The concept of the European Union was viable as a customs union, but as a political union it holds water about as well as a colander. It isn’t feared militarily because it doesn’t have a military. If the EU were an animal, it would be an invertebrate. Today, Western Europe lacks any true statesmen, unlike the U.S. when it was formed. The U.S. originally organized as a confederacy in which the 13 states each went their own ways with no strong central authority. The Founding Fathers realized this fatal flaw, abolished the Articles of Confederation and wrote the U.S. Constitution, which created a strong central government and made the states subordinate to it. Unfortunately for Europe, political leaders there lack the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. In Europe there are 27 EU members going 27 different directions. They have 24 official languages, which makes it difficult for the EU to unify. All member states should have handed over their military forces to the EU to be under the body’s commander in chief, President Ursula von der Leyen, but they didn’t. The Euro currency was a natural progression, but the EU should have assumed and centralized all of its members’ debt, which it also didn’t do. An EU central bank would have handled the role of the member nations’ former central banks. With no exception, all EU foreign policy should be conducted from Brussels. The White House meeting this week regarding Ukraine and Russia should have had three people only in attendance: Presidents Trump, Zelenskyy and von der Leyden. No other leaders should have been present. At Scotland’s Turnberry Golf Club recently, Mr. Trump sucker-punched Ms. von der Leyden with peek-a-boo, rope-a-dope and roundhouse punches to let her know he’s in charge. It was a lousy deal for Europe. The European Union will always have a complex since it will always operate in the shadow of the United States and be treated as a subject, not as a citizen. LEE R. PITTS Orlando, Florida