Posted on 11/11/2004 12:50:39 PM PST by neverdem
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 11 - The head of NATO said today that there was a critical "perception gap" between Europe and the United States on the subject of global terror and that Europeans must move closer to the American view of the seriousness of the threat.
"Your country focused very much on the fight against terror while in Europe we focused to a lesser extent on the consequences for the world," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's secretary general, said in an interview. "We looked at it from different angles, and that for me is one of the reasons you saw such frictions in the trans-Atlantic relationship."
As a result, he said, Europe was lagging behind the United States in merging external and internal security to combat terrorism, and Europe had to catch up.
"If the gap is to be bridged, it has to be done from the European side and not from the United States," he said, adding that the conflict in Iraq, the issue that helped divide the alliance, now provided an opportunity for uniting it.
"Where allies very much agree and must agree is the fact that whatever ways they have looked at the war in Iraq and the run-up to it and the split we saw, we cannot afford to see Iraq go up in flames," he said. "It is everyone's obligation that we get Iraq right."
Mr. de Hoop Scheffer is a former Dutch foreign minister who backed the Bush administration on the war in Iraq without alienating other European leaders and became NATO's head on Jan. 1. He said that a meeting he had with President Bush in Washington Wednesday should be taken as a sign that trans-Atlantic frictions had eased.
"It's not as if I came here with doubt and my meeting with the President washed it all away,'' he said. "I have never doubted that commitment, but whatever way you look at it, the fact that the secretary general of NATO is the first foreign visitor that President Bush has met since the election is a clear sign sign of the full commitment of this administration and of this president to the trans-Atlantic alliance."
NATO has been asked by the Iraqi government to train its security forces, and Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said that 10 of the 19 member states were contributing to that training, both within Iraq and in places outside Iraq, the preference of France, Germany and Spain - like Jordan and European military schools. He said he hoped to have the program fully operational by the end of the year.
The experience of Iraq had taught him two lessons as a European and an Atlanticist, he said.
"The first is that if Europe sees its integration process as one directed against the United States, it will not work because the result will be a split in Europe, and that is an ambition that no European should have,'' he said.
"The second is that if you want to have a trans-Atlantic dialogue between grownups, I know that any president and any American administration is willing to listen to the European voice as long as it is one European voice. If it is five different voices, they will not take the trouble to listen and they will wonder what is Europe."
NATO has 9,000 troops and a broadening reconstruction campaign under way in Afghanistan, but Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said his greatest concern there now - one he planned to raise in a meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan today - was the explosion in the heroin trade and its threat to the country's political future and to NATO's work there.
"Poppy fields are growing in large parts of the country, certain warlords are financed from the revenues of the crop and the economy of Afghanistan is dominated by the illegal profits of this growth," he said.
While the mission was one for the international community and not for NATO, he said, it could end up undermining his organization's effort to secure and stabilize the country.
"My point,'' he said, "is that if the international community doesn't take this problem head on, then what are we doing there?"
The split in Europe he's talking about I'm sure is; the split between the Eastern and Western Europe. The East supports America....the West tries to destroy America.
Well, the Dutch fought for their freedom during the 16th century and have always been an pretty independent and sensible lot (if a bit smug), rather like the Swiss who fought for and have maintained their independence (by being armed to the teeth in their mountain fortresses) since the 15th century. The Swiss and the Dutch are the only Continental Europeans that really "get it" about liberty.
Right. And, I'm fed up about the "go along to get along" attitude of conservatives who have been correct throughout all this period of time. It is time for us to start letting people know, in no uncertain terms, that they are wrong, that they are dangerously wrong, and if they don't start working with us, civilization is truly in jeopardy.
"If the gap is to be bridged, it has to be done from the European side and not from the United States," he said, adding that the conflict in Iraq, the issue that helped divide the alliance, now provided an opportunity for uniting it.
A pragmatic, logical, European ally? It's too hard to believe.
"Where allies very much agree and must agree is the fact that whatever ways they have looked at the war in Iraq and the run-up to it and the split we saw, we cannot afford to see Iraq go up in flames," he said. "It is everyone's obligation that we get Iraq right."
There's a slight possibility I'm being too skeptical (/sarcasm), but I'm prone to suspect that what he means by "It is everyone's obligation that we get Iraq right" is probably vastly different from what the US would view as being in our best interest - especially if and when the rest of Old Europe's NATO countries start trying to insert their own interests.
I don't think there's any reason to anticipate Old Europe's help in the war on terror, period. The US and its more recent allies ought to ignore this trojan horse of an olive branch.
Not to mention abandoning the Twilight Zone and facing reality.
Thanks for the link.
,,, hence, the source of this press release from the United Nations, not any agency in the EU. Europe consists of a lot of tribes who hate each other. Germany smiles at France while it takes more and more power away from her and France believes it's a key player. Britain, throughout, has been smart enough to retain the Sterling.
A joke from when the roles were reversed....
Q. Why didn't the Clinton adminstration need a foreign policy?
A. Europe already had one.
I see this as an evil inherent to democratic socialism. Because the system doesn't work, the governments compete in the only way they can without so upsetting their dependents that the government collapses: they cheat, trying to bring their competition down to their level. I really don't think that they believe destruction is their goal even if that would be how their policies would result.
In short, the problem is democracy itself.
One of the real failings of our leadership in this country is to allow them to talk of democracy in public discourse as if it were an undisguiesed blessing, a worthy goal and ideal in itself. They NEVER speak of the blessings of republican government, as if that were a partisan issue. In fact, they allow the perjorative "banana republic" to go uncorrected. It has to stop.
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Are they aware this is not a Democracy, but a Republic?
Roger that ~ retain the Sterling!
I guess this is one foreign leader Kerry did not consult.
One wonders if the Dutch General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, is equating the recent murder by Muslims in his country as a sign of things to come? He is wise to sign on with the USA vision and response to terrorism now.
When Chirac has to pick up the phone and dial 1.800.USA, President Bush may not be inclined to answer the phone.
Especially if the voice speaks Spanish with a "zeta."
I would bet that 90% of Americans don't understand the distinctions, much less Europeans. Those who do understand and still talk democracy, have a reason. They must be called upon it at every opportunity.
The media are particularly fond of democracy for obvious reasons. Selling control of the masses is very profitable.
The weenies won't like that
bttt
Wow, did I read that correctly?!? Amazing. Totally amazing.
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