ANGELO CODEVILLA: Desperate Embrace At Europe’s Core.

Glenn linked to this a couple of days ago, but one part stuck in my head all weekend:

The United States will now be faced with continental Europe’s two major powers asserting not so much a common affirmative defense policy as a common non-defense policy. When it comes to foreign affairs, the United States is far less likely to enjoy automatic joint support than automatic joint attempts at backseat driving. At the U.N.—for all that matters—the United States is likelier than ever to be completely isolated, leading Americans to value that institution ever less.

In sum, the new Franco-German core is sure further to erode the EU, NATO, and the United Nations. But even as the French and German alliance is poised to disrupt so many international institutions, it is soft inside because it arises from both regimes’ alienation from their own peoples.

It was revealed that Trump privately mulled over the U.S. role in NATO, and the whole world freaked out — or at least pretended to. France and Germany have very publicly and successfully worked to undermine the entire postwar order, and hardly anybody could be bothered to do so much as yawn over it.