I just see this as an experiment to see if the system can survive without the bloat. If we need the bloat, the next person can just put it all back in. It's only 4 years.
That’s like saying your car’s airbags and turn signals are bloat because you’ve never used them. It will already take more than 4 years to repair the immediate damage by firing so many people: in addition to the lost institutional knowledge, consider how much more you have to pay them to come back after proving to be an unreliable employer. If a scientist goes to Europe, they’re not lightly moving to the United States in a couple of years.
Some of the long-term consequences are permanent: everyone in Europe unambiguously knows that the post-war dynamic is gone, and if they invest in their own alternatives they won’t want to throw away that investment. As an example, allies who bought F-35s are wondering if they should’ve followed the French path now that they’re faced with the prospect of being on the other side from America. If they decide to move to European control of key infrastructure, they’re not moving back for at least a generation.
