Saturday, April 17, 2004
Make W. Europe A Deal They Can't Refuse
Michael Totten, in an essay in Tech Central Station, says it's time to embrace the ugly truth: Western Europe is an ally no more. So let's stop pretending they are, and cut a neutrality deal. We'll kill terrorists on your behalf, and you admit your neutrality and get out of our way:
If Europeans don't feel comfortable taking the war against the terrorists into the heart of the Middle East, Americans can and will do the dirty work for them. Americans will do it with or without their blessing or help. We'll do it not to spite them but because we have no choice.
If they feel their support in the Terror War puts them at risk of attack, as the Spanish clearly do, their best option is to cut a deal with the United States: deputize America to fight the war for them. They can do this quietly. We will fight for Germany, for Spain, and for France. In return, they will wage no anti-American campaigns and make no complaints about how we fight or about American "unilateralism."
We will be fighting for them against our common enemies. Europeans had nothing to gain but oil contracts and the illusion of gratitude for playing the role of Saddam Hussein's and Yasser Arafat's lawyer. They'll get attacked by fanatics all the same.
A lot of people wouldn't like this arrangement. Some Europeans would grouse that they don't pull enough weight in the world. Some Americans would complain that Europeans are defense freeloaders. But that's basically the way it is already. All I'm suggesting is that both Europe and the US accept and "institutionalize" reality.
The excerpt doesn't do it justice. Read the whole thing here.
Via Eyelinematch.
If Europeans don't feel comfortable taking the war against the terrorists into the heart of the Middle East, Americans can and will do the dirty work for them. Americans will do it with or without their blessing or help. We'll do it not to spite them but because we have no choice.
If they feel their support in the Terror War puts them at risk of attack, as the Spanish clearly do, their best option is to cut a deal with the United States: deputize America to fight the war for them. They can do this quietly. We will fight for Germany, for Spain, and for France. In return, they will wage no anti-American campaigns and make no complaints about how we fight or about American "unilateralism."
We will be fighting for them against our common enemies. Europeans had nothing to gain but oil contracts and the illusion of gratitude for playing the role of Saddam Hussein's and Yasser Arafat's lawyer. They'll get attacked by fanatics all the same.
A lot of people wouldn't like this arrangement. Some Europeans would grouse that they don't pull enough weight in the world. Some Americans would complain that Europeans are defense freeloaders. But that's basically the way it is already. All I'm suggesting is that both Europe and the US accept and "institutionalize" reality.
The excerpt doesn't do it justice. Read the whole thing here.
Via Eyelinematch.
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