Europe, Weak And Unwilling

National Review Online: The Anglo-Iranian Hostage Situation Makes Europe's Flaws Obvious

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Victor Davis Hanson.

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"It's completely outrageous for any nation to go out and arrest the servicemen of another nation in waters that don't belong to them." So spoke Admiral Sir Alan West, former First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, concerning the present Anglo-Iranian crisis over captured British soldiers. But if the attack was "outrageous," it was apparently not quite outrageous enough for anything to have been done about it yet.

Sir Alan elaborated on British rules of engagement by stressing they are "very much de-escalatory, because we don't want wars starting ... Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away."

One might suggest, not necessarily "sinking everything in sight," but at least shooting back at a few of the people trying to kidnap Britain's uniformed soldiers. But the view, apparently, is that stepping back and allowing some chaps to be "captured and taken away" is to be preferred to "roaring into action and sinking everything in sight." The latter is more or less what Nelson did at the battle of the Nile, when he nearly destroyed the Napoleonic fleet.

The attack coincides roughly with Iran's announcement that it will end its cooperation with U.N. non-proliferation efforts. That announcement was in reaction to a unanimous vote to begin embargoing some trade with Tehran of critical nuclear-related substances. With that move, Ahmadinejad is essentially notifying the world that Iran will go ahead and get the bomb — and let no one dare try to stop them.

If a non-nuclear Iran kidnaps foreign nationals in international waters, we can imagine what a nuclear theocracy will do. The Iranian thugocracy rightly understands that NATO will not declare the seizure of a member's personnel an affront to the entire alliance.

Nor will the European Union send its "rapid" defense forces to insist on a return of the hostages. There is simply too much global worry about the price and availability of oil, too much regional concern over stability after Iraq, and too much national anxiety over the cost in lives and treasure that a possible confrontation would bring. Confrontation can be avoided through capitulation, and no Western nation is willing to insist that Iran adhere to any norms of behavior.

Yet the problem is not so much a post facto "What to do?" as it is a question of why such events happened in serial fashion in the first place.

The paradox now is that, just as no European nation wishes to be seen in solidarity with the United States, so too no European force wishes to venture beyond its borders without acting in concert with the American military, whether on the ground under American air cover or at seas with a U.S. carrier group.

There are reasons along more existential lines for why Iran acts so boldly. After the end of the Cold War, most Western nations — i.e., Europe and Canada — cut their military forces to such an extent that they were essentially disarmed. The new faith was that, after a horrific twentieth century, Europeans and the West in general had finally evolved beyond the need for war.

With the demise of fascism, Nazism, and Soviet Communism, and in the new luxury of peace, the West found itself a collective desire to save money that could be better spent on entitlements, to create some distance from the United States, and to enhance international talking clubs in which mellifluent Europeans might outpoint less sophisticated others. And so three post-Cold War myths arose justify these.

First, that the past carnage had been due to misunderstanding rather than the failure of military preparedness to deter evil.

Second, that the foundations of the new house of European straw would be "soft" power. Economic leverage and political hectoring would deter mixed-up or misunderstood nations or groups from using violence. Multilateral institutions — the World Court or the United Nations — might soon make aircraft carriers and tanks superfluous.

All this was predicated on dealing with logical nations — not those countries so wretched as to have nothing left to lose, or so spiteful as to be willing to lose much in order to hurt others a little, or so crazy as to welcome the "end of days." This has proved an unwarranted assumption. And with the Middle East flush with petrodollars, non-European militaries have bought better and more plentiful weaponry than that which is possessed by the very Western nations that invented and produced those weapons.

Third, that in the 21st century there would be no serious enemies on the world stage. Any violence that would break out would probably be due instead to either American or Israeli imperial, preemptive aggression — and both nations could be ostracized or humiliated by European shunning and moral censure.

[fryedbread]

So are they British or French...................? :)

[shingles1]

I should have guessed that this was written by the clown historian Victor Davis "My Knickers Are in a Twist" Hanson.

