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Sept 18, 2003 When one tries to understand the foreign policy objectives of what US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has termed "Old Europe" a.k.a. France and Germany it must first be understood just what Old Europes primary goal is. The primary goal of the Franco-Germanic Axis is to take a European Union of nation states and recreate it as a single federal union or as former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl termed it a United States of Europe." A single nation and a second chance at being a global super power. Thus the he return of the much beloved multi-polar world, ending the unipolar dominance of the United States of America. Obviously some believe that things where much better back in the multi-polar days of empire and endless war. Those who have once tasted power are usually eager for seconds. The real danger here is that while our transatlantic friends are busy building fortress Europe, the world beyond is being ignored. In the words of British Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith "Many European governments appear more preoccupied with dreams of constructing the post- Cold War Europe, rather than with the realities of the world beyond." This is best witnessed in the United Kingdom being the only European nation to show any interest in the North Korean issue. This is best witnessed in the creation of the Euro currency for the European Union, which has been adopted by 12 of the 15 member states. It should be noted that most of the EU member state citizens were not asked in a referendum if they wanted to adopt the Euro as their currency. So much for the voice of the European electorate, perhaps the Euro-bureaucrats werent interested in hearing it. This is best witnessed in the creation of a single "European" constitution for the European Union, a free trade area that has evolved to be much more. In other words, what is on the mind of the governments of Paris and Berlin who exert the greatest control of the EU, is it global terrorism, is it the African AIDS pandemic, is it finding ways to spread democracy and the rule of law, is it North Korea's nuclear weapons? Alas no, what is on the minds of Paris and Berlin is simply Europe. This includes pushing the frontiers of the EU east, and creating more bureaucracy for the EU, thus ensuring the Franco-Germanic dominance in the EU with the help of their sycophants, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria. Devolution is a word that is not in these two nations vocabulary, while it means devolving power down from a central government France and Germany are helping to take sovereign nation state powers away from the EU members governments evolving them up to the European Union parliament. Much of this comes out of the lingering German Question, will Germany regress back to its old ways and savage Europe yet again. Germany would never regress you say, tell that to France and the UK who are more then happy to have American troops still in Germany. There is such anxiety over this that the Germans themselves are willing to be tied down in the European Union in order to appease Western Europe. Germany itself is happy to allow France to be the driver in this European endeavor whereby Germany, the European economic engine itself takes its marching orders from Paris. France and the Social Democrat Party controlled Germany want the EU to work as a counterbalance to the United States. This dynamic duo do not want it to be a partner who works with the USA, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair understands that the EU can never achieve parity with the USA, French President Jacques Chirac does not. The USA is a superpower because of its economy and because of its military. The continental Europeans have been shredding their military budgets for decades leaving only the United Kingdom as the military power of Europe. The Europeans have depended on the US military and nuclear umbrella, which has allowed the Western Europeans to forge economies that make them true economic powers but not super powers. Germany and Italy have recently fallen into recession Frances economy is teetering they have shown how dependent they are on the United States as the engine of globalization for their economic success. Europe is dependent on the United States militarily and economically that is just a fact of our times military actions in Bosnia and Kosovo prove this. The United States is not dependent on Europe militarily or economically, many Eurocentric Americans are dependent on Europe for its blessings in our international endeavors, but that is where the dependence ends. America is usually accused of isolating itself clearly this is not the case as European diplomacy has fallen off the radar. All that we hear of late out of Old Europe is how wrong the US is in everything and how much power has wonderfully been stripped away from the EU nations and evolved up to Brussels for the sake of European unity. Speaking of the need for European unity the Franco-Germanic Axis has tried to interfere in the democratic processes of Austria (which was threatened with bilateral sanctions) and Italy. Old Europe didnt like the democratic choices of either country, luckily Italy is too important in the EU to push around unfortunately for Austria, it is not. The European Union tares down economic tariff barriers between its member states but builds them up with the world beyond thus creating the situation of the death of global free trade as other nations and free trade areas react to this. While the EU has the propensity to dump its abundant agricultural products on the world market, thereby taking away a source of revenue for the 3rd World agricultural exporting nations whose products can not compete with cheaper European Union agriculture, Europe itself is extremely projectionist. There are two very recent examples of the lengths to which Old Europe is willing to put up its anti-trade walls. The genetically modified foods issue is a perfect example of the EUs protectionism. The nations of sub-Saharan Africa can not grow GM crops because one of their leading trading partners the EU would not import these dangerous crops, which could contaminate none GM crop products thus depriving the Africans of a much needed food source and source of revenue. The second example is almost too much to be believed it is the attempt soon to be made at the Cancun meeting of the World Trade Organization this September by continental Europeans to trade mark such names as champagne and sherry, because of there geographical association with European places. This would thus prevent champagne made in California or anywhere else to be called champagne simply because it was not made in Champagne, France. Truly those who would try to prevent none French champagne producers from using the name Champagne must believe fully in free markets. What is there to stand in the way of the EU becoming a formal nation state? Already the EU has a parliament, a single currency, a flag a national anthem a constitution is in its final stages of tweaking, work is under way to create an elected EU president, to me this pretty much sounds like a nation but it is not quite there, not yet. So as the leadership of our friends create their supranational nation or perhaps more accurately impotent empire a world beyond their continent is ignored. ------------ About the author: Ian Reilly is a recent graduate of Marymount Manhattan College where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with a concentration in International Studies. He was born and raised in New York City and is an avid observer of international relations. He was most recently published on the Letters page of the August 11th 2003 edition of TIME magazine. Email Ian Reilly: McUKFrog@aol.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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