Vice President JD Vance recently gave a phone interview to UnHerd, a British news and opinion website, focused on how he and the Trump administration view America's European allies. The major takeaway is that while Vance still thinks the U.S. and the continent should be considered friends, despite the U.S. levying (and then suspending) large tariffs on European countries, he argued that there are a few caveats to that relationship. In making those points, Vance offered some truly bizarre takes on history.
"Something I know a little bit more personally: I think a lot of European nations were right about our invasion of Iraq," Vance said. "And frankly, if the Europeans had been a little more independent, and a little more willing to stand up, then maybe we could have saved the entire world from the strategic disaster that was the American-led invasion of Iraq."
There are a few things to unpack there. Most obviously, it's not as though Europe (aside from the British) meekly went along with President George W. Bush's march towards war France's and Germany's governments at the time were especially vocal in their opposition, denouncing U.S. warmongering at the United Nations. More than 1.5 million Europeans took to the streets to protest America's belligerency in the month before Operation Shock and Awe began in 2003. The Bush administration scoffed at their lack of resolve, while pro-war Americans mockingly replaced french fries with "freedom fries."
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