Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Arrogant twit. Joschka Fischer rails against America and demeans our allies while he is at it.

"A world order in which the superpower decides on military strikes only according to its own national interest cannot work."

"I cannot and do not want to imagine that we stand before a whole series of disarmament wars," he said with reference to fears that the US administration would now unilaterally set the world agenda, after failing to secure the UN route for the Iraq conflict.

"In the end the same rules must apply for the big, middle-sized and small countries," he stressed.

No Joschka would rather pretend that people are not dying in these regimes. He would rather his government continues to buy them off and sell them everything they wish while telling America to mind its place. He would rather pretend that pieces of paper like the '93 Framework with North Korea and the inspections in Iraq are working. He would rather pretend that places like Iran are building nuclear power plants for peaceful purposes. He would rather live in a world where terrorists murder and the response is a sad shake of the head and some resolutions and maybe a committee or two to figure out exactly what the terrorists goals and reasons are.

Referring to Spain and the UK, the US' strongest EU allies, the German foreign minister questioned whether they had any real influence in Washington's decision to start a military conflict.

"The important question is whether those countries which are now close allies of the USA have or had any influence at all."

London and Madrid are also likely to be irritated by his comments that by deciding to continue supporting US President George W. Bush, despite the huge anti-war sentiment in their countries, they had caused "major problems that bordered on the destabilisation of democratic systems."

If they did not have any say maybe Joscha should ponder why we continued at the UN even when it was clear we would not get UNSC approval. Maybe he should ask why we were willing to offer a number of concessions as long as the resolution had teeth while France and Germany insisted that the resolution could say anything as long as it did not have teeth, that we should trust in the goodwill of Saddam to come clean.

One of the major reasons for the existing transatlantic differences is the different histories experienced by Americans and Europeans.

"Whoever is familiar with European history knows about the many wars here. In the USA there is nothing to compare with Auschwitz or Stalingrad or the other terrible symbolic locations in our history."

Meanwhile Europe has no Battle of Yorktown, no Antietam, no Pearl Harbor, no Iwo Jima, French and German troops did not storm Normandy instead they stood and fought against those who would free millions and end the genocide being carried out by the enlightened and the historically steeped nuanced Europeans. Nor has Europe had a Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Lincoln.

I may also add that our government has never been gripped by a genocidal madman or ideology bent on domination of the world. Nor did our Revolution against monarchy result in a time known as the great terror.

Instead we have lived peacefully under a Constitution that has given power to the people of our nation for more than 225 years. Even in the face of a bloody Revolution and Civil War despite stepping in to end the suffering of millions in Europe and throughout the world our country has never fallen under the sway of dictators or emperors. The stains of slavery and segregation and the oppression of the Native Americans were all ended by America without the need for our more nuanced betters in Europe. American sins were paid for with American blood. German sins were washed away with American and Jewish blood.

So while Mr Fischer cannot accept a world without an enormous population of useless paper pushing bureaucrats who twiddle their thumbs, pass worried resolutions and look the other way while genocide happens in Africa, Asia and even in such historically deep European places like Bosnia and Kosovo, I cannot imagine, nor will I accept, a world in which such people use their transnational organizations to pare away the rights enumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

< email | 3/25/2003 06:35:00 PM | link