the culture wars into a governing logic for   
   national security, and it does so through rhetoric that treats   
   ideological and cultural disputes as matters of strategic   
   consequence…This is clearest in the European section…The text…speculates   
   about demographic and cultural shifts in Europe as a way to question   
   whether future governments will share American views of their alliances.   
   The strategy [implies] that cultural alignment is essential to strategic   
   partnership.   
      
   The American right sees the “mad brute” in the ape cartoon as the   
   dark-skinned Muslim immigrants who have entered Europe in large numbers   
   in recent years. And they see themselves as needing to save the woman —   
   representing their view of Europe as the traditional font of White   
   Christian civilization — from that mad brute.   
      
   This tweet by Elon Musk pretty much sums up the American right’s   
   attitude toward Europe:   
      
   This is why no amount of European shaming or moral persuasion can have   
   any effect on the Trump administration — or on any Republican   
   administration in the decades to come. This kind of appeal to friendship   
   is totally useless:   
      
   And this kind of bitter, angry hectoring is worse than useless:   
      
   The American right — i.e., the people now in charge of the country — do   
   not care intrinsically about democracy, or about allyship, or about   
   NATO, or about the European project. They care about “Western   
   Civilization”. Unless Europe expels Muslim immigrants en masse and   
   starts talking about its Christian heritage, the Republican Party is   
   unlikely to lift a hand to help Europe with any of its problems.   
   Democrats will want to help Europe, but they will only be in power   
   intermittently, and helping Europe will not be high on their priority list.1   
      
   Thus, America is not riding to the rescue this time, or for the   
   foreseeable future. I wish things were different, but my wishes count   
   for nothing; this is the reality with which the Europeans must now deal.   
      
   Russia and China together are the real menace to Europe   
   Europeans do not need me to tell them that Putin’s Russia threatens not   
   just Ukraine, but all of Europe. They are well aware of this fact.   
   Russia now regularly flies its drones into Europe, and is probably   
   behind a wave of sabotage attacks on European infrastructure.   
      
   How can Russia, a country of just 144 million people and $7 trillion in   
   GDP (PPP), hope to overcome Europe, which has 520 million people and $33   
   trillion in GDP (including the UK), especially after Russia has expended   
   so many of its young men and materiel in its war with Ukraine already?   
   There are three answers here. The first is gray-zone warfare, including   
   sabotage and political influence campaigns. But that’s only the beginning.   
      
   Russia’s second method for fighting Europe is what I call a “Ponzi   
   empire” strategy. Russia has enslaved vast numbers of Ukrainians from   
   the occupied regions of Ukraine to fight against the rest of their   
   country. If Russia conquers the rest of Ukraine, it will similarly   
   enslave the rest of the country’s population, and send them to fight   
   against Poland, the Baltics, and Moldova. If they then defeat Poland,   
   they will enslave the Poles and send them to fight against the next   
   European target, and so on.   
      
   This is a very traditional Russian strategy. Enslaved Ukrainians were   
   used to attack Poland in 1939. Enslaved Poles were forced to fight   
   Russia’s wars in the days of the old Tsarist empire, and would have been   
   forced to do so again as part of the Warsaw Pact. Just like zombies turn   
   humans against their own, each slice of Europe that Russia can chop off   
   ends up being turned against the rest.2   
      
   Russia’s final strategy for fighting Europe is to rely on Chinese   
   assistance. Russia’s own industrial base is very weak, and relied   
   heavily on imported European parts and machinery that has now been   
   partially cut off. But Chinese tech has largely plugged that hole, as   
   the Carnegie Endowment reports:   
      
   Since mid-2025, Chinese components have been detected in Russian drones   
   and missiles, often shipped via front companies disguised as suppliers   
   of industrial cooling equipment…Chinese machinery, including precision   
   optics, lasers, and dual-use machine tools, now dominates Russia’s   
   defense-related manufacturing. In August 2025 alone, China exported a   
   record 328,000 miles of fiber-optic cable and nearly $50 million worth   
   of lithium-ion batteries to Russia, reinforcing its role as the   
   Kremlin’s primary wartime supplier of dual-use materials. Chinese   
   engineers working at Russian drone facilities are adapting civilian   
   quadcopters, such as the Autel Max 4T, for combat use.   
      
   China is a far bigger manufacturer than Europe, and can pour essentially   
   infinite war production into Russia if it wants to. And China is now   
   assisting Russia’s gray-zone warfare against Europe:   
      
   Since 2024, Chinese ships have been involved in incidents of targeting   
   subsea infrastructure, particularly cutting subsea cables in the Baltic   
   Sea…The country increasingly deploys ambitious espionage and cyber   
   attacks against government networks and critical infrastructure across   
   Europe. These attacks seem to overlap with—or even be actively   
   coordinated with—Russia’s espionage and influence operations across   
   Europe…Increasingly, Russia and China also cooperate in disinformation   
   operations: Chinese campaigns such as “Spamouflage” are amplified by   
   Russian media outlets and diplomatic channels. Both countries employ   
   what look to be synchronized narratives accusing the West of being   
   responsible for the war in Ukraine.   
      
   China even provides the Russians with battlefield intelligence, helping   
   them strike and destroy Ukrainian targets in real time. In sum, China is   
   supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, and will likely support Russia   
   in any further wars it undertakes against the rest of Europe.   
      
   With Chinese technology and production, and slave soldiers from East   
   Europe, and with America withdrawing from the Transatlantic Alliance,   
   Russia could conceivably overmatch Europe.   
      
   But that’s not the only threat that China poses. On the economic front,   
   China’s new economic strategy — a combination of shutting out European   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)