Europe Is Rearming. Washington Isn't Ready.

We'll start with a quote: "In all affairs, it's a healthy thing now and then to put a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." That is a quote from Bertrand Russell, who was decidedly not talking about NATO, but we do think it fits the situation today pretty well.

Decades of assuming Washington would always show up if push came to shove have given way to a European continent rearming at its fastest pace since the Cold War on the working assumption that the Americans might no longer be there to save the day. So far so straightforward.

Europe forgot to put the question mark next to America's commitment to the continent, and now it is paying the price. But you know who else is failing to question their assumptions? The United States of America.