European leaders are, if nothing else, consistently wrong about what government should be doing with the people's money. 

For over 75 years, the governments of Europe have been committed to the idea that governments should be confiscating tax money to build unsustainable and grossly incompetent welfare states that mismanage economies, provide substandard services, and erode individual freedom. It hasn't worked out too well for their economies, which have been stagnant for the past couple of decades, leaving the average European less well off than their peers in the United States. 

They built that welfare state off the backs of the US taxpayer as much as their own. During the Cold War, while European powers relied on American military power, they at least contributed mightily to their own defense, and Americans were happy to help our allies against the evil Soviets who were bent on world domination. 

But since the end of the Cold War, the Europeans have let their militaries atrophy to the point where none of these countries could sustain a week of battle without collapsing, and they were able to do so because the United States allowed them to. Every president since George Bush has cajoled Europe to step up and meet their treaty obligations, and every president has been rebuffed and called names for asking Europe to do the minimum. 

The Ukraine War has been a godsend to Europe. Their defense contractors are getting paid, kick in token (and mostly loans backed by Russian assets) support, and the United States has again carried the burden of executing Europe's foreign policy. 

President Trump is pursuing a radical strategy: ending a war that promises to be endless, and the Europeans who liked the stalemate and the graft that has flowed from it are freaking out.

But fear not: they have a solution, and it is taking from Peter to pay Paul. 

The @FT says what's coming: "Europe must trim its welfare state to build a warfare state... Anyone under 80 who has spent their life in Europe can be excused for regarding a giant welfare state as the natural way of things… the welfare state as we have known it must retreat… By… pic.twitter.com/lucYNJKaab

— John Ross (@JohnRoss43) March 5, 2025

Granted, the Europeans need to radically reform their welfare states. They should be doing this to ensure that their economies start working again and for the very people those welfare states are supposed to be helping. 

But dismantling a welfare state to build a warfare state is not the smart move they seem to think it is, and it is based on a fundamental falsehood. Russia does not, in fact, present a danger to any Western European power unless those very powers attack it. If a war breaks out with Russia, it will be because the Western Europeans attacked the former, not the other way around. 

"Europe is ready to assume its responsibilities.

ReArm Europe could mobilise close to €800 billion for a safe and resilient Europe.

This is a moment for Europe. And we are ready to step up."

— President @vonderleyen on the defence package pic.twitter.com/OiE8kH8FnK

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) March 4, 2025

I don't say that because I see Russia as the good guys and Europeans as the bad guys. Putin is a really bad guy with ambitions to expand his sphere of influence. 

It's much simpler than that. Russia is incapable of threatening Western Europe. He has been incapable of taking Ukraine, a much smaller country with a much smaller economy and population, and one that has been restrained from striking deep into Russia until very recently. His military is great at grinding it out and taking losses, but terrible at taking territory. 

In a conventional war the US could squash any Russian expeditionary force like a bug. Poland likely could, because, unlike Western Europe, they have a capable military that, should they so choose, could crush Germany in a week. 

The alarming truth that @UKLabour must address is that the UK has a ‘welfare dependency disorder’. | https://t.co/YyDNwG0kPJ | 80 yrs. ago social welfare was a much needed idea. Today it’s crippling the UK economy. #WednesdayThoughts

— Carter | Slade 🛡️ (@fromCarterSlade) March 5, 2025

In theory, rearming Europe is a good thing and one that President Trump of all people has been pushing for a long time. I applaud them for choosing to stand on their own feet, even if they are blaming us for not enabling them to continue their onanism. 

But the problem is that the leadership is choosing to use an unnecessary war as an excuse to take even greater control over their societies to turn their populations into even poorer, less free workers who, from their rhetoric, sound like they will soon become cannon fodder. 

Europe doesn’t have the fiscal headroom for the required pump in defence spending with flatlining economies and crushing taxation that supports out of control welfare spending. The only viable solution is to roll back the welfare state. I doubt that European politicians will have… https://t.co/zBwVAcpfEQ

— ((M. M. Arevuo, PhD)) (@arevuo_m) March 2, 2025

When I hear European leaders muse openly about dismantling Russia as the real goal of their policy, it makes my skin crawl. Until Biden was tossed out they expected the United States to foot the bill, the Ukrainians to do the dying, and for themselves to make supportive noises as they plotted their next steps. 

Listen to the Vice President of the European Union Council describe how breaking up Russia is the ultimate goal:

EU Vice President KAJA KALLAS Exposes The Real Plan ‼️

It was NEVER about Ukraine, it was always about dismantling Russia. pic.twitter.com/Qck9yYK39I

— 🔥⭐️Edwin⭐️🔥 (@Nuked4Every1) March 5, 2025

That is insane. Putin is a dictator and a bad dude. Igniting a world war to displace him is madness. 

And yet they are choosing to do that, apparently, and putting their economies on a war footing to accomplish that goal. 

Does anybody seriously believe that Russian tanks, which cannot roll 100 miles into Ukraine, can make their way to Berlin or Paris? Or that Russia, which cannot get air superiority over Kiev, could take on a united NATO? 

The Welfare to Warfare economic transition is based on a lie. The welfare states are failing, so the new excuse for massive government control over the economy is now declaring a state of war with Russia. 

European Interest Rates spike as politicians on the Continent oppose peace in Ukraine.

Pres Trump insists that the wealthy countries of Western Europe shoulder their own defense burdens -- which means a lot more costly debt.

This chart German "Bund" 10 Yr Yield shoots higher: pic.twitter.com/rtvMmxi3Ey

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) March 6, 2025

This isn't about defending Europeans; it's about justifying the European elites' increasing control over the economy and information sphere based on the claim that there is an "emergency."

Trump is offering peace. Normality. A path to prosperity. Coexistence. Even if we dislike each other, we can leave each other alone. 

That is seen as an existential threat by the European elite. So off to war they march.