December 14, 2025

 Sunday. Left at 9:45. Blacksmith. Overcast and gray, but not foggy. Light southerly winds. Damp: in spite of no rain for several days, pavement still not entirely dry everywhere. Overvecht and Groenekan to Hollandsche Rading. Wide winter views to the West before Maartensdijk, although the fields still quite green. Hilversum quiet. The old road through Anna's Hoeve has been turned into gravel, so Larenseweg and Vredelaan to freeway and the overpass back to the Anna's Hoeve road. Left toward Baarn, left again toward Eemnes. At the crossings, it appeared to be busier in the woods and on the gravel trails than on the roads, which was was just right. Anna Louwenweg toward Eembrugge almost deserted. Freeway just within earshot, but to the left and up ahead the views were not any different than they were in the eighties. The haziness probably helped. Same for the roads and trails tracing the Eem on the other side, not counting the new and very deserted bike trail connecting with the Krachtwijkerweg. Headwind there, and the dampness made it feel like winter a little. Soesterweg to Utrechtseweg and up. Detoured onto the Prins Frederiklaan and Emmalaan. Down Laan 1914, Zeisterspoor next, followed by the airfield and Bosch en Duin, all Sunday quiet. De Bilt to Mos and yesterday's paper. Still a good deal of discussion of the NATO Secretary General's warnings this week. This being his home country, there is extra attention to his flattering of the U.S. president. Others also argue that in the face of a capricious regime this gets you nowhere, especially because the regime in word and in deed is openly hostile to the values the alliance is supposed to defend. All that may be true--I think generally it is--but that still doesn't mean that as the head of the alliance today, one should not try to hold things together, even at a cost to one's personal reputation. As viewed from his position, it would not just be irresponsible but outright impossible to say even the things the German chancellor has said about Europe being in a new era, one in which it really can only count on its own resources and its own resolve to defend its democracy, even though those things are correct. Not only is the U.S. still a member of the alliance, "Europe" cannot defend itself alone and won't be able to for some time to come. Part of the reason is precisely what the Secretary General emphasized in his speech this week: the absence of any real sense of urgency among Europe's population, at least in the West, and especially in the South. "Europe" may not be able to help Ukraine hold off Russia's assault, really its first line of defense, and it may prove incapable, say, to keep Russia from overwhelming one or more of the Baltic states. Also, and this is something all European leaders should keep in mind, even those who believe that Washington is no longer a reliable ally, it is actually a real risk today that the current administration will come to see the old allies as adversaries, at least until the likes of Wilders, Weigel, and Farage run this part of the world. To avert this imaginable worst-case scenario, and perhaps to retain Washington's cooperation here and there, it is very much worth it to have some European leaders who manage to get the White House's attention from time to time. And in the meantime, it is highly significant for a complete view of the Secretary General's views that in his speech the past week he urged Europeans far and wide to take the threats to our comfortable lives here a little more serious than thusfar has been the case, to underline, in other words, the fact that Europeans need to do a lot more themselves to deter the great enemy in Moscow.