Friday, February 14, 2003
[posted by jaed at 7:06 PM]Strategic advice for Germany and France:
Innocents Abroad writes at some length on the implications of the French and German strategy for those countries:
My point here is not to belittle Europeans, nor in particular the Germans and the French. Rather, I wish to alert these nations to the possibility that they and their leaders are comporting themselves in a manner lacking in long-term historical awareness, compounded by an insular vision constructed around the European project, and heading for imminent disaster, or at least irrelevance. I repeat that I do not believe any European nation is obligated to fight with the US, but there is little to be gained from challenging it directly. It may appear I have skirted the moral question involved, along with a whole host of other strategic and public relations issues. In fact, I have not. The moral question itself is deeply tied to the very fact that France and Germany are engaged in a dangerous betrayal of their national interest. Unlike many hard-headed political thinkers in Europe, or perhaps in spite of them, I do not believe that a powerful nation, even a powerful nation pursuing its interests, is simply bad. Rather, I think there can be a great deal of good in such a spectacle. Indeed, a great deal of good, an immense deal of good in fact, has come from the European nations and their impressive civilizations. However, by pursuing their current course, France and Germany are denying this history.
