For centuries up to and including the 20th, Europe seemed the central pivot of world history. Then came the Great Civil War of the West, our Thirty Years’ War (1914-1945), where all of the great European powers—Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia—along with almost all of the rest, fought some of history’s greatest battles.
Result: Europe’s greatest nations were all bloodied. All of Europe’s empires fell. The colonial peoples were all largely liberated and began the great migration to the mother countries. And Europe was split between a U.S.-led West and a Moscow-dominated Soviet bloc.

在包括20世紀在內(nèi)的幾個世紀里，歐洲一直是世界歷史的中心，然后，西方的大內(nèi)戰(zhàn)來了，我們的三十年戰(zhàn)爭(1914-1945) ，所有的歐洲大國——英國、法國、德國、意大利、俄羅斯，連同幾乎所有其它國家，經(jīng)歷了一些人類歷史上最大的戰(zhàn)事。
結(jié)果：歐洲最偉大的國家都陷入了血腥的戰(zhàn)爭之中，歐洲所有的帝國都垮臺了，殖民地人民大部分獲得解放，并開始向母國大規(guī)模移民，歐洲分裂成以美國為首的西方和以莫斯科為首的蘇聯(lián)集團。

Yet, even during that four-decade Cold War, Europe was viewed as the prize in the struggle. By the time that Cold War ended in triumph for the Free World, a European unx modeled on the American unx was rising, and almost all of Europe’s newly freed nations began to join the NATO alliance.
Yet one senses today that Europe’s role in world history is passing, that the American pivot to China and the Indo-Pacific is both historic and permanent, and that as the past belongs to Europe, the future belongs to Asia.

即使在長達四十年的冷戰(zhàn)時期，歐洲仍被視為這場斗爭的戰(zhàn)利品，當(dāng)冷戰(zhàn)以自由世界的勝利而結(jié)束時，一個以美國聯(lián)盟為藍本的歐洲聯(lián)盟崛起，幾乎所有新獲得自由的歐洲國家開始加入北約聯(lián)盟。
然而，如今人們感覺到，歐洲在世界歷史上的角色正在消失，美國轉(zhuǎn)向中國和印度洋-太平洋地區(qū)的戰(zhàn)略既具有歷史意義，也是永久性的，過去屬于歐洲，而未來屬于亞洲。

Asia, after all, is home to the world’s most populous nations, China and India; to six of the world’s nine nuclear powers; and to almost all of its major Muslim nations: Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Iran, as well as to the world’s largest economies outside the USA: China and Japan.
And Europe?

畢竟，亞洲擁有世界上人口最多的國家——中國和印度，擁有世界上9個核大國中的6個，以及幾乎所有主要的穆斯林國家： 印度尼西亞、印度、巴基斯坦、孟加拉國、土耳其和伊朗，以及除美國以外的世界最大經(jīng)濟體： 中國和日本。
那歐洲呢？

In 2016, Great Britain voted to withdraw from the E.U. This summer, the British joined the Australians and the U.S. in an AUKUS pact that trashed a cherished French deal to build a dozen diesel-powered submarines—and to replace them with British- and U.S.-built nuclear-power subs. Paris saw this as a “betrayal,” a “stab in the back” by allies whom Gen. Charles De Gaulle had disparaged as “l(fā)es Anglo-Saxons.” Yet AUKUS was also an undeniably clear statement as to where the Australians saw their future, and it was not alongside France, but the USA.

2016年，英國投票退出歐盟，今年夏天，英國加入了澳大利亞和美國的行列，簽署了一項 AUKUS 協(xié)定，否決了一項備受重視的法國協(xié)議（該協(xié)議旨在建造12艘柴油動力潛艇），并用英國和美國建造的核動力潛艇取而代之，巴黎方面認為這是一種“背叛”，一種盟友的“背刺”，夏爾 · 戴高樂將軍曾貶損這些盟友為“盎撒人”，然而，AUKUS 也是一個不可否認的清晰聲明，表明澳大利亞人自何處來看他們的未來，不在法國，而在美國。

Still, this was the worst U.S. affront of our French ally since President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the British and French out of Suez. But, at least then, Ike could say in 1956 that he had not been alxed to the British-French invasion of Egypt and that our NATO partners had acted without his knowledge or consent.

盡管如此，這仍然是自艾森豪威爾總統(tǒng)命令英國和法國離開蘇伊士以來對我們的法國盟友最嚴重的侮辱，但是，至少在那時艾森豪威爾可以說，1956年他沒有收到英法入侵埃及的警報，我們的北約伙伴在他不知情或未經(jīng)他同意的情況下采取了行動。

To protest the treatment of France in the submarine deal, President Emmanuel Macron recalled his ambassador to the U.S., something that had never been done since France recognized the American colonies and came to their aid during our War of Independence.Indeed, the submarine agreement forced cancellation of a grand party at the French embassy in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 240th anniversary of the Battle of the Capes.
This was the critical British-French naval battle at the mouth of the Chesapeake in 1781, where a French fleet prevailed, enabling it to provide Gen. George Washington’s army cover as it surrounded, shelled and compelled the surrender of Gen. Lord Cornwallis’ army at Yorktown.

