“We are at an existential milestone for our freedom and security,” declared German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who demanded European involvement in the Ukraine peace talks initiated this week by Presidents Trump and Putin.

Better said, it is an existential moment for Baerbock’s Green Party, the most aggressive war hawks on the European political spectrum. Despite the Greens’ enthusiasm for the Ukraine War, only 9% of its members told German pollsters that they would fight to defend their country. 

Europe’s war hawks don’t want to pay and don’t want to fight. Their sense of entitlement derives from their status as clients of the Washington foreign and security policy establishment, which paid billions of dollars a year through USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and prominent private foundations to keep complaisant Europeans on the payroll. 

“Brutally hard Americans shock Europe,” reads the headline in today’s “Berlin Playbook” newsletter by the German Springer Verlag-owned Politico, the recipient of $8 million a year in US government subsidies, according to a White House spokesperson.