Sept. 11: US Nice Guy says 'enough' (Long but VERY good read)

UPI ^ | 09/07/02 | Martin Walker

[Jim Noble]

>>Anyhow, note to Britain: we thank you for your support. Come along with us, or be left behind in the quagmire that is the European Union<<

We have an interest in the fate of Britain, IMO.

They have the only military force of significance east of Maine. The EU is, so far, a farcical talk shop with no ability to carry out their silly, pompous threats to obstruct our freedom of action. There is no prospect (yet) that Germany, France, and Italy could or would create a military force to oppose us.

Britain is a different matter. If Britain falls to the EU, we will at best lose their fighting forces as allies-at worst, they will become enemies.

[abner]

Truly impressive article. We're going to have to keep an eye on this guy, looks like he's got quite a career ahead with that kind of clear thinking

I hope so. Or they will crush him like a grape with false accusations and innuendo.

[M Kehoe]

Good post.

The United States, with the temporary exceptions of the occupation forces in Japan and Germany after World War II, has not ruled others and shows little intention of doing so.

Then again, maybe it's time to re-colonize the entire Arab world. Should take about 3 weeks.

5.56mm

[Brian Allen]

RIPPER!
Bump Ping Ping PingPing Ping

[Brian Allen]

Ping Ping

[Tijeras_Slim]

Actually, I would imagine that today's PC schools would spend a lot of time talking about America's colonial power days.

But then the schools whould have to teach geography, and we can't have that. < /sarcasm>

[usmcobra]

Occupied or protected?

It would seem to me that the seldom used term "Protectorate" is best used to cover
the stay of US armed forces in The Philippines.
The same holds true for Panama, Where there was a need American troops were stationed to defend what was there.

Semantics, perhaps but those that hate to see American troops in a country always deem them Colonial patsies there to enforce american rule, instead of defenders.

[dennisw]

 

 

Martin Walker UPI Chief International Correspondent

Martin Walker is a veteran foreign correspondent with a reputation for getting tomorrow's important international news today, which he regularly does in compiling the daily (M-F) feature "UPI Hears."

Walker, an expert on U.S. foreign policy and international affairs, spent 25 years at Britain's The Guardian newspaper, where he was Moscow bureau chief, U.S. bureau chief, European editor and assistant editor. He received Britain's "Reporter of the Year" prize in 1987.

He also is a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York City.

Walker has appeared regularly on the BBC, National Public Radio and CNN. He scripted and narrated the BBC series "Martin Walker's Russia" and the BBC Analysis special "Clintonomics."

In addition, Walker has served as vice chairman of the European Institute of Washington. He is a member of the review board of International Affairs, the journal of Chatham House and the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, UCLA, and the universities of Toronto, New York and Pittsburgh.

Walker was a Brackenbury Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, and a Harkness fellow at Harvard University, where he also was resident tutor at Kirkland House.

He has published seven non-fiction books and three

[Teacher317]

They are wrong. The real effect of Sept. 11 is that American patience and tolerance for its global critics, most of whom do rather well out of America's benign hegemony, seems just about exhausted. And however it was that Osama bin Laden expected what he has called "the American Empire" to react to his murderous assault, if indeed he thought that far ahead, he seems not to have calculated that America might react by tearing up the old rule book of international affairs.

Oh, please, please, PLEASE, let this be true!!!!

[lodwick]

"When the Europeans demand some sort of veto over American actions, or want us to subordinate our national interest to a UN mandate, they forget that we do not think their track record is too good," a senior U.S. diplomat said recently in private. "The Europeans told us they could win the Balkans wars all on their own. Wrong. They told us that the Russians would never accept National Missile Defense. Wrong. They said the Russians would never swallow NATO enlargement. Wrong. They told us 20 years ago that détente was the way to deal with what we foolishly called the Evil Empire. Wrong again. They complain about our Farm Bill when they are the world's biggest subsidizers of their agriculture. The Europeans are not just wrong; they are also hypocrites. They are wrong on Kyoto, wrong on Arafat, wrong on Iraq -- so why should we take seriously a single word they say?"

Great catch - thanks and bttt.

[Teacher317]

From the Kyoto Protocol on global warming to the International Criminal Court, from the Biowarfare protocol to tariffs on steel, from the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty to the international agreement against land mines, the Bush administration seemed careless of any idea of the common good, when this might appear distinct from American interests.

About bloody time, too!

"they forget that we do not think their track record is too good," a senior U.S. diplomat said recently in private. "The Europeans told us they could win the Balkans wars all on their own. Wrong. They told us that the Russians would never accept National Missile Defense. Wrong. They said the Russians would never swallow NATO enlargement. Wrong. They told us 20 years ago that détente was the way to deal with what we foolishly called the Evil Empire. Wrong again. They complain about our Farm Bill when they are the world's biggest subsidizers of their agriculture. The Europeans are not just wrong; they are also hypocrites. They are wrong on Kyoto, wrong on Arafat, wrong on Iraq -- so why should we take seriously a single word they say?"

HARRUMPH! Who is this diplomat, and why isn't he the senior Senator from South Dakota??!!

[Teacher317]

Note that this is not the case of an enraged and vengeful America telling the world "no more Mr. Nice Guy." It is America saying "Enough" to the European "internationalism" of compromise and appeasement, and holding true to its core principles -- that democracy is in itself a good thing for all states and all peoples. The most valuable export America can send out to the world is its values and its freedoms and its readiness to devote blood and treasure to the mission. That would be the real memorial to the victims of 9-11.

Try to imagine any of this true American spirit coming to the surface if 538 more FL Democrat votes had been manufactured.

Martin Walker is now on my list of favorite writers.

[Nick Danger]

Their defense budgets were far too low and they deployed too little fighting power from what they did spend. (This is true; Germany, for example, currently spends 1.5 percent of GDP on defense, less than half of America's 3.4 percent.

Let's be careful what we wish for here. I'm not against Germany remaining toothless, militarily. Japan as well.

[B4Ranch]

Did you get back to this article yet? It's a 'great' read.

[B4Ranch]

In reading his career employment, it seems as though he must be getting fed up with the British Legislature.

[Rocko]

Bump.

[LS]

You are exactly right. The Teller Amendment required us to GIVE UP Cuba within a few years---an unheard of move for traditional "empires."

Moreover, the Land Ordinance and Northwest Ordinance written (essentially) by Jefferson were brilliant in that they made CITIZENS out of all "colonists," forever pre-empting the type of revolution against the U.S. that we staged against England. The Civil War came not from "colonists" but from citizens afraid of losing their ownership of people.

[LS]

NOt in my classes. They learn we are the ONLY major power in history to voluntarily relinquish its "empire;" that our practice has been to make CITIZENS not colonists of all conquered peoples; and that there is no country in the history of the planet as benign and honorable as the U.S.

That's what 100 Western Civ and Technology & War students at the University of Dayton, in my classes, learn EVERY SEMESTER. I figure in four years I get close to 1000 student contacts.

[Pete-R-Bilt]

very good read, thanks for the heads up.

[MeekOneGOP]