Europe, Weak And Unwilling

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

(National Review Online) 
The more Europeans could appear to the world as demonizing, even restraining, Washington and Tel Aviv, the more credibility abroad would accrue to their notion of multilateral diplomacy.

But even the European Union could not quite change human nature, and thus could not outlaw the entirely human business of war. There were older laws at play — laws so much more deeply rooted than the latest generation's faddish notions of conflict resolution. Like Gandhi's nonviolent resistance, which would work only against the liberal British, and never against a Hitler or a Stalin, so too the Europeans' moral posturing seemed to affect only the Americans, who singularly valued the respect of such civilized moralists.

Now we are in the seventh year of a new century, and even after the wake-up call on 9/11, Westerners are still relearning each day that the world is a dangerous place. When violence comes to downtown Madrid, the well-meaning Spanish chose to pull out of Iraq — only to uncover more serial terrorist cells intent on killing more Spaniards.

To get their captured journalists freed, Italians paid Islamists bribes — and then found more Italians captured. When Germany, Britain, and France parleyed with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the "direct talks" that we in the States yearn for) to try to get Iran to cease its plans for nuclear proliferation, he politely ignored the "EU3." The European Union is upset that Russian agents murder troublemakers inside the EU's borders, and so registers its displeasure with the Cheshire Vladimir Putin.

The latest Iranian kidnapping of British sailors came after British promises to leave Iraq, and after the British humiliation of 2004, when eight hostages were begged back. Apparently the Iranians have figured either that London would do little if they captured more British subjects or that the navy of Lord Nelson and Admiral Jellico couldn't stop them if it wanted to.

"London," of course, is a misnomer, since the Blair government is an accurate reflection of attitudes widely held in both Britain and Europe. These attitudes have already been voiced by the public: This is understandable payback for the arrest of Iranian agents inside Iraq; this is what happens when you ally with the United States; this is what happens when the United States ceases talking with Iran.

The rationalizations are limitless, but essential, since no one in Europe — again, understandably — wishes a confrontation that might require a cessation of lucrative trade with Iran, or an embarrassing military engagement without sufficient assets, or any overt allegiance with the United States. Pundits talk of a military option, but there really is none, since neither Britain nor Europe at large possesses a military.

What does the future hold if Europe does not rearm and make it clear that attacks on Europeans and threats to the current globalized order have repercussions?

If Europeans recoil from a few Taliban hoodlums or Iranian jihadists, new mega-powers like nuclear India and China will simply ignore European protestations as the ankle-biting of tired moralists. Indeed, they do so already.

Why put European ships or planes outside of European territorial waters when that will only guarantee a crisis in which Europeans are kidnapped and held as hostages or used as bargaining chips to force political concessions?

Europe is just one major terrorist operation away from a disgrace that will not merely discredit the EU, but will do so to such a degree as to endanger its citizenry and interests worldwide and their very safety at home. Islamists must assume that an attack on a European icon — Big Ben, the Vatican, or the Eiffel Tower — could be pulled off with relative impunity and ipso facto shatter European confidence and influence. Each day that the Iranians renege on their promises to release the hostages and then proceed to parade their captives, earning another "unacceptable" from embarrassed British officials, a little bit more of the prestige of the United Kingdom is chipped away.

In the future, smaller nations in dangerous neighborhoods must accept that in their crises ahead, their only salvation, even after the acrimonious Democratic furor over Iraq, is help from the United States.

America alone can guarantee the safety of the noble Kurds, should Turkey or Iran choose one day to invade. America alone will be willing or able to supply Israel with necessary help and weapons to ensure its survival.

Other small nations — a Greece, for example — with long records of vehement anti-Americanism should take note that the choice facing them in their rough neighborhoods is essentially solidarity with the United States or the embrace of Jimmy Carter diplomacy or Stanley Baldwin appeasement.

Quite simply, there is now no NATO, no EU, no U.N. that can or will do anything in anyone's hour of need.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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

[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$$".

[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.

[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 . . .

[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.

[shingles1]

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

[fryedbread]

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