Daily Inspiration Quote by Douglas Feith

“Europe is a collection of free countries” sounds like a civics-class truism, which is exactly why it’s useful as a political instrument. Douglas Feith, a U.S. defense official shaped by the post-9/11 security mindset, isn’t trying to define Europe so much as reposition it. The line shrinks “Europe” from a potentially unified geopolitical actor into a set of sovereign pieces - friendly, independent, and, crucially, individually court-able by Washington.

The intent is tactical. By emphasizing “collection” over “union,” Feith undercuts the idea that Europe can speak with one strategic voice against U.S. priorities. It’s a soft rebuke to the Brussels project without ever naming it. “Free” does extra work: it flatters, it moralizes, and it quietly sorts the continent into those who deserve full legitimacy and those who don’t. In the early 2000s, that coded language mapped neatly onto U.S. arguments about “old” versus “new” Europe, NATO loyalty tests, and the Iraq War split between Paris/Berlin skepticism and Eastern European alignment.

The subtext is a warning disguised as praise: don’t let “Europe” become an excuse for collective obstruction. If every nation is “free,” then no institution can claim to bind them; any consensus is optional, any dissent is a sovereign right. It’s nationhood as a wedge - a rhetoric of liberty that doubles as a strategy for fragmenting opposition and maximizing leverage, one capital at a time.