by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
On
the
one
hand,
I
feel
sorry
for
today’s
6-year-olds
who
have
to
do
active
shooter
drills
in
their
elementary
schools.
On
the
other
hand,
in
Mrs.
Gallo’s
first-grade
class
outside
Trenton,
New
Jersey,
in
1963,
we
practiced
hiding
under
our
desks
with
our
hands
over
our
heads
to
protect
ourselves
in
case
of
nuclear
war.
(I
think
we
did
this
in
the
downstairs
cafeteria,
so
we
must
have
assumed
that
we’d
get
a
few
minutes
warning
before
the
apocalypse,
but
my
memory
of
this
is
quickly
growing
dim.)
To
each
generation
its
own
fears.
What
should
our
fears
be
today,
given
President
Donald
Trump’s
America
First
policy?
For
decades,
the
United
States
has
offered
a
nuclear
defense,
free
of
charge,
to
other
countries
in
the
world.
On
the
one
hand,
the
United
States
profited
from
this:
The
world
was
generally
peaceful;
we
had
a
lot
of
allies;
no
nuclear
holocaust
occurred.
On
the
other
hand,
the
U.S.
spent
hundreds
of
billions
of
uncompensated
dollars
protecting
the
entire
free
world. We
had
trouble
balancing
our
budget;
other
countries
paid
very
little
for
their
own
defenses.
It
took
real
faith
for
other
countries
to
put
their
survival
in
the
hands
of
the
United
States. Would
the
United
States
really
launch
a
nuclear
counterattack,
putting
New
York
and
Washington,
D.C.,
at
risk,
if
the
Soviets
decided
to
attack
Berlin,
or
Rome,
or
Taipei,
or
Tokyo?
For
decades,
Berliners,
and
the
rest,
apparently
believed
that
we
would. The
presence
of
many
American
troops
in
Europe
and
elsewhere
also
made
the
guarantee
of
safety
more
credible:
The
Soviets
couldn’t
nuke
Germany
without
killing
thousands
of
American
troops
stationed
there,
which
made
it
more
likely
that
the
U.S.
would
respond.
Kiss
those
days
goodbye.
Trump
says
that NATO
is
dead. French
President
Emmanuel
Macron said
earlier
this
week that
Europe
should
develop
strategic
independence
from
the
United
States. Friedrich
Merz,
likely
the
next
chancellor
of
Germany, explained that
his “absolute
priority
will
be
to
strengthen
Europe
as
quickly
as
possible
so
that,
step
by
step,
we
can
really
achieve
independence
from
the
USA.”
I
guess
we
all
agree
that
Europe
will
no
longer
depend
on
the
American
nuclear
umbrella
to
protect
it. And
since
the
United
States
is
intent
on withdrawing
many
of
its
troops from
Europe,
the
tripwire
—
nuke
Europe
and
you’re
nuking
U.S.
citizens
—
is
vanishing. It’s
time
for
Europe
to
go
it
alone.
This
is
fine,
of
course,
unless
nuclear
proliferation
offends
you. Since
the
end
of
World
War
II,
Berlin
has
been
happy
to
rely
on
the
United
States
in
case
of
a
Soviet
attack. Will
Berlin
be
equally
willing
to
rely
on
the
United
Kingdom
or
France
to
protect
it? If
not,
might
Berlin
develop
its
own
nuclear
weapons,
so
that
Berlin
will
not,
like
Blanche
DuBois,
be
reliant
on
“the
kindness
of
strangers“? As
the
United
States
deserts
NATO,
my
best
guess
is
that
Germany
goes
nuclear.
Trump
also declined
last
week to
say
that
the
United
States
would
defend
Taiwan
if
China
attacked
it. In
the
past,
Trump’s
noted
that
Taiwan
is
9,000
miles
away
from
the
United
States;
Trump
gets
a
lot
of
stuff
wrong,
but
he’s
pretty
damn
close
on
that
one. Frankly,
if
I
lived
in
Taipei,
I’d
doubt
that
Trump
would
come
to
my
defense
if
China
attacked
my
country.
I
wouldn’t
make
the
mistake
that Ukraine
made in
the
1990s,
handing
away
the
nuclear
weapons
that
it
possessed
in
exchange
for
security
guarantees
from
Russia,
the
United
States,
and
the
United
Kingdom.
I’d
instead
learn
the
lesson
of
the
past
few
years. (Come
to
think
of
it,
Muammar
Gaddafi
made
the
same
mistake
in
Libya.
He
abandoned
his
nuclear
weapons
program
in
2003
and
was
deposed
and killed
in
2011.
I
think
future
tyrants
will
choose
to
stay
alive.
Next
time
you
see
him,
ask
Kim
Jong
Un
what
he
thinks
on
this
subject.)
So
Germany
and
Taiwan
will
develop
nuclear
weapons.
Who’s
next?
South
Korea? Will
the
United
States
really
put
New
York
at
risk
to
defend
Seoul? Or
should
South
Korea
develop
its
own
nuclear
defense?
Japan? Same
questions
about
risking
New
York
for
Tokyo.
Some
countries
in
the
Middle
East?
I
worry
about
what
the
world
will
look
like
by
the
end
of
Trump’s
America
First
campaign. Maybe
I
should
buy
some
kids’
desks
for
my
grandchildren,
so
they’ll
have
a
safe
place
to
hide
during
the
apocalypse.
Mark Herrmann spent
17
years
as
a
partner
at
a
leading
international
law
firm
and
later
oversaw
litigation,
compliance
and
employment
matters
at
a
large
international
company.
He
is
the
author
of The
Curmudgeon’s
Guide
to
Practicing
Law and Drug
and
Device
Product
Liability
Litigation
Strategy (affiliate
links).
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected].