Keeping Up Appearances

"I am writing in response to your Friday post. You seem to view the European Community as completely unprincipled and on the side of America's enemies. This view is wrong and very disturbing, and I hope it's not shared by many Americans.
[Signed] Henry in Leeds"

Dear Henry:

I stated that the EU is founded on the principle of trade; that to be true to the principle Brussels can be counted on to side with their (important) trading partners, even if this pits them against America. And, I should add, even if this pits them against the foreign policy of certain EU governments. Brussels, as the seat of EU government, is currently dominated by the views of the chief founders of the EU, which are Germany and France. That situation might change over the years but that's the way things are now. And the EU is in the process of adopting a single foreign policy.

Pundita fails to see what's wrong or disturbing about the above statements. What's disturbing is that Washington doesn't recognize the fact of the European Union's growing power and cohesiveness. They don't recognize that during the past decade, Brussels has been moving toward placing the United Nations alliance above the NATO alliance. Many in Washington have not confronted that Brussels isn't only talking about giving the UN more power. Brussels is implying that the UN, not NATO, is the premier alliance for the European Union.

If that's Brussels' choice, that's their prerogative, but that calls for a revision of the US view of NATO. At the least it calls for Brussels to clarify their position at the official level. But we can't call for that clarification until Washington confronts where we are now. Until there is clarity, the US Department of State will continue to adhere to the clearest position, which is to treat the NATO alliance as if it's frozen in time, even though the position is irrational.

All right, that's enough chat about the price of tea in Outer Mongolia and the best weather to plant corn. Tehran is blackmailing Brussels. That's why the US shouldn't go along with the so-called negotiations.

If you had told Brussels in August 2001 that by 2003 the US would be camped in Baghdad, they would have laughed 'til they cried. But once they saw it might come true then it was, "Uh oh. Saddam keeps really accurate records of his weapons purchases. We need to head off the US at Turtle Bay Pass!"

Now the same crew is trying to head us off over Tehran. The French, German and British governments need to stop playing the role of Hyacinth. We're going to find out sooner or later which companies the Tehran regime contracted with to build their nuke weapons facilities.

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