* Copied (from: EDGE_ONLINE) by Steve Asher using timEd/2 1.10.y2k+.


BEWARE OF THE EU
THE FIRST OUTRIGHT CHALLENGE TO AMERICAN POWER

By: Thomas S. Garlinghouse

Although European politics are characteristically disputatious, European 
politicians are united by at least one concept: Anti-Americanism. It is 
one of the few ideologies that can override factional battles and cause 
so many European leaders to join hands in solidarity. Indeed, the open 
hostility many European leaders have towards America is well known to 
anyone who has followed European politics for any length of time. This 
hostility is so fervently held that many view the European Union's sole 
purpose as a global counterweight to the United States. Swedish Prime 
Minister and EU head Goran Persson was quite clear on this point, 
stating, "The EU is one of the few institutions we can develop as a 
balance to U.S. world domination."  

Viewed in this light, it is hardly surprising that leading EU countries 
were major players in spearheading opposition to the war with Iraq. 
European opposition to the war was far from a principled, moral position 
arrived at after much reflection and soul-searching. Nor was it driven 
solely by issues of economic self-interest (although these certainly 
played important role as evidenced, for example, by the numerous 
business contracts and payment on debt France and Germany stood to 
lose if Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime fell). Nor, even further, was 
it driven by the fear that war would expose and implicate France and 
Germany as major suppliers and developers of Iraq's weapons of mass 
destruction (though, again, this undoubtedly played a significant role). 
Rather, the EU's opposition to the war was, in the final analysis, the 
inevitable manifestation of a long-standing policy of European anti-
Americanism. Indeed, in many ways, it was one of the first attempts by 
the fledgling EU to challenge American power on a world stage -- a shot 
across America's bow, if you will.  

EU nations like France and Germany were especially vociferous in 
their opposition to the war. France has long lamented America as a 
"hyperpower" and sought ways -- diplomatically and economically -- to 
check its influence. French president Jacques Chirac has, on more than 
one occasion, spoken of the EU (and the UN) as an effective tool with 
which to challenge American hegemony. The war with Iraq presented 
Chirac with an opportunity to raise opposition to America and weaken 
its international position. This was why Chirac took such umbrage 
recently when several Eastern European states lined up solidly behind 
the White House's stance on Iraq ("It is not really responsible behavior," 
he said. "It is not well-brought-up behavior. They [the Eastern states] 
missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.") Behind his petulant outburst 
was a not-so-subtle warning: that Eastern European states' 
memberships into the EU could be blocked if they didn't kowtow 
to French-German leadership on international affairs.  

Germany has been equally enthusiastic in its anti-Americanism. During 
the recent German election, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder campaigned 
on a platform of unabashed anti-Americanism, taking every speaking 
opportunity to engage in anti-American philippics, warning of the threat 
posed to the world by Uncle Sam. Schroeder, of course, wasn't the only 
German politician to engage in this kind of rhetoric. The sentiment was 
widespread. His conservative opponent, Edmund Stoiber, voiced similar 
concerns, claiming that he would not allow American bases in Germany 
to participate in the war. Other German bureaucrats have used the Iraq 
conflict to attack President Bush personally. A prominent socialist 
leader, for instance, compared the American president to Julius Caesar 
(the comparison was unflattering). Minister of Justice Herta Deubler-
Gmelin went a step further by comparing President Bush to Hitler.  

But anti-Americanism is not expressed solely through inflammatory 
rhetoric. For countries like France and Germany, international bodies 
like the EU and the UN are concrete tools with which to contest 
American power and hegemony. Not too long ago, for example, France 
connived with human rights "champions" China and Cuba to toss the 
United States off the UN Human Rights Commission. And when 
President Bush issued a strongly worded warning to North Korea, an 
EU delegation was immediately dispatched to Pyongyang to cozy up to 
Kim Jong Il. In the economic sphere, likewise, the EU has 
demonstrated a decided hostility toward American business interests. 
Disdaining what many Europeans call the "Anglo-Saxon model," which 
is nothing more than free-market economics, EU bureaucrats have 
routinely obstructed American business ventures. The EU's prohibition 
against the General Electric-Honeywell merger a few years ago was one 
such attempt -- despite the fact that the merger promised to employ 
thousands of Europeans.  

