Comment Re:Wutend (Score 1) 280
Consider, fellow Americans, what goes if Germany goes. That's NATO and the EU. That's all our happy European client states cheerily playing along when Washington wants to force the President of Bolivia's plane down and search it. That's an economy bigger than ours, a continent whose population is much bigger than ours, suddenly not playing ball with us any more and pushing back hard on everything.
They're not going anywhere. Europeans, tired of having to be afraid of each other, are almost completely demilitarized. Without NATO, they're defenseless. Without US intelligence, they're blind to anything that happens outside their borders. Their economy may be big, but since it isn't unified, it cannot use this size for any political clout.They'd have to increase their military spending to American levels, which they can't afford, and pool their armed forced together, which I don't see them doing any time soon, and even then it would take decades to catch up even with their neighbors (you know who). They'll make some indignant noises, get some hollow apologetic noises back in return, and nothing much will change in practice.
Their leaders will be more careful with what they discuss over the phone, and Obama will not be invited for a friendly BBQ again, which he won't shed a tear about. I don't see much else changing.