Liberals think in fixed clichés, and a current favorite is that Europe represents the peaceful and enlightened future. Why, just look at ‘em --- everybody gets free health care, even if they kill babies (now legal in Belgium) and old people (when you run out of QALYs, statistical bets on your survival). Because medical care is a wholly owned state monopoly, if they give more care to Mary, John has to get less. Fair’s fair.

Except for the rich and politically connected, who will always find a way.

In fact, of course, Europe is not an island of peace in the world. Every international war since Napoleon has started in Europe. Which is why the European Union has one overriding goal: To avoid another European war.

The deadly flaw in the Eurosocialist scheme is its inability and unwillingness to defend itself. Europe has cannibalized its military to feed the welfare state. On top of that, socialist Europe has deliberately imported millions of Muslims to provide cheap welfare votes for the ruling class.

Every year the bureaucracy in Brussels sends out thousands of edicts to its member nations, draining away their sovereignty step by step. The national parliaments, including the Brits, let this happen because they have lifetime jobs in the EU power structure.

The EU has carved away its own electoral legitimacy; you can vote for your Member of the European Parliament, but s/he doesn’t have any power. They can talk, and that’s all. It is nothing but that famous old Potemkin village.

This is clearly suicidal. Millions of Muslims are now infiltrating the West, and the West shows no sign of defending itself. Our “leaders” are not even allowed to name the enemy.

Vladimir Putin is not a sentimentalist, and has made a lifelong study of Soviet socialism (which failed), and Eurosocialism (which lives in never-neverland). Russia dealt mercilessly with Muslim Chechnya. Its whole history involvedresisting Muslim powers like the Ottoman Turks.

A Europe that cannot defend itself needs an outside power to protect it. The United States has played that role since the end of World War II. We could do it, because we were a serious power, the most civilized protective power in history.

Today, under a liberal foreign policy establishment, led by Obama, Hillary, Kerry, and all the other little dwarves, the United States is withdrawing its military protection from its allies. In Europe, Obama has signaled that the U.S. will not protect the Ukraine, much less Crimea. Russia now has a naval port in Syria and is establishing a naval presence in Venezuela and Cuba.

Obama’s “red lines” are a joke.

Everybody except liberals are seeing danger: If the United States withdraws from the Gulf, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and Pacific, our allies must scramble for protection.

Russia is the logical protector for the morally flabby welfare states of Europe. In France, the nationalist party of Marine Le Pen has already started overtures to the Russians. It is a logical move, because the French see their country being overrun by millions of Muslims who burn thousands of cars on a regular basis with impunity, to demonstrate their power. Intimidation is a basic principle of jihad. That is the purpose of terror attacks, to spread fear.

The EU does nothing to protect its citizens, showing over and over again that the ruling class has sold out to Arab and Iranian oil money. Tony Blair took millions from Muammar Gaddafi. Jacques Chirac grabbed even more from Saddam Hussein. The neo-fascist Italian Five Star Movement is practically run by Tehran.

Without America, Europe must therefore turn to Moscow, but this time something much closer to the old Russian Empire.

Putin is all about power, in the traditional Russian fashion, and power is fluid. Right now Russia is on one of its expansionist evers, and Putin is likely to get away with it.

Europe has the wealth to buy protection, and Russia has the force of will and moral conviction to fight when necessary.

Putin knows the West because he served as the KGB rezident in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Through the East German Stasi, the KGB ran spies into the top levels of the West German government -- just as the KGB penetrated the British, French, and U.S. governments. Putin has little faith in liberal dreams, having seen them in reality. Putin is a very smart, ruthless, and realistic man. He is surrounded by people like himself.

Obama is withdrawing U.S. military protection from our allies, on the historically dubious bet that everything will turn out all right. Like millions of fatuous liberals, Obama thinks that a world-governing socialism is the answer. UN-believers live for such fantasies. They are eager to trade American independence for their fuzzy dreams.

Unless America turns around and finds its true self again, there can only be two winners in Europe: Imperial Islam or Imperial Russia.

Both of them spell the end of American world power. The rule of international power is, and has always been, if you don’t control your destiny, some more ruthless power will do so.