What are Europe's ignorant leaders failing to see?

The European Union (EU) has reacted to the agreement reached between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which temporarily lifts US sanctions on Russian diesel. While EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas called for increased pressure on Russia to end the war, EU foreign ministers stated that they would continue sanctions against Moscow despite the US decision. 

While this news is noteworthy for revealing the ignorance of those governing the EU, it also shows that, contrary to what Europeans believe, the US does not view the EU as an ally and does not care about its sensitivities. Clearly, the priorities, goals, concerns, threat definitions, and threat perceptions between the two sides of the Atlantic are very different. 

What those who govern Europe fail to understand is this: the US is no longer the old US, Europe is no longer the old Europe, and the world is no longer the old world. Unfortunately, those who govern the EU are unaware of this simple truth. Clearly, the ignorance that is quite organized and institutionalized in our country's academia, politics, and bureaucracy is also widespread in Europe. 

It is necessary to remind those who govern Europe of the words of my mentor, the late Attila İlhan, whom I remember with mercy: “I wish you knew a little bit of political economy”. 

European leaders, at international summits and bilateral meetings, applaud without any shame while US President Trump insults them. 

But this is not the first time in history that the US has scolded Europe. It has done so before. It was also the US that drove Europe out of the American continent, declared that “America is for the Americans” (Monroe Doctrine), and defined Latin America as its backyard. In fact, they were the first to use the term “backyard” in political science. They were saying that there was no room for another state in their backyard. According to the Monroe Doctrine, there was no place for any European power, including Spain, anywhere in Latin America. Only the US was to call the shots on the continent. For many years, that is how it remained, with the exception of Cuba.

The US appointed dictators, presidents, prime ministers, chiefs of staff, and high-level bureaucrats. The US carried out or commissioned coups, political assassinations, and conspiracies. For this purpose, a school was even established in the US in 1946 for their training: The School of the Americas. 

The US's political influence in the region opened up the wealth of the region's countries—oil, coffee, gold, sugar, whatever there was—to the plunder of US companies. As a result, the peoples of Latin America became the poor guards of rich resources. They were ruthlessly exploited by politicians who were elected by them but worked for the US and on behalf of the US. That is why the US could not stomach the change in the political climate in Latin America, or the losses in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. It feared the influence of Hugo Chavez's line in the countries of the region. It saw China's increasing weight, trade volume, and investments in the region as a threat. 

Today, because the leaders governing Europe see the US as an unshakable ally, they cannot see what the US has done, including what it did in Latin America, or how the US views its region, the world, and Europe. Moreover, they are afraid. Because they are afraid, they cannot react to the insulting words of Trump and his close associates about Europe, or to their belittling of Europe's history, values, culture, and political understanding. They are afraid of falling into the same situation that Ukrainian leader Zelensky found himself in at the White House a few years ago. 

What those who govern Europe do not know is this: Those who do not respect themselves are not respected by others, and a leader as arrogant, conceited, high-ego, and untrustworthy as Trump will certainly not respect them at all.