[Politico] Behind the sober public pronouncements from Brussels and national capitals, officials are seething.
Time to disband NATO. If they hate us this much, what are we doing there?
Reckless, illegal, unhinged.
When it comes to finding adjectives to describe U.S. President Donald Trump’s assassination of Iranian military guru Qassem Soleimani, which prompted the Iranians to respond by launching missile attacks on bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops overnight, European officials have displayed rare unity. At least in private.
Behind the sober public pronouncements from Brussels and national capitals about the need for "de-escalation," officials are seething.
Plus ca change? While Trump has been reviled by Europe’s establishment from the day he took office, his other major "outrages" ‐ such as the decisions to pull out of the Paris climate accord and the Iranian nuclear deal or to impose tariffs on EU steel ‐ were well-telegraphed.
No one saw the Iranian escalation coming. Within hours of Soleimani's assassination, Europe’s shock over the Iranian general’s killing morphed into anger at Trump.
One of the indirect victims of the U.S. strike may prove to be the transatlantic relationship.
We don't need them. They need us. Fuck 'em.
Just how bad is it? Even as Iran’s supreme leader promised "severe" retaliation for the killing over the weekend, EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, invited Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for a sitdown in Brussels. The U.S., which recently placed sanctions on Zarif, won’t even grant him a visa to visit the United Nations.
UN out of USA, too. Move it to Geneva.
Angela Merkel, Europe’s de facto supreme leader, responded to the crisis by arranging a "working meeting" later this week ‐ in Moscow.
Berlin appears to have concluded that sitting down with Vladimir Putin (who met with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad this week to celebrate their success in crushing Syria’s civil war) would be more productive than a trip to Washington, on paper still Germany’s most important ally.
Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel described the Soleimani attack as a "1914 moment." The new leadership of Germany's Social Democrats, Merkel's coalition partner, called on the U.S. to remove its nuclear arsenal from the country.
Though other senior SPD officials, including former European Parliament President Martin Schulz, have endorsed such a move in the past, the timing of the latest demand underscored the degree of German unease over Trump's course. Under Trump, the transatlantic relationship "has fundamentally changed," SPD co-leader Norbert Walter-Borjans said on Tuesday.
Time to leave. Disband NATO, pull out the troops, and last one out turn off the lights. Europe prefers gay-executing, protester-killing, terrorist-sponsoring theocratic Iran to us. So be it. 
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