Posted on 04/22/2007 5:29:56 AM PDT by nuconvert
The Failure of Europe's Iran Policy
April 16, 2007
Spiegel Online
It took Europe months to get American support for its strategy of negotiating with Iran. Tehran's latest announcement that it can enrich uranium on an industrial scale shows that the EU course has failed.
The toughest questions were discussed over lunch. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier even suggested that his counterparts remove their ties -- he wanted nothing to stand in the way of blood flowing to the brains of Europe's chief diplomats, as they came together at Bremen's exclusive Park Hotel on the weekend before Easter to tackle the most sensitive problem now facing world politics.
When Ertugrul Apakan, the Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary, took the podium, he quickly shattered European hopes of being able to stop Tehran from moving forward with its nuclear plans using diplomacy.
International sanctions, Apakan granted, were not doing the Iranian economy any favors. Nevertheless, he went on, the high price of oil ensures that Iran is in excellent financial condition. Besides, said Apakan, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's refusal to buckle in the face of pressure from the West is very popular in Iran.
Apakan wasn't done, however. Tehran hardliners, he said, have received a valuable boost from US policy in the region. Washington's military campaigns have eliminated two of Iran's former enemies: the Taliban in Afghanistan and Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein. America is now so weakened that it is unlikely to embark on another armed conflict in the Gulf region. "The international situation is very favorable for Iran," Apakan concluded.
The Turkish guest in Bremen could have gone even further, but he proved too polite to thoroughly analyze the role of those foreign ministers present at the conference. Had he done so, he might have told them that they
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Wow.
Ya mean—appeasement doesn’t WORK?
Gollygosh whooda thunk it?
Name one country in the world other than Israel not guilty of appeasing Iran?
I don't know why they always underestimate us. We don't have to use ground troops to devastate Iran.
I wouldn’t suggest that Europe is the only side of the North Atlantic treaty guilty of appeasing Iran. Far from it.
I doubt that we’re particularly weakened militarily in any way; for one thing, we’ve probably learned a lot in Iran.
But we are definitely weakened internally, thanks to the Dems. And you can have all the military power in the world, but if you are too weak internally to use it effectively, it’s not going to do you the least bit of good.
How do you define "appeasing" in terms of relations with Iran? Buying oil from them? Maintaining diplomatic relations with them? Not taking military action against them? If you want an answer, you need to be more specific. IMO: The US is not "appeasing" Iran.
We need to look in the mirror if we want to see why Americans don't know if they can continue to support a global war on terror when our own border security is almost ignored.
If the Dems have scuttled our resolve, then it was a lack of leadership by party rinos that put them back in the driver's seat.
American and European policy have both been totally ineffective in dealing with Iran. The only way to stop Iran getting the bomb is war. Neither the US or the EU have any gas in the tank to support a war with Iran. Therefore, Iran will get the bomb.
Which was our purpose in attacking Iraq: to avoid the spectre of any nuclear terror state arising. North Korea may have detonated a nuclear device since we attacked Iraq, too.
Also, other mideast countries are seeking nuclear weapons now because they fear a nuclear Shi'ite-led Iran almost as much as Israel does.
The price of appeasement is very high.
We've been swept away by these idealistic revereies more than once.
How long did the Soviet Empire last before the Berlin Wall crumbled from within? What kind of Iran do we want in the long term and what is the best way to achieve it?
Yes, there’s some truth to that. Dems are like Islamists: they go for where they see weakness. And many in the GOP, inspired by the “New Tone” that Bush wanted to set in DC (and should have abandoned after the first 2 weeks, when he could see it wasn’t working), gave that message.
The Dems wouldn’t have gotten a word in edgewise if we had set realistic goals in Iraq and then carried them out without consideration to The Hague.
“Name one country in the world other than Israel not guilty of appeasing Iran?”
Australia?
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