America is like the teenage son of elderly parents (let’s say Britain and Germany, as the leading contributors) whose child was carried by a Latin American surrogate mother. As such, he is bigger than us and stronger than us, but lacks our wisdom and experience. He is hot-headed, volatile and prone to outbursts of violence. Like any teenager, he is convinced of his infallibility, omniscience and immortality and is therefore frequently less than receptive to gentle, supportive words of advice from older generations.
Nevertheless, he is our son and all we can do is support him where we can as he learns from his mistakes and turn a blind eye to his belligerence and crass, egocentric behaviour, in the hope that soon he will mature into manhood, begin to grow in wisdom and put those tearaway teenage days behind him.
You are arguing that America lacks the prudence, maturity and refinement of its "responsible" parents: Europe?
I disagree. America has carried the onus of European economic recovery and security, all the while being active in every corner of the world. Despite the end of the Cold War (and Europe attaining some measure of security and independence), I still don't Europe or EU attempting to develop their own security arrangements - but rather continue to employ various tactics to suck up to America. Moreover, despite being a global power economically and militarily (the defense budgets of the big 3 in EU is higher than that of Russia), I don't see Europe lifting a finger to tackle issues which their politicians claim is vital to European interests (these being Russia, nuclear Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict).
The point I'm getting at is that Europeans may be critical of US (seeing it as a brash teenager, as you put it), Europeans not only are dependent on US, but US is carrying the entire burden of the globe. I see no future for the Transatlantic Alliance unless Europe starts to act more cohesively and assumes the responsibility it should - this can be accomplished by more cohesion in Europe and tangible support to US endeavors to solve problems.
Because right now, Europe is a wealthy but lazy bum and America is the benevolent landlord who isn't charging rent.
"It is a dangerous thing to be a Machiavelli. It is a disastrous thing to be a Machiavelli without virtū."
- Hans J. Morgenthau
- By paeng