alt Hacker News...what? That literally makes no sense. "Europe" is not a country. "Europe" does not dream of being an empire, because it has no cohesive governing body or even identity as a whole - maybe France or UK dream of being empires but collectively? Does Slovakia or Portugal dream of being empires?
That is such a naively simplistic view of how the world works it reads like it's straight from a Daily Mail or Fox News headline, which always say "Europe does X" - like, who is Europe? Are they in the room with us now?
"Europe is learning" should say - (some) European states are learning, and they are learning that you cannot negotiate with convicted criminals and fascists - they will betray you on a whim because they do not answer to anyone, not even themselves.
Europe has fantasies of being a mighty empire but actually all it does it lick the butt of actual great empires. Also Europe is a little baby, it wears diapers and poops in them all the time and doesn't even know what toilet training is, then they need mommy to come change the diapee or else Europe will cry and scream and throw a big tantrum.