|
Sun 12 May 2002 10:48
by Kevin McGehee
in Coweta County, GA
[War]
[Flyover Blogdom]
|
Allegedly the Yurrupeens are getting more reconciled to the idea of giving Saddam Hussein an unceremonious heave-ho.
A majority of the European Union’s 15 nations are now expected to support President George Bush’s plans for “regime change” in Iraq, and many of them are prepared to offer military support, a conference of American and European scholars on transatlantic relations concluded Saturday.
“The mood in France has changed after the dramas of the presidential election campaign and the bombing in Karachi that killed 11 French naval engineers last week,“ said Jean Haine, who teaches international relations at Paris’s prestigious Sciences Po Institute. “Indeed, I expect France to seek to rejoin NATO’s unified military command later this year.“
Despite widespread forebodings of a serious split between the United States and its European allies over military action against Iraq, and public warnings against it by both French and German political leaders, a broad range of European experts agreed that their governments would comply.
“There may still be problems with European opinion, but those problems will not outlast TV images of cheering Iraqis—just as the swift victory in Afghanistan stilled earlier European qualms,“ Michael Cox of the University of Wales told the Villa Le Balze conference in Florence.
Europeans expressed readiness to support a U.S.-led operation against Iraq, at least in part, after it was presented by Bush administration officials as a litmus test of the loyalty of European allies at a time when America felt itself at war.
“On this litmus test, it is yes or no. There is not question of negotiation. For the Bush administration the question is: are you with us or against us?“ Haine said. This did not leave the Europeans with many options, Haine added.
Hmmm. When you put it that way, giving in is just what the Yurrupeens would do. Good going, Dubya.
|
