I want to paint a picture of what type of "ally" the US is in normal circumstances, from a Dutch perspective. A superpower versus a speckle of a country. The g

I want to paint a picture of what type of "ally" the US is in normal circumstances, from a Dutch perspective. A superpower versus a speckle of a country. The growth of our biggest airport had to be capped for various reasons. That means less landing rights. So we go airline by airline and inform them they can land 5% less. They were all frustrated but understood the pain had to be shared. Not for the US though. Mere hours after the first American airline was informed, Biden's Washington was on the line: cap any landing rights of any American airline and no Dutch plane will ever land on US soil again. Similar: repeated visits of US representatives coming to tell us exactly which ASML machine can be exported to where and expecting immediate compliance. Even if you agree with the reasons, the arrogance is striking as is the neglect in considering the costs to the business. We host the international court of justice. But the US doesn't care, it doesn't acknowledge it. The point of all these examples is that the US treats allies like shit even before Trump. There's no regard at all for the other side, it's power-play and dominance and rules not applying to the US. The relationship doesn't persist out of friendship, mutual respect or "shared values". It persists because in the bigger picture it is probably still economically beneficial as alternatives are worse. As the Dutch say, the difference between being bitten by a dog or a cat. The US as the leader of the free world is the very opposite of that as it comes to values. It's cruel and selfish to its "friends". That was the status quo and thing are obviously infinitely worse now. I wish it was different. We should move towards each other and build a Super West. America First means Europe First means Canada First and so on. Everybody suffers.