LETTER FROM PARIS: An Atmospheric Detente
Harriss, Joseph A.
LETTER FROM PARIS JOSEPH A. HARRISS An Atmospheric Detente F THE TRANS-ATLANTIC DUST-UP over Iraq and subse quent ill feeling constituted a new cold war of sorts, is the atmosphere...
...They have nothing else to defend themselves with, having let their armed forces degenerate to mere vestiges during decades of American protection...
...While his embryonic foreign ministry in Brussels demonstrates Parkinson's Law-its staff has doubled, to 300, in five years-he duly expresses doubts about the elections in Iraq, U.S...
...Jacques Chirac traveled to Brussels to meet George Bush, shake his hand, share a portion of French fries with him, and state unequivocally that "we have always had extremely cordial relations...
...Joseph A. HarrissisaParis-basedAmericanjournalist...
...April 2005 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 39...
...America wants to brand Hezbollah a terrorist organization...
...Just look at how they respect their own euro-zone Stability and Growth Pact...
...After all, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, declared that he "really understands and likes the United States...
...How, European hair-splitters ask, can a Lebanese political party possibly be considered terrorist...
...LETTER FROM P A R I S JOSEPH A . H A R R i S S An Atmospheric Detente F THE TRANS-ATLANTIC DUST-UP over Iraq and subse quent ill feeling constituted a new cold war of sorts, is the atmosphere following the Bush-Rice visits to Europe a new detente...
...Evidence of that abounds, but it was brought home to me at a recent Paris dinner party where the vexed subject of Iraq came up...
...policy on China, and whatever else his masters in Paris and Berlin demand...
...Maybe we are at a new departure in relations with Europe, an atmospheric detente...
...If the new detente means turning a blind eye not only to such nonsense, but also to real policy differences, then by all means let the Europeans, who boast of their "moral power," lift the embargo on arms sales to China, and Taiwan be damned...
...Call it detente, a new era in relations, or whatever, but we should have no illusions about Europe as dependable...
...As "Europe," or the so-called "European Union," it is a top-down, artificial creature, an undemocratic organization run by some 20,000 unelected bureaucrats amid the general indifference of ordinary Europeans-when Spain held its referendum in February to approve the proposed EU "constitution," barely 40 percent turned out to vote and even fewer knew what they were voting for...
...With respect to the all-important question of what to do about the Middle East, it is clear that Europe, now infiltrated by jihad-preaching mosques and enormous, menacing Muslim populations, already has its hands tied...
...Case closed...
...And if our European allies want to continue playing diplomatic footsie with Iran in the hope that their soft approach will keep the mullahs from developing The Arab Nuke, so be it...
...The only discernible foreign policy goal of "Europe" is its continual enlargement in order to create a counterweight, at the behest of its French creator, to the United States...
...But actions still speak louder than words...
...Most Europeans watch with resignation as an impersonal, technocratic "Europe" daily destroys the real Europe's rich cultural diversity, standardizing it with an avalanche of unmanageable, incomprehensible rules...
...The basic French/European attitude on trans-Atlantic relations-if they need mending, it's up to the Americans to make concessions-is set by a typical editorial in Le Monde...
...Signs of Europe's true feelings about America, as opposed to recent soothing words-French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier could hardly say "Chere Condi" often enough during Rice's Paris visit-range from the comic to the scatological...
...In press photos it looked friendly as could be, but viewed live you could see the French president quickly withdraw as if he'd just touched a hot stove, then rub his hands together as if trying to wipe something off...
...Intended to keep budget deficits under 3 percent, it was hardly in place before France and Germany began insisting that the bothersome rules be loosened...
...Meanwhile, Europe remains mired in its very specific troubles of high unemployment, ominous demographics, and entrenched, unimaginative political leaders-incredibly, France has had only two presidents in the last 25 years...
...What is "Europe," after all...
...There was, for example, Chirac's laughable handshake with Bush...
...There, as elsewhere, the vaunted European diplomacy had better be as good as its billing...
...Obviously we can count on major arms merchants like the French to respect a code of conduct to ensure no advanced European military technology gets into Chinese hands, can't we...
...As to Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder freely taking pot shots at Bush and bad-mouthing NATO as the main forum for trans-Atlantic dialogue, well, the new detente means we must understand that tight elections now loom on their political radars...
...Its foreign policy chief, the pallid Spaniard Javier Solana, is one of those least common denominators routinely chosen for top EU jobs...
...In any case, we can't possibly help you there: 'a well-informed lady suddenly ejaculated...
...Indeed, on the whole question of the broader Middle East, we can expect more European nit-picking and reservations than support...
...Rattling America's cage is how they make points with voters force-fed grotesque caricatures of the U.S...
...We have over five million Muslims in France...
...The forced introduction of its new currency, the euro, was cordially detested by most citizens because it obliterated, along with those marks, francs, pesetas, and lire, an important part of their national pasts and identities...
...Then there are those ineffable urinal stickers in Brussels, home of NATO, showing the American flag and George Bush's face with the slogan, "Go Ahead, Piss on Me...
...Small wonder...
...The Crawford rancher would be unwise to bet the farm on improved European cooperation on major tension points...
...Americans still have to demonstrate," it preaches, "that they are now ready to seek agreement with their allies and to renounce unilateralism...
...Without the 38 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR April 2005 J O S E P H A. H A R R I S S quotation marks, only a variegated, volatile geographical region at the western end of the Eurasian landmass...
...But as in that previous detente, the one where the chips were really down, the golden rule is still the same: trust but verify...
...One German political observer recently characterized Schroder sharply as "a man looking at poll numbers and thinking he can stay in power by running against George Bush in every German election...
...There are token moves like France's ban on Muslim headscarves in schools, but on the big questions there is no other course than appeasement...
Vol. 38 • April 2005 • No. 3
