Conspiracy theory time: We might be seeing an EU power play in effect right now. France and Germany might be trying to make the EU more independent of America and Great Britian, and the way to do that is to foster an anti-war, anti-American stance. They'd certainly be the ones who will gain the least from a war in Iraq, terrorism concerns aside. In fact, they might benefit from having Saddam in power, yet "contained" (notice the quotes).
That appears at least partially why Germany and France are leading the opposition. Another reason is, France and Germany, have an even greater dependency percentage wise, on foreign oil, as well as the profits to be made by selling oil and military equipment. Plus, by keeping the US the target, they might be able to escape the brunt of the damage.
However, the fly in the ointment for them reared its ugly head yesterday, in the form of OBL. Maybe they had hoped to contain Saddam, but nobody can believe that OBL can and will be contained. And if the thought of them separately doesn't scare you, then how about the thought of OBL and Saddam working together, with Saddams WMD and OBL religious fanatics. Yesterday, OBL said SA is the target, more than Iraq. SA has the fundamentalist Wahbiddi faction, a weak monarchy, and one hell of a lot of oil, whereas Saddam is stronger, and the Iraqis don't seem to have the religious fervor . That is a big reason why Iraq is the key to the middle east. Whoever controls Iraq can control SA and Kuwait, and whoever controls the oilfields, controls the lifelines to the economies of the West. If Europe is concerned about America getting too much power, they had better think about what happens when OBL gets too much power. |
