Earlier I discussed the remarkable letter of support for President Bush signed by eight European Leaders. Since then I’ve learned a few more things about the story. As one might expect by a letter signed by eight experienced leaders, there were many political implications of the letter besides the obvious support for America. For one thing, the letter was given to the Wall Street Journal, not the New York Times as has been done in the past. This was a clear sign at how fall the NY Times has fallen in recent history (read Scrappleface for another sign). Maybe this will cause the NYT’s editors to rethink their very liberal bias, but I doubt it. More importantly, the International Herald Tribune pointed out a few signs of politicking going on in the EU.
Britain said that France and Germany had not been asked to sign the letter while Greece, the current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, had also been kept out of the loop. The Netherlands said it had known of the letter but had refused to sign it.The rush of visits to the White House prompted the German Christian Democrat Elmar Brok, a European legislator, to remark, "The race of the vassals has begun."
So if the majority of European nations had blindly followed the Franco-German position, it would have been an intelligent decision according to Brok. But since they rejected this position and agreed with the US position, they are vassals? Some American critics warn of US arrogance and sometimes they have a point. It’s hard to be humble when you are the world leader in virtually every area of importance. And the critics serve a useful purpose – pride usually generates a fall and the powerful should have critics to help keep them honest. This is one of the reasons President Bush has taken great pains to build an international coalition instead of unilaterally sending in the troops.
However, where are the critics discussing German arrogance? How dare Elmar Brok call eight leaders of independent nations vassals when they will be the ones placing some of their soldiers in harm’s way if Saddam Hussein does not comply with the UN demands! From this side of the Atlantic, Schröder and Brok represent the patronizing European – who presumes he knows best and all disagreement is based on ignorance. Thank God these folk are a minority in Europe and I hope their reign in Germany is a short-lived historical blip. The German people deserve better.