The motive force behind much of the EU's anti-Americanism, and of 
Europeans in general, is a pervasive leftism. In simplest terms, the 
political and cultural Left dominate Europe. Socialists, often in 
coalition with communists, run many European governments, and many 
of Europe's current leaders were, during the 1960s and 1970s, active 
members of Marxist organizations. German foreign minister Joschka 
Fischer, for example, was exposed not too long ago as a 1970s Marxist 
agitator and street thug. In photographs widely circulated in the German 
media, a young Fischer is seen attacking a policeman, kicking and 
punching the hapless officer. Former head of France's socialist party 
Lionel Jospin, for his part, was a member of a Trotskyist organization as 
a young man (a revelation he initially denied before finally admitting). 
These individuals are vehemently opposed to such things as free 
markets, lower taxes, smaller government, and less regulations. They 
are dedicated to preserving the status quo of the welfare state with its 
Byzantine regulatory structures, cradle-to-grave social policies, and 
myriad restrictive laws. (Although free-market reforms are sometimes 
undertaken in these countries, they are done so out of necessity and 
only grudgingly accepted.) Of foremost importance, however, is their 
almost visceral dislike of the United States -- a nation that, as young 
Marxists, they routinely denounced and viewed as the focus of evil in 
the modern world.  

Even more so than its politicians, the European intelligentsia is solidly 
left-wing. Much of Europe's media, schools, and universities are in the 
hands of the Left. And among the European Left, anti-Americanism has 
long been a state religion -- their raison d'etre. Since America's War on 
Terror and its hard stance against Iraq, the European intelligentsia has 
ratcheted up its anti-Americanism, literally frothing at the mouth in its 
denunciations of American power. British spy novelist - - and inveterate 
America-hater -- John Le Carre accused the US of descending into 
"madness," and playwright Harold Pinter denounced America as the 
"greatest source of terrorism on earth." A prominent British journalist 
for The Guardian went so far as to call the United States the modern 
"evil empire." A recent, well-received book No Thanks, Uncle Sam, by 
French author Noel Mambre, neatly sums up the attitude of Europe's 
intelligentsia: "It is appropriate to be downright anti-American."  

The war with Iraq provided European anti-Americans with a tailor-made 
opportunity to indulge their passions. For politicians, it meant the 
possibility of winning elections by playing upon popular prejudices. For 
intellectuals, it meant selling books, getting airtime on national 
television, and receiving lucrative government subsidies. For the EU, in 
particular, it provided an opportunity to differentiate themselves from the 
"arrogant," "stupid," "unsophisticated," and
"barbarous" Americans. 
Most importantly, however, it provided the EU with an opportunity to 
organize a global anti-American bloc, and to challenge American foreign 
policy in an attempt to sway world opinion against the United States.  

This current state of affairs can largely be understood as the 
consequence of events following World War II. In the aftermath of that 
horrifying and devastating event, as much of Europe lay in ruins, the 
United States, emboldened by its recent victories and buoyed by its 
industrial might, assumed the mantle of the West's sole defender. The 
United States played this role, with varying degrees of success, during 
the Cold War, opposing Soviet and communist expansionism. Europe, 
meanwhile, was slowly but inevitably building (with vast amounts of 
American help) its shattered institutions. Then, with the crackup of the 
Soviet Empire and world communism, the United States was left as the 
world's sole superpower -- a position thrust upon it by the vagaries of 
history. With Soviet tanks no longer threatening its doorstep, left-wing 
ideology without any substantive competition among its intellectual 
elite, and its business interests frequently at odds with American 
interests, Europe gradually drifted towards inevitable confrontation with 
the United States. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 
understood this all too well:  

The overarching European project, which was envisaged by some from 
the start but which has only in recent years come out into the open, 
is in truth a nightmare. . . . Were it [a European superstate] to come 
about, another great power would have been born -- equal or nearly 
equal in economic strength to the United States. Does anyone suppose 
that such a power would not soon become a rival to America? That it 
would not gradually discover different interests from the United States?  

Despite this, there is reason for optimism. Happily, not all Europeans 
subscribe to the anti-Americanism of their bureaucrats and intellectual 
elites. Tony Blair, for example, has specifically repudiated anti-
Americanism as a "foolish indulgence." Many Europeans -- especially 
those concerned with their workaday lives -- aren't opposed to the 
United States. There are numerous Europeans, in fact, who heartily 
applaud America's role as world superpower. Moreover, several EU 
countries -- like Great Britain, Spain, and Italy -- openly supported 
the action against Iraq, whereas others quietly supported it.  

Still, anti-Americans constitute a sizable proportion of the EU 
bureaucracy. And, with the French and Germans dominating its 
leadership, the possibility that outright hostility and opposition to 
American policies will be a consistent theme in European politics for 
many years to come. The EU's opposition to the war, its first outright 
challenge to American power, was simply the beginning.  

Perhaps it's time the United States searches for other allies.


"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this  
notice and hyperlink intact."

Dr. Thomas S. Garlinghouse is a free-lance writer with a doctorate in 
anthropology from the University of California, Davis. He has published 
articles in Liberty magazine and History Today. He is a past columnist  
for Ether Zone and we welcome him back.

                          -==-

Source: EtherZone - http://etherzone.com/2003/garl042803.shtml


Cheers, Steve..

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