'Axis of weasels' discreetly plot revenge on US

New Zealand Herald ^ | October 21 2003 | CATHERINE FIELD

[knighthawk]

PARIS - The "Old Europe" so despised by United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has started to exact a discreet diplomatic revenge for the Iraq war, cautiously pushing ahead with a scheme for closer military co-operation that would gradually weaken Washington's European clout.

The plan, driven forward by the Franco-German alliance, is still in its sketchiest stages, and all concerned have been making soothing noises to placate the Americans, who are angry at what they see as a veiled attempt to sideline them in Europe.

Even so, the worried responses from the US show that a scheme to set up an independent European Union military command headquarters is very much alive, and that transatlantic tensions stoked by the Iraqi war remain extremely sharp, six months after major operations in the conflict were declared to be over.

Late last week, on the sidelines of a European Union summit, Britain's Prime Minister held talks with his Belgian, French and German counterparts, which with Luxembourg fathered the initiative in February for the further development of an EU defence operation independent of Nato.

Washington's Ambassador to Nato, Nicolas Burns, was due to hold emergency talks with other ambassadors in Brussels today, a reflection of growing concern that any new defence operation would weaken Europe's relationship with the transatlantic alliance.

Separately, the EU's most senior military figure, Finnish General Gustav Hagglund, who chairs the EU military committee, called for a European fast-reaction force that could be deployed to hot-spots within 60 days, and with an operational capacity of at least a year.

"After May 1, we'll be 450 million people [in the EU]," Hagglund said in Budapest, referring to the massive enlargement of the EU from 15 to 25 states next year.

"It would be awkward if these 450 million people did not have any military tools at their disposal."

Hagglund said that any EU defence force would complement the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and not be a substitute for it.

"The EU needs to have military capability. Nobody doubts that," said the EU's foreign policy representative, Javier Solana, himself a former Nato Secretary-General. He added, though, "The relations between EU and Nato are basic relations and nobody wants to question that or damage that."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was vehement: "Let me make one thing very clear to you: I will never put at risk Nato."

French President Jacques Chirac, with whom Blair has swapped sharp verbal blows in the past, was conciliatory about Britain's position, saying, "We will pursue our discussions," adding that "a European defence without Britain must be recognised as being not very coherent."

Nato has been grappling for a role since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has struggled with the notion of building a European arm that would take up peacekeeping duties for the Atlantic alliance, albeit with the blessing of the Americans.

The EU has bit by bit stepped into this role, but it is moving with extreme caution, given that several of its countries are neutrals, and Britain and Italy in particular are opposed to any move that boosts the hand of unilateralists in Washington.

That is why the apparently timid scheme of a separate planning headquarters for a loose grouping of European countries has roused a furore - that it could be the thin end of the wedge that leads to a US withdrawal from Europe.

In the runup to the Brussels talks, the European media reported that Blair had been mulling a deal under which he would accept an autonomous European command centre, but that it should be housed in either Nato's military HQ in Belgium or in national facilities, to avoid giving ammunition to the US unilateralists. In exchange, France and Germany would drop a push for a mutual defence guarantee to be written into a draft EU constitution.

Clearly worried by these reports, Burns touched off a fierce diplomatic row by blasting European defence initiatives as the "most significant threat to Nato's future."

According to one diplomat present, "the meeting turned hot, the tone [of the comments] was taken badly by several delegations."

According to the Financial Times newspaper, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice telephoned Nigel Schweinwald, Blair's chief foreign policy aid and formerly Britain's Ambassador to the EU, to voice her concern about any sidelining of the US.

The mounting death toll in Iraq has swung the pendulum of influence in Europe back towards the "axis of weasels" - France and Germany - who opposed the US operation to unseat Saddam Hussein.

But they are unlikely to be too aggressive in building a European military arm. For one thing, they prefer the Americans, despite their perceived faults, to remain in Europe. In addition, European equipment and budgets fall short of providing the logistical power to mount big, long-distance operations.

