Europe is soft in head for Saddam

New York Daily News ^ | 8/13/02 | Richard Z.Chesnoff

[kattracks]

Ever get the impression that some of our European allies are rooting for the wrong side? The same Europoliticians who've been urging we lift United Nations sanctions on Iraq are now loudly beating the drums against Washington's plans to finally topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

One of our supposedly biggest buddies, Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, recently launched his reelection campaign with a nasty slam at President Bush and a public declaration that his government would provide neither troops nor money for an American-led invasion.

European Union officials in Brussels whine that the U.S. should help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before moving on Baghdad. French President Jacques Chirac has been openly shaking his head in disapproval of Bush's Iraqi strategy for months. With the exception of Britain's Tony Blair, there isn't a single European leader who has voiced approval of ridding the world of its most dangerous man.

Some Europeans believe that because support is all but nil for the idea, the anti-Saddam offensive will probably never take place. Besides, argues the Norwegian paper Bergens Tidende, an attack would open a war on several Mideast fronts, and that "would pose a greater security problem to Europe" than Iraq.

Like the French, Germans, Spaniards and most of the rest of the pack, the Norwegians would settle for the reentry into Iraq of UN arms inspectors. Now there's a chump's solution if there ever was one.

European intellectuals go even further in their attacks on Washington's plans to oust Saddam. They see it as simply another example of arrogant American moral and mercantile hegemony. Some of these same cerebral hacks actually were trying to peddle the idea that we provoked Saddam into invading Kuwait in 1990 so we could send troops to the Persian Gulf to control the oil there.

They've also argued that the CIA is behind the growth of radical Islam as a diabolical American way of keeping the world in turmoil and under Washington's control. After all, argue these wackos, Islamism conforms with the needs of capitalism.

The real danger is that these are not the ideas of marginal eccentrics, nor are they new. As Rand Corp. policy analyst Laurent Murawiec points out, the idea of a diabolical U.S. plot often comes from the very core of European intellectual and political leadership. The late French President François Mitterrand was once reliably quoted as saying in private conversation, "We are at war with America."

Of course, Europe's perverse fear and loathing of America is coupled with obsessive love for our products and our cultural and scientific achievements. It springs in large measure from Europe's sense of diminished importance, not to mention outright jealousy. But it is there, and its primary lesson is that ultimately we can rely only on a few real friends like Blair - but mostly on ourselves.

[goldstategop]

The Eurotrash pansywaists can wail. Europe's day in the sun is long over. When America decides to move and she will, all the impotent Europeans can do is just watch and wag their tail. It sticks in their craw that America is calling all the shots and they resent the hell out of it. What a bunch of losers.

[kattracks]

It sticks in their craw that America is calling all the shots and they resent the hell out of it.

It's to be expected after 8 years of clinton telling them they are right and we were wrong.

[The Raven]

When I see Europeans these days and I say something like "Why stop at Iraq...?" - their eyes glass over and they are quiet.

I think it's from years of socialism dependency. But then again, they were like that before WW II. It was the British and the US back then, too.

[bluester]

I honestly believe that many of you Americans forget where you mostly come from. That's Europe! :))

[Jumper]

Yep, Scottish, Irish and a little Dutch-German; livng in The Netherlands and I'd tell you that if American wants to remain Great, it should well forget Europe... European support and remember just one thing about Europe - they are an Economic Competitor - just short of an enemy of sorts!

[bluester]

Jumper, you are talking to one (European)! :)

[DB]

That's why we are here ;-)

[Leisler]

It isn't so much as we came from Europe, we fled from Europe.

[BlueLancer]

"I honestly believe that many of you Americans forget where you mostly come from. That's Europe! :))"

John Winger (Bill Murray) We're Americans .. with a capital 'A', huh. You know what that means? Do ya'? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world.

(snip)So we're all dog-faces. We're all very very different. But there is one thing that we all have in common, we were ALL stupid enough to enlist in the Army!

(snip) Something's seriously wrong with us. We're soldiers, .. but, we're American soldiers, and we've been kicking ass for 200 years! We're ten and one!

