But a united Europe is becoming less likely. The Eurocrats are attempting to take advantage of the euro crisis to create new European institutions, but as Mark Leonard of the European Council on Foreign Relations argued, “economically, culturally and politically, it is driving Europe apart.” European peoples do not share the desire of European leaders for European solidarity.

Americans should remember their debt burden before feeling schadenfreude over Europe’s plight. And the United States has its Greece and Portugal: Illinois and California. America’s advantage is that it is a real nation-state which won’t fracture over finances. The EU remains a fragile nation-state wannabe.

Europe will survive, whatever the fate of the euro zone. But the objective of Europe acting alongside the the United States and China to dominate the globe is dead. Europe will remain a collection of normal countries, despite the pretensions of the Continent’s Eurocratic elite.

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author of several books, including Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire (Xulon).