Post by dana on Oct 5, 2005 14:18:18 GMT 4
Baaad news for Europe. Hopefully this will set off all the appropriate alarm bells.
The United States Rediscovers Europe
By Pascal Riché
Libération
Monday 03 October 2005
Bush's Neo-Conservative intimates attempt to create a transatlantic network.
American Neo-Conservatives — those intellectuals who inspired Team Bush's foreign policy — have decided to launch an ideological offensive in Europe, a continent irrelevant up to now in their strategic vision. According to our information, their idea laboratory, the PNAC (Project for a New American Century), is in the process of establishing a transatlantic network, called the "Committee for a Strong Europe." Its honorary presidents will be former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and the American Senator John McCain. A declaration of principles has been drawn up and the hunt for signatories has begun.
Shock Formula
This is a real change in direction. Not long ago, the Neo-Conservatives considered cooperation with Europe of negligible value. During a Round Table in April 2002, their leader, Bill Kristol, who directs the Weekly Standard, denied "the centrality of the United States-EU link" and minimized the importance of Europe's contribution in the war against terrorism. According to him, the United States and Europe now have fundamentally different world views, with Europeans refusing to accept that "we are at war." A thought that his collaborator Robert Kagan, from the Carnegie Foundation, summarized with the shock formula: "The United States comes from Mars, Europeans come from Venus."
The times have changed. While the United States is bogged down in Iraq, the Bush administration is treating its allies carefully and seeking their support. And Europe is becoming of interest again.
"Morals"
Gary Schmitt, PNAC Director, confirms the existence of a proposal for a "Committee for a Strong Europe," but refuses to give examples of the first signatories. The idea of this network had already been played with during the preparation for the war in Iraq, when European personalities had made it known that they approved Bush's foreign policies, but needed help to promote them. That was notably the case of Aznar's think tank (FASS, Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies), which preaches a radical Atlanticism.
The new group's declaration of principle (1) is couched in very general terms, so as to attract as many well-known people as possible. It's about promoting freedom, democracy, market economics, etc. The signatories believe Europe runs the "risk of being undermined by an absence of strategic clarity, by the threat of economic stagnation, and by the decline of its military strength." For the authors, one of the priorities of a "strong Europe" would be "to invest enough in its military forces to have a strong army capable of fulfilling a wide variety of missions."
(1) libe-usa.blogs.com/CSE.htm
__________________________________
It's worth noting that in the late 1990s, the US took full advantage of a loophole in nascent EU legislation which enabled neo-cons to slip in an "agreement" that would enable [ read: promote ] the deployment of foreign "entities" [ read: agents ] on European soil.
Since then, French labor unions have been "visited", which has resulted in the undermining decades'-long, strong union support for French workers.
This, it seems, has simply been a foretaste ...
The United States Rediscovers Europe
By Pascal Riché
Libération
Monday 03 October 2005
Bush's Neo-Conservative intimates attempt to create a transatlantic network.
American Neo-Conservatives — those intellectuals who inspired Team Bush's foreign policy — have decided to launch an ideological offensive in Europe, a continent irrelevant up to now in their strategic vision. According to our information, their idea laboratory, the PNAC (Project for a New American Century), is in the process of establishing a transatlantic network, called the "Committee for a Strong Europe." Its honorary presidents will be former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and the American Senator John McCain. A declaration of principles has been drawn up and the hunt for signatories has begun.
Shock Formula
This is a real change in direction. Not long ago, the Neo-Conservatives considered cooperation with Europe of negligible value. During a Round Table in April 2002, their leader, Bill Kristol, who directs the Weekly Standard, denied "the centrality of the United States-EU link" and minimized the importance of Europe's contribution in the war against terrorism. According to him, the United States and Europe now have fundamentally different world views, with Europeans refusing to accept that "we are at war." A thought that his collaborator Robert Kagan, from the Carnegie Foundation, summarized with the shock formula: "The United States comes from Mars, Europeans come from Venus."
The times have changed. While the United States is bogged down in Iraq, the Bush administration is treating its allies carefully and seeking their support. And Europe is becoming of interest again.
"Morals"
Gary Schmitt, PNAC Director, confirms the existence of a proposal for a "Committee for a Strong Europe," but refuses to give examples of the first signatories. The idea of this network had already been played with during the preparation for the war in Iraq, when European personalities had made it known that they approved Bush's foreign policies, but needed help to promote them. That was notably the case of Aznar's think tank (FASS, Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies), which preaches a radical Atlanticism.
The new group's declaration of principle (1) is couched in very general terms, so as to attract as many well-known people as possible. It's about promoting freedom, democracy, market economics, etc. The signatories believe Europe runs the "risk of being undermined by an absence of strategic clarity, by the threat of economic stagnation, and by the decline of its military strength." For the authors, one of the priorities of a "strong Europe" would be "to invest enough in its military forces to have a strong army capable of fulfilling a wide variety of missions."
(1) libe-usa.blogs.com/CSE.htm
__________________________________
It's worth noting that in the late 1990s, the US took full advantage of a loophole in nascent EU legislation which enabled neo-cons to slip in an "agreement" that would enable [ read: promote ] the deployment of foreign "entities" [ read: agents ] on European soil.
Since then, French labor unions have been "visited", which has resulted in the undermining decades'-long, strong union support for French workers.
This, it seems, has simply been a foretaste ...