[rafterman1]

"All this was predicated on dealing with logical nations %u2014 not those countries so wretched as to have nothing left to lose, or so spiteful as to be willing to lose much in order to hurt others a little, or so crazy as to welcome the "end of days."

Not so much the first one, but the second and third ones describe the US under Bush perfectly. Hopefully the next president, whether they be Dem or Repub, can restore the honor of the US that Bush and his crew have stolen.

[samthetvcat]

I don't mean to be mean but wow all of this writer's pieces come off like the Unabomber's 'manifesto' - angry rationalizations disconnected from society . . .

[ammianus]

The Sorrows of Young Dumus, Art. XX:
Successful crime knows nothing of satiety. The exhilarating momentum of conquest, and distraction of the populace from the embarrassing escape of ibn Shaitan alike demanded the subjugation of Mesopotamia. In this adventure, the Oligarchs inflexibly pursued two paramount objectives. The first of these was the establishment of a docile client state firmly garrisoned by the Hegemon in the very heart of Dar al-Islam. The second object, intended in part to meet the urgent need for more energy resources (Art.XI), was the complete control of the wealth of the country by the Oligarchy. No scruple and no bloody sacrifice of the populace whatsoever would deter the Oligarchs from these goals. But at the outset, Mesopotamia appeared as a rich fruit, ripe for the plucking. The tyrant, Nur ud Din, had made himself odious to mankind by his blatant cruelties. The strangulation of Mesopotamia by the elder Dumus had impoverished the country and rendered it defenseless, while its reserves of hydrocarbon energy resources were second only to the House of Saaud. Even better, the land could be exploited as a royal demesne with much of the public revenue diverted to the imperial clique of Dumus. The gold thus plundered paid a cloud of delators, worm tongues, and agents of provocation; all dedicated to the extinction of the last embers of freedom within the Hegemon. As a final advantage, PERSIA COULD BE ATTACKED FROM THE WEST as well as from the north and east.

[shingles1]

"I don't mean to be mean but wow all of this writer's pieces come off like the Unabomber's 'manifesto' - angry rationalizations disconnected from society . .
Posted by SamTheTVCat"

Victor Hanson Manly Man Davis is one of the finest practitioners of the fine art of "talking out of one's a$$".

[bill1fj]

Britain, and the U.N., need to stand up NOW and take action.
The Iranian Government will push as far as it is allowed.
Eventually the people of Iran will suffer for what their government has done.
The U.N. as a whole needs to act and act now before this blows up into something really terrible for the whole Mideast.
Thank You

[taddles-2009]

"Victor Hanson Manly Man Davis is one of the finest practitioners of the fine art of "talking out of one's a$$".
Posted by shingles1 at 03:11 PM : Mar 30, 2007"

That explains the cut of his trousers.

[Razzl]

The neocons are an inexhaustible well of detailed blather in service of an utterly, self-evidently irrelevant world view. Every multi-pronged skein of analysis leads up to a preposterously exaggerated or ignorant point (like "most Western nations %u2014 i.e., Europe and Canada %u2014 cut their military forces to such an extent that they were essentially disarmed").

The bottom line is, the American public has tuned out this lunatic static and will not be swayed by the blather. The next President must resurrect the cooperative world order that Bush 1 and Clinton created that worked throughout the '90's. This will be true even if Giuliani were to become President. The neocons can spend the next 30 years wasting their arguments the way they spent the '60's and '70's trying to convince us the world would collapse unless we made world war over Vietnam. Think of it as talking therapy for those with Napoleon complexes...

[idlepugilist]

So our quasi-hawkish, history-twisting Victor Hanson wants the British or America to know what? Britain can't handle it? Clue: WWII- Germany's military machine couldn't topple London even prior to the US getting involved. Perhaps it's just possible that these soldiers are trained to know how to handle captivity, or perhaps the Brits are using various act of (what did Bush completely forget about?) diplomacy prior to military options. Even Victor could bet a weapon was fixed on each marine interviewed. Random acts of violence cannot be accurately predicted, and non-combative capture was simply an ordered strategy to control the escalation of violence. Capture doesn't equate to weakness. It's a sure bet Mr. Hanson doesn't have a history at boot camp.

