In 1776, the New World declared independence from the old. Today, it is the Old World that is declaring independence from the new.
French president Emmanuel Macron has become the latest European leader to issue a declaration of strategic independence from Donald Trump's America. Asserting that Europe can "no longer rely" on Washington for its security, he argued that "it is up to us today to take our responsibility and guarantee our own security, and thus have European sovereignty."
The idea of Europe seeking to take greater responsibility for its own security is hardly a bad thing. Yet the cruel reality is that Europeans tired of reliance on an increasingly unreliable America have nowhere else to go, at least in the short term. And this will only increase the resentment many feel at their continued dependence on a superpower that seems to have gone rogue.