Excellent article.
They are saying:
America is militant, unilateral, capitalist, Christian.
(West) Europe is pacifist, multilateral, socialist, secular.
But neither has anything in common with the Islamists. IMO, W. European pacifism is not going to survive the ongoing war. No matter how "small" they try to make themselves, in an attempt to not become a target of the Islamists, they will eventually be drawn into the conflict. Their choices are neutrality or joining the U.S., and neutrality isn't tenable longterm. But their wishful-thinking attempt to remain neutral is going to prolong the war, and increase the body-count, just as their 1930s pacifism did in the fight against fascism.
The U.S. had an excellent opportunity to weld Europe to our side in this war, after 9/11/01. We wasted the opportunity. We did this by:
1. being too unilateral, on too many issues, including issues that are not "core", like Kyoto.
2. being too militant. We are fighting this war exclusively militarily, which is a mistake. Our army should be seen as one tool among many, and not the only tool in the war.
3. choosing Iraq as our second battlefield. Europeans just don't see that Iraq has anything to do with the War On Terrorism. |
