Anti-Americanism in the Guise of Anti-NATO-ism

I'm not sure if I saw the original article when it came out, last December in the Dutch evening daily NRC-Handelsblad, but this weekend the paper suddenly had three responses to J.H. Sampiemon's and Karel van Wolferen's plea for "Europe" to abolish NATO and instead promote some Eurasian security compact without the U.S. If you read their article (it has been translated into English), you may agree that instead of a constructive contribution to current security debates, it's really an expression of the authors' anti-Americanism. Fortunately, this weekend, two of the three responses were quite sensible (although the third was decidedly less so). But it really requires putting one's head very deep into the sand to believe that international stability can be promoted without U.S. leadership, and by "Europe," no less. Who exactly is going to mediate with any credibility between India and Pakistan; between Israel and the Arabs? Who will be able to contain Iran--or do the authors think that's not necessary? Who again is helping maintain stability in East Asia as a vital ally to (and moderator of) Japan, of South Korea? Who is going to continue to confront Al Qaeda and similar groups? Who again broke the bloody deadlock in Bosnia (I think that's in Europe) in the 1990s? Worst perhaps is the authors' complete rejection of any historical and ideological commonalities between "Europe" and the U.S. Sure, there are problems with Russia, but those are all the West's fault and have nothing to do with the current regime in Moscow? Certainly, autocrats and dictatorships don't welcome the advance of open societies in the world, especially if it takes place near their traditional sphere of influence. But that doesn't mean that this advance (if it can be maintained) would be a bad thing. Arguing for a break-up of NATO by "Europe" (or the EU) is outright strange also because in essence both organizations conform to the same vision of organizing society. All this is not to say that NATO doesn't have problems, but let's not lose sight of the wider context. The world is a dangerous enough place as it is--the last thing we need is for the West to disintegrate too. If "Europe" is so concerned about U.S. policy (and there will always be differences), it should engage Washington as a loyal partner. Partnership with Washington since 1945 has also helped the Europeans minimize their own quarrels. We all know those haven't disappeared yet.