[knighthawk]

Europe-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

[Diogenesis]

[Grampa Dave]

[Broadside Joe]

"In the runup to the Brussels talks, the European media reported that Blair had been mulling a deal under which he would accept an autonomous European command centre, but that it should be housed in either Nato's military HQ in Belgium or in national facilities, to avoid giving ammunition to the US unilateralists."

oh yes America is a unilateralist but Briton isn't?


"The "Old Europe" so despised by United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has started to exact a discreet diplomatic revenge for the Iraq war, cautiously pushing ahead with a scheme for closer military co-operation that would gradually weaken Washington's European clout."

It seems to me that it started before, long before the 'liberation' of Iraq.


"The mounting death toll in Iraq has swung the pendulum of influence in Europe back towards the "axis of weasels" - France and Germany - who opposed the US operation to unseat Saddam Hussein."

How so? We're in control and will stay in control. We won a 15-0 vote OUR WAY.

"But they are unlikely to be too aggressive in building a European military arm. For one thing,** they prefer the Americans,** despite their perceived faults, to remain in Europe. In addition, European equipment and budgets fall short of providing the logistical power to mount big, long-distance operations."

I say let them and withdraw all our funding. Let them pay for the protection that we've given them for over half a century.

They can take a flying leap.

[Little Ray]

Yee-hah! Bring the troopies home or send 'em to our new bases in Iraq, Iran, and Syria.

Oh, wait. I wasn't supposed to mention the last two...

[ex-Texan]

LOL, LOL, LOL ! I spilled my coffee all over my key board from laughing.

[ellery]

"[De Villepin] also said the Euro army deal agreed between Mr Blair and French president Jacques Chirac in 1998 signalled the end of Nato."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1004336/posts

[Grampa Dave]

Rummy has quieted down a lot of the Euroscum.

Notice how quiet the Belgiums (French Lite) have been since Rummy threatened them with some economic losses re their wanting to try our generals for war crimes.

That little head pimp in S. Korea dropped his anti America signs and chants when Rummy threatened to pull our troops back from the DMZ to the southern shores of S. Korea.

I'm sure that our boycott of France's products and services is not un noticed in Euroscum land.

[Grampa Dave]

I love it when these old wars with our liberal former friends get brought up again on FR. Then we can recycle the great gifs like the "Reel Axis of Evil!"

Any steelhead in your rivers yet?

[Broadside Joe]

Yes it's great. I'm sick and tired of these 'ankle biters' taking a nip at us. We've spent way too much blood on these self important wimps and it's about time it stops.

I've had it.

PS I'm sure glad the adults are in charge.

[Grampa Dave]

When the adults are charge sometimes the children recover and become adults.

S. Korea which was so anti American the first of this year is now sending troops to Iraq to help there. When Rummy talked about pulling our troops off the DMZ and putting them on liberty back on Korea's southern ports ready to go Japan, reality sunk in fast and hard.

[JohnnyZ]

French President Jacques Chirac, with whom Blair has swapped sharp verbal blows in the past, was conciliatory about Britain's position, saying, "We will pursue our discussions," adding that "a European defence without Britain must be recognised as being not very coherent virtually nonexistent."

[Arpege92]

That picture is too funny!

[Grampa Dave]

Conservative graphic artists must love the lunatic lefties of America and the World. Each day these lunatics provide these artists with great material whenever they spout their left wing mantras.

Pictures like this are really so funny at the expense of the left.

[Arpege92]

If it were me doing this, I would never be able to complete a picture....I know I couldn't control my laughter.

[Grampa Dave]

Sometimes I can barely post the gifs from my laughter.

[DeinBabbes]

Come on. You´re not serious about this headline, are you? Revenge is the wrong word. What´s wrong if we europeans try(!) to build up a small force? At least we would be able to clean in front of our door and you americans wouldn´t have to help us everytime the people on the balkan are at each others throats. I doubt anyone in Europe wants to get rid of the NATO, but i think it´s time we accept our responsibility. It can´t be that we have to rely on the US everytime there´s a conflict right here in Europe. I think it´s a shame the US had to help us during all these Balkan conflicts.

[observer5]

I still don't see why the American army is still in Germany?

[prairiebreeze]

When the adults are charge sometimes the children recover and become adults.

BUMP! and a hope.

Prairie