Europe faces crucial battle to save UN and international order

Kathimerini ^ | 4/10/2003 | C. Panagopoulos

[ijcr]

The dramatic events we have all been experiencing over the past two months with the war in Iraq, the rift between Europe and the USA, internal discord within the ranks of the EU itself, and the invalidation of the role of the United Nations, have made us all wiser. They have also confirmed an unavoidable truth: In a world which is changing rapidly — and apparently for the worse — no one can justifiably remain inactive, immovable, stubbornly and rigidly defending their version of the truth.

The early anti-war protests, which took place in most countries across the globe, showed that no rational human being can accept the paranoia and raw violence of war. The message was clear and was being sent to those who had decided to launch the offensive.

Since then, however, things continued to develop and the horror of war has dominated everything. First, our European partners — who boldly and at great expense attempted to avoid such developments — made use of their experience in handling major crises to readjust their arguments and their strategies, attempting to shift the emphasis to the sphere in which they are more likely to have some influence — namely, the governmental structure of a postwar Iraq, the future role of the UN, as well as an effort to avoid the imposition of the dogma “might is right.”

Greece’s two main political parties reacted in the same way, as it is clear that this is where the new battle will take place.

On the other hand, certain deluded individuals — including the leaders of smaller parties — persist with the gratuitous and pointless argument that the war should end immediately. As if we have the option of turning back the clock or stopping the advance of the US and British tanks.

Meanwhile, the next gamble looks as if it will be even greater than the last. If the UN, France, Germany, Russia and whoever else joins the operation (which will quite possibly be backed by London) do not succeed in changing Washington’s uncompromising stance — according to which the UN should only operate as a humanitarian organization, distributing food and medicine to those in need — then the UN faces the risk of total invalidation, as does the international framework that has been shaped over the past 50 years.

The people are being asked to participate in this new battle — which will determine the new postwar balance of power as well as the prosperity of us all — as they did before the war began, but this time with the hope that there will be acquiescence and agreement.

If some people in our country consider this behavior to be submissive and subservient, let them propose an alternative plan for placating a storm that has already begun.

[ijcr]

Someone said beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Now we have beware of Greeks. There must be Red Tide in the Mediterranean.

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[11B3]

Hey Greece: We STARTED the UN. We brought it into being, we can take it out just as easily. In other words, STFU.

[aegiscg47]

I think that this is GW's plan all along. Give these people enough rope to hang themselves and make it easier for us to pull out from the UN.

[AlguyA]

"The people are being asked to participate in this new battle — which will determine the new postwar balance of power as well as the prosperity of us all — as they did before the war began, but this time with the hope that there will be acquiescence and agreement."

Interesting. A blatant admission that what is driving European policy is, in fact, not principle but economics.

[jriemer]

UN Vulture Alert!

[longtermmemmory]

The Kathimerini is a left leaning paper. Keep in mind Greece has honored all agreements with the us military regarding use of bases and use of air space. Greece also has an interest is the support of the United States over the Cyprus issue. Given the impotence of the UN and the success of the USA, the Greeks on the street see a potential opening to resolve Cyprus in the Greek Cypriots favor. They view turkey as having made a real political blunder in refusing the US.

The effort to control the peace is normal and to be expected. The Greeks are making no special offers. They have no desire to damage their image and become the next french pariah. They have the olympics in 2004 and have already gone over budget and are behind schedule. Greece used to be a big suppliers of construction men and materials in the preGulf War I time frame, they just want a piece of the action.

The current Greek president, who is currently sitting on the EU's rotaiting presidency, is a member of the Pasok socialist party. He does not have control of the parlament which is controled by the New Democracy party, a conservative party.

If Germany and France, the big EU/Euro currency members, really took the other members seriously they would not be having their own seperate NON-EU meeting. The other EU members are out in the cold and they know it. They also know to blame France.

[longtermmemmory]

Greece used to do a lot of construction projects in iraq. In fact before one of its largest concrete suppliers was bought by the Germans, it used to supply concrete to Iraq. Now with the German blunder, that complany would very likely be excluded from Iraqi rebuilding. It not the same issue of contract fulfillment that france, germany and russia have. France and Germany were using Iraq to chip into the dollar's dominance as the prefered currency of international trade, the rest of europe is just trying to make some money and increase their own prosperity. Ecconomic are driving this because the dirty secret is that for the everyday person in Europe, the Euro has produced HUGE inflation. Grandmothers in greece regularly stand outside of new supermarkets and beg for money to buy food. The cost of every day living has gone up but the pay has stayed the same. It really is about ecconomics but more accuratly about ecconomic opportunity. The Greeks have a joke, "We want to live like Europeans but we are paid like Greeks."

[rrrod]

lol......the euro trash can always be counted on to do the wrong thing!

[longtermmemmory]

this is a letter to the editor regarding an anti-american editorial from the same paper:

Knee-jerk reaction

Pantelis Boukalas’s commentary (April 8, 2003) betrays the type of vitriolic, knee-jerk anti-Americanism that has caused American tourism to Greece to drop for 10 straight years: “Britons bombed by Americans, Kurds bombed by Americans, Russians shot at by Americans.” Is anyone else out there shooting?... With respect to collateral damage, I suspect that never before in any war has so much effort gone into minimizing it. With respect to Saddam Hussein, he has been a cancer on the Middle East for decades. Mr Boukalas gives the impression of being unaware of either of these facts...

GEORGE W. HOWARD III, Princeton, New Jersey.

[longtermmemmory]

Politically the Greece govenemtn knows they were screwed by France and Germany. They are trying to quell the anti-european sentiment because they need US tourists. I have seen the partial results of their efforts for the 2004 olympics. The airport is a nice modern one compared to its predicessor. They have thier first interstate highway. (national road 1. There are just so many jokes about having 1 highway.)

They just want the embarasment to stop. They don't care about Euro's on top, they only want to help their ecconomic situations.

[expatpat]

......then the UN faces the risk of total invalidation.....

The UN is already totally invalidated as far as anything beyond humanitarian tasks is concerned. The only question is how long it will survive.

[ijcr]

I had the pleasure of serving in Cyprus twice. The first time was the Turkish invasion, in fact I had evening out in Famagusta vitually the night before it became a ghost town.The second time much later.I saw the hotels from Akrotiri to Limassol.

Many people do not comprehend the difference between the two sides of the Green LIne, on one side people are laughing,high rise stores and apartments flourish, young men and women drive BMW's and Mercedes.

On the other side donkey drawn carts.

However, having George Michael as a hero and the statements from the Greek leadership of the EU causes some doubt.