STRIPES

[driftless]

Do we realize that most of us are from Europe? What does your comment have to do with the present circumstances? My present girl friend is from England so I can hardly be accused of hating Brits or Euros. We Americans do not like the idea of having our young soldiers die in battle. We do not turn somersaults and jump up and down with glee at the prospect of going to war. But at some point you must oppose evil and seek to destroy it. Why cannot the Euros see that deposing Hussein will benefit everyone even the Euros? I understand that leftism has infected a great percentage of the European population, but they must know that their present indolent lives will be extended with the destruction of Islamists and rogue dictators like Hussein.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...one of our supposedly biggest buddies, Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, recently launched his reelection campaign with a nasty slam at President Bush and a public declaration that his government would provide neither troops nor money for an American-led invasion...

Good.

Despite Europe signing on for the Gulf War and for the Afghanistan campaign, it seems that-at this point - President Bush isn't enough of an ally to take their concerns about Iraq II on board. Just when we have Europe on a major swing to the Right, across the board, Bush wants to jeopardise those gains with a completely unjustifiable military adventure. Please, Europe : let him go it alone. That's hard to do when you owe America a huge moral debt, like Australia and western Europe does, but when war is used this cynically how does morality come into it?

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..I understand that leftism has infected a great percentage of the European population...

Actually, that virus has been steadily dying out. President Bush's plan to attack Iraq will be the shot in the arm international Leftism has been waiting for.

[bluester]

Perhaps there is a feeling in Europe that a full scale war on Iraq could only make things worse destabilizing the region even further and that the prospect of terrorist attacks would only become greater as some would see it as an excuse. I would have absolutely no problem with deposing Saddam, infact I wish that had happened in the first Gulf war when there was the chance and when the US and allies were given every reason to do so when he invaded Kuwait and showed his real cards. I may be a bit biased, since I lived there for 4 years and met some wonderful people and I wouldn't want them paying the ultimate price because of the regime.

[Kermit]

I lived in Germany for three years (20+ years ago) and many Germans felt that the world would be a better place, if they were running it, rather than the Americans. They couldn't stand it, that we didn't take their advice and do what they said. One conversation got particularly nasty, so I pointed out to my opponent that in the 20th Century, Europeans ran the show up to 1945 and got into two World Wars. In the time, the Americans have been running the show, there have been zero World Wars. He shut up after that.

I remember one of my first political conversations in Germany in 1975. She argued that American foreign policy was controlled by the oil companies. I said, if that was true, how did she explain US support for Israel, which didn't have any oil, why all the oil seemed to be under control of the Arab States. I also mentioned that the oil industry was the only US industry, where you could hear anti-semitism (probably due to the above reasons). She went on to argue that the oil companies backed Israel for some wacko reason or another.

I also took a university class, where every dollar that went to Africa was another imperialist soldier marching for US hegemony. There have been no conservatives in German Universities for 20 years. The range of spectrum went from pro-Baader-Meinhof to the East German backed Spartacus Bund to Socialists to Social Democrats (SPD) on the right.

[driftless]

The destabilizing assertions are always bandied around in discussions about taking out outlaw regimes. Is that cause for deep consideration and careful weighing of the pluses and minuses? Sure...but at some point you may have to opt for physical force. I got sick before the Gulf War worrying about casualties, and I even felt sorry for the poor average Iraqi soldiers who were obliterated for a piece of merde like Hussein. And I'm glad to see that we agree that Hussein should have been properly dealt with ten years ago. I predicted then that if he was not eliminated, he would be back to cause further trouble. I'm sorry to see that my prediction came true. So now is the time to take him out before he can cause biological and other catastrophes to the region.

[ohioman]

If folks from other countries do not agree with Iraq II, then they can go straight to hell. That is what most Americans think. Though we may be slow to anger, once pissed off, we hold a grudge for a long time. And we are still pissed off.

[chiefqc]

Why do you think we are longer living in Europe?

[mewzilla]

It's not a matter of a soft head, but a weak spine.