Something I want to say more about. Toe dipped in at Ricochet:
Were Europe fit to shoulder even a third of our current burdens, offloading those burdens would not seem or look very much like decline. By contrast, the British Empire offloaded its burdens, beginning spectacularly with the handoff in Greece, because it was crumbling fast. Good thing it managed largely to do so, too.
We are obliged to start handing off burdens — and remember, it is not decline to resume our natural position of not solely shouldering all the West’s burdens and more — before the risk of an actual collapse of our position becomes a reality. Because if a collapse does come, hold on to your seats — the New World Disorder will be upon us. There is no backstop.
Priority number one of our grand strategy therefore should be to create at maximum speed a framework of major powers capable of assuming the burdens appropriate to major power status — in maximum accordance, of course, with our interests and values. Is Obama doing this? Haltingly, with India. Otherwise? I can hear a pin drop.