為了抗議法國在潛艇交易中受到的待遇，埃馬紐埃爾 · 馬克龍總統(tǒng)召回了他的駐美大使，這是自從法國承認殖民地美國的地位并在我們的獨立戰(zhàn)爭期間向美國提供援助以來從未有過的事。
事實上，這項潛艇協(xié)議迫使法國駐華盛頓大使館取消了一場慶?！扒兴_皮克灣戰(zhàn)役”240周年的盛大派對。
這是1781年發(fā)生在切薩皮克河口的一場關(guān)鍵性的英法海戰(zhàn)，當(dāng)時法國艦隊占了上風(fēng)，使其能夠為喬治 · 華盛頓將軍的軍隊提供掩護，包圍、炮擊并迫使康沃利斯將軍的軍隊在約克敦投降。

But if the British are out of the E.U., and the French are estranged from their NATO allies, Germany yesterday held an election, where, for the first time in its history, the Christian Democratic unx of Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel was reduced to a fourth of the national vote.
The new leader of Germany, after months of negotiations, may be the leader of the Social Democrats, in concert with the Greens. But even that government may not be cobbled together by Christmas. Neither of the prospective chancellors for the Christian Democratic unx or the Social Democratic Party has the stature of Merkel, who has been both leader of Germany for the last decade and a half but also de facto leader of Europe.

英國退出歐盟，法國與其北約盟友疏遠，德國昨天舉行了選舉，康拉德 · 阿登納，赫爾穆特 · 科爾和安格拉 · 默克爾組成的基督教民主聯(lián)盟的選票在其歷史上第一次被削減到僅有全國選票的四分之一。經(jīng)過幾個月的談判，德國的新領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人可能會是社會民主黨的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，并與綠黨共同合作，其政府也不一定能在圣誕節(jié)前拼湊完成，基督教民主聯(lián)盟和社會民主黨未來的總理都沒有默克爾那樣的地位，默克爾在過去的15年里一直是德國的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，但同時也是歐洲事實上的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人。

And consider the present condition of NATO, once celebrated as the most successful alliance in history for having deterred any Soviet invasion of NATO Europe for the entire Cold War.
In 2001, invoking Article V about an attack on one being an attack on all, NATO joined the Americans in their plunge into Afghanistan to deal with the perpetrators of 9/11. This August, 20 years later, all our NATO allies pulled out as the Afghan army crumbled and vanished and the Afghan regime collapsed. Our NATO allies thus shared in the ignominy of the American retreat and defeat.

再想想北約的現(xiàn)狀，北約曾因在整個冷戰(zhàn)期間阻止了蘇聯(lián)對北約歐洲的入侵而被譽為歷史上最成功的聯(lián)盟。
2001年，北約援引第五條，稱對一國的攻擊是對所有國家的攻擊，與美國一起投入阿富汗戰(zhàn)場，共同對付911事件的肇事者，20年后的今天，今年的8月份，隨著阿富汗軍隊的潰敗和阿富汗政權(quán)的垮臺，我們所有的北約盟國都撤出了阿富汗，我們的北約盟國也因此“分享”了美國撤退和失敗的恥辱。

Not only is the center of political gravity shifting from Europe to Asia, European unity seems a thing of the past.
As Britain has left the E.U., Scotland is considering secession from England. Catalonia is still thinking of secession from Spain. Sardinia is considering secession from Italy. Poland and Hungary are at odds with the E.U. over domestic political reforms said to be in conflict with the demands of the bureaucrats in Brussels.
As for the southern-tier E.U. and NATO nations, Spain, Italy and Greece, their main concern is less an invasion by Russia than the ongoing invasion from across the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East.

不僅僅是政治重心從歐洲轉(zhuǎn)移到了亞洲，歐洲的團結(jié)也似乎成為了過去。
隨著英國脫離歐盟，蘇格蘭正在考慮脫離英格蘭，加泰羅尼亞仍在考慮脫離西班牙，撒丁島正在考慮脫離意大利，波蘭和匈牙利與歐盟在國內(nèi)政治改革上存在分歧，據(jù)說這與布魯塞爾的官僚們的要求相沖突。
至于歐盟和北約的南部國家，西班牙、意大利和希臘，他們主要關(guān)心的與其說是俄羅斯的入侵，不如說是來自非洲和中東穿越地中海的持續(xù)入侵。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處


Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever and a founding editor of The American Conservative.

帕特里克 · J · 布坎南是《尼克松的白宮戰(zhàn)爭: 一場造就和毀掉一位總統(tǒng)并使美國永遠分裂的戰(zhàn)爭》一書的作者，也是《美國保守派》的創(chuàng)始編輯。