Europe’s Self-Destructive Way of Life Prevents Them From Stopping Iran | Victor Davis Hanson

The Daily Signal

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4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Most NATO members were unwilling to directly assist the United States and Israel in their fight to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying, “This isn’t our war.” The United Kingdom’s mission to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982 wasn’t the United States’ war, yet President Ronald Reagan still gave them the supplies necessary to retake the islands. Germany’s invasion of France wasn’t our war, yet Franklin D. Roosevelt still sent military equipment, and later soldiers, to retake Western Europe. However, Europe’s cold shoulder may not be out of spite, but an inability to help at all, explains Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words”: “They have dreamed of utopia and a good life, and the result is that their fertility rate is 1.3. They are shrinking. They are aging. They’re not competitive. So they don’t have the manpower, even though they have a 450 million-person population. Europe is larger than us by 100 million. “And even though they have a $22 trillion GDP, which is the third-largest, apparently they don’t want to invest that in their own defense, or they haven’t so far. They don’t want us to use it when we need it.” (00:00) NATO Crisis Returns (00:26) Iran Strikes And Allied Refusals (02:44) Why Europe Cannot Contribute (05:26) Moral Posturing And Base Politics (06:08) Let NATO Fade New Alliances 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, are all the traitors present?
0:02.0	Let's get started, shall we?
0:04.0	From rags to riches.
0:06.0	I'm so sick of this.
0:07.0	Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:09.0	Yorkshire to New York.
0:10.0	Poor climbers, you and me.
0:12.0	A life dedicated to revenge.
0:14.0	Let's make this an occasion to remember.
0:17.0	A Woman of Substance on Channel 4.
0:19.0	Stream now.
0:20.0	A woman of Substance on Channel 4, stream now.
0:56.5	Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Once again, NATO is in crisis. It seems like this is happening every three or four years. It predates and will post-date Trump. We are engaged in a bombing campaign to disarm the Iranian Theocracy that for 47 years has killed Americans in embassies and military installations. It supplies the terrorists of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the
1:02.6	Houthis. It funds and subsidizes terrorists in Europe, tried to kill President Trump.
1:09.5	I could go on forever. So we decided enough
1:12.1	is enough because we felt that their ballistic missiles had a range that could harm Europe and
1:19.2	soon us, and that was proven by its launching of two missiles toward Diego Garcia Islands and the
1:26.1	Indian Ocean. And what was the result of our NATO allies when we said, we don't have to do it.
1:31.1	We'll do the heavy lifting along with Israel.
1:33.6	Don't have to do anything.
1:35.8	I know we helped you in Ukraine.
1:37.6	I know we helped you in Serbia.
	...

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