[katg21]

The U.N. as a whole needs to act and act now before this blows up into something really terrible for the whole Mideast.
Thank You
Posted by bill1fj at 05:12 PM : Mar 30, 2007

Ha, the U.N. act? Love to see it happen.

[crazyivan32]

"Clue: WWII- Germany's military machine couldn't topple London even prior to the US getting involved."

Check your facts, IdlePugilist...What about Lend-Lease? Without lend lease, England was through. Lots of US merchant marines lost their lives in the N. Atlantic making that happen.

[creeper00]

Hanson probably believed D. D. Eisenhower when he swore to us that the United States was NOT making spy flights over Russia...just before the Russians shot down Francis Gary Powers.

[patriot893]

BOMB IRAN NOW - NOT LATER.

Sorry Tony, but for someone whom I thought had balls, there's nothing Churchillian about your actions. Even Dame Maggie showed more courage.

You still have a Navy - USE IT!

Bravo Victor! - Another excellent piece.

As for billysmith - impeach you little gutless a$$ and leave for Iran. Take some of your fellow Neo-Fascist Democratic Jooz hating fellow Nazis with you. America deserves better than idiots, cowards, and traitors.

So too, does Britain - and the West.

[mcvet]

As for billysmith - impeach you little gutless a$$ and leave for Iran. Take some of your fellow Neo-Fascist Democratic Jooz hating fellow Nazis with you. America deserves better than idiots, cowards, and traitors.

So too, does Britain - and the West.
Posted by Patriot893 at 07:43 AM : Mar 31, 2007

LOL You mean like your fuehrer is getting kicked all over Iraq? You have to face it Sparky You Fascist do not have the mental ability to have Courage. People with Courage have to willing and able to THINK. Sorry to say no supporter of King George has that ability right at this moment. The British are doing the RIGHT thing here. No one has been hurt and attacking Iran will help who? I've seen so many like you come into combat, they always ALWAYS left in a body bag. Sieg Heil

[sharncedar]

The assumption is that the British upper class cares about these soldiers. That's as stupid as thinking Bush and his rich friends, people like Paris Hilton, care about American soldiers. tony Blair would bathe his feet in the blood of those soldiers if it would improve his skin, then he would p*ss on their corpses. You people *really* haven't spent much time dealing with the global elite, have you.

[book54552134]

"It's completely outrageous for any nation to go out and arrest the servicemen of another nation in waters that don't belong to them." (Sir Alan West; British Navy.)

That is, of course, unless the nation happens to be the US, (or any nation's military under the perview of the US.) Case in point - the recent interdiction in the Arabian Sea, (by the Spanish Navy, under direction of the US,) & short-term detention of the ship & it's crew, delivering short range missiles to Yemen.

The issue of whether the British soliders were in Iraqi or Iranian waters is, as yet, still unresolved. Because the British & American governments have lied to the public so often, it is unwise to believe anything they say about much of anything.

[adian1-2009]

Non-European nations have bought lots of weaponry with petrodollars and now they pose a threat to Europe and/or the US? Take a guess who have been selling said sophisticated weaponry to them for financial profit. Right! The US and Europe. And, yes, messrs., there are going to be a few more wars for oil. And after we go to war for oil, or maybe in-between, we will go to war for water. There will always be some justification for going to war. Just ask Bush or Cheney. And to the writer I suggest for him to wait a little until China and the whole Asia get to the economic level they are approaching. You will see how Europe comes back here asking for help.

[spetiya]

Neocons itching for war, as usual. And after the Iraq disaster, America's military is stretched so thin that it would be as weak as Europe supposedly is

[clestes-2009]

Blair brought this whole embarressing situation on hisself. Those men were probably nosing around in dangerous waters and got caught.
They should have stayed where they would have been safe.