Posted on 03/07/2006 3:35:06 PM PST by RWR8189
After two years of disastrous dialogue, and more of the same in recent days, we can conclude that no diplomatic initiative can stop Iran from getting the bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency meets again this week to discuss the mullahs' nuclear ambitions, while Russia floats a plan to get Iran to enrich uranium on its soil. But before we got to this point, we had the Europeans in the starring role. The foreign ministers of the leading European Union countries--Britain, France and Germany--did try for years to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, most recently at Friday's meeting in Vienna that ended up in yet another failure. But Iran knew all along that this threesome, formally the "Troika," had no real negotiating authority and would never resort to serious measures.
And yet Britain's Jack Straw, France's Philippe Douste-Blazy (and his predecessor, Dominique de Villepin) and Germany's Joschka Fischer (and his successor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier) talked on, clinging to a postmodern European belief in a world where any conflict can be resolved with enough reason and mutual understanding. The Troika offered the mullahs economic carrots and alternative sources of nuclear power--as if energy had anything to do with it--while Iran did what any football team does when it's ahead: It played for time. This it used very well to push ahead with its clandestine nuclear program.
Did the Troika know that Iran knew that Europe was weak? Of course. Europe's posturing was empty from the start. The only weapon that the EU was willing to consider, as a last result, was an economic boycott that would harm Europe's commercial interests more than Iran's.
The mullahs also knew that the Troika couldn't back up its threat of an economic boycott with the threat of military action. If the EU couldn't
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Absolutely great article.
The conveniences and comforts of technology have made us physically weaker and the social engineering conducted by legislators, judges and academics have taken away the stomach of far too many to endure harsh criticism. We have stopped allowing the Churches and parents to forge our sense of morality, and have largely ceded that function to government and government run schools.
You say, "But I'm different! I'm not like that!"
I'm quite certain many europeans do too.....
The spawn of Neville Chamberlain live on.
But I wouldn't call them inherently weak. When you watch their athletes at the Olympics or the Ryder Cup, they're tough and fearless and they perform very well under pressure. They're not wimps, but they suffer from a lot of illusions and delusions. I hope they wake up before it's too late. It looks like the Euros who understand Iran are counting on the US and Israel to save them.
This has nothing to do with physical strength or athletic skill. It has to do with whether those tough and fearless golfers on the Ryder Cup team are willing to put away their clubs and die for their country's values. Each can guess for himself at the answer.
When push comes to shove, Europe will fight. And if and when they do, they still have the cultural strength to fight well. It would be better from the terror masters point of view to wait another 25 years before launching their all-out war.
Ahhh..nope..not this time.
Americans have done enough dying for Europe's lack of convictions.
Europe can do it's own bleeding this time around, thank you very much.
Aside from a few soccer brawlers in the UK and Germany, most Europeans I have met couldn't hurt a flea. They are the least macho people outside of certain parts of Asia and even Latin America (Latinos being more "feminine" than many believe).
Perhaps I didn't adequately explain myself...Of course there are individual western euros (and Americans, for that matter) who are exceptional; having served in the military for 10 years, I had the opportunity to meet many, and work with a few, and they were truly professionals with whom I would have no problem going to war. That being said, the national leadership in virtually all European nations has done nothing for decades but foster an environment of collectivist interdependence and promote every imaginable disincentive for individualism...I would be willing to venture a guess that even the athletes you mention are motivated to train and compete as much, "for king and country," as they are for any sense of individual accomplishment, and are probably recognized at home for having represented the nation as much as for any singular accomplishment.
This 'herd' mentality is the logical progression of the, 'largesse from the public treasury' route we have comparatively just begun to travel. Exceptional persons in western Europe, regardless of their field of endeavor, frequently find themselves limited by their ties to the ponderous public apparatus that provides bread and circuses for the masses (witness the number of Europeans musicians, actors, authors, etc. who seek American citizenship, or at least residency once they distinguish themselves). The euro-herds have been historically compliant to their overlords in a way that Americans have traditionally resisted, but many Americans would have us more like them, and it's this precise mentality that does not bode well for western Europe with the incipient infiltration by islamists.
Despite all that, I remain hopeful for western civilization for several reasons:
1. The former soviet-bloc nations of eastern Europe, who have recently obtained their own individual liberties seem to place a value on them far beyond their western European counterparts, and are much more reluctant to countenance tolerance of the intolerable.
2. By geography the British Isles will continue to be a bastion of civilization, much as the Celtic monks preserved it in the ancient past, and they resisted the designs of a spanish armada, napoleonic conquest and 'thousand year' reich. Despite having largely thrown in their hat with socialist-progressive trends, the Brits have had substantial cultural ties and interaction with the US that gives them an edge in national, if not individual sensibilities regarding independence and self-reliance. Tony Blair has been surprisingly heroic and exemplary in this regard by resisting the pacifist desires of his own party. Like Chesterton said a century ago, "“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."
3. For now, just enough common sense seems to be prevailing in the U.S. with regards to foreign policy in general, and islamic extremism in particular, that we remain philosophically committed to doing the right thing and maintain the strength to do it when called upon.
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