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There has to be a reason why they won't fight any more and I think I have found most of the answer. I don't always agree with Buchanan but this time I agree 100% about that question. There is too much truth in this piece for us to ignore it, except for a few of us.
There has to be a reason why they won't fight any more and I think I have found most of the answer. I don't always agree with Buchanan but this time I agree 100% about that question. There is too much truth in this piece for us to ignore it, except for a few of us.
The truth is so obvious. They have millions of Muslims living there. They are simply scared. And secondly, they will let the Us fight the battles as they always have done.
That's an excellent article; thanks for the link. One small comment regarding the bombings in Spain--it did take place right before an election, and the Aznar government blamed the Basques, trying for political mileage. I think this, more than any other factor, led to his demise and ushered in a government dedicated to withdrawing from Iraq.
One point not touched on the article is the direction the war has taken under American leadership. I've lost track of the number of wedding parties we've bombed; it's become a cliche. We've had 8 years of total military dominance and we are no further along now than when we started this invasion. I recommend reading Pen and Sword, written by a ex-naval commander, for some incisive commentary on our military strategy or lack thereof. If I were a member of an EU country, I wouldn't want my countrymen involved under such a fragmentary command structure with such dubious prospects for success.
That's an excellent article; thanks for the link. One small comment regarding the bombings in Spain--it did take place right before an election, and the Aznar government blamed the Basques, trying for political mileage. I think this, more than any other factor, led to his demise and ushered in a government dedicated to withdrawing from Iraq.
One point not touched on the article is the direction the war has taken under American leadership. I've lost track of the number of wedding parties we've bombed; it's become a cliche. We've had 8 years of total military dominance and we are no further along now than when we started this invasion. I recommend reading Pen and Sword, written by a ex-naval commander, for some incisive commentary on our military strategy or lack thereof. If I were a member of an EU country, I wouldn't want my countrymen involved under such a fragmentary command structure with such dubious prospects for success.
I must thank you for reading the article which I don't think anybody else did, although replies came in.
Not to disagree with you, I want to say that the fragmentary command structure in Afghanistan is caused by the fact the NATO is in command. I well remember that kind of thing in Korea when the blue helmets were supposedly in command but the Americans did it on their own with the help of the British, the Aussies, and the Turks, primarily.
The part of all this that I have to agree with is that Europe is really the sick man of Europe now. They are all sick and have been overcome by socialism and are being overcome by Muslims moving in and taking over. Ever since WW II they have depended on the US to protect them from someone but now they want us to protect them from terrorists who are largely Muslims and Muslims are pushing them around in their own countries. How do we protect them from themselves inside their own boundaries? I am not sure it isn't time to just get out of western Europe and leave them to their own devices.
Buchanan is so right about what has been going on as far as why we are still there and also why we can't just walk away. I really thought he wrote a very good article this time.
If you don't believe in anything and stand for nothing, what's to fight for?
In addition to views cited above, it is fair to note that Europe consists of many countries with differing views - everyone is not on the US boat.
Plus, you are correct about them not standing for much - remember it is the US that had to unscrew the ex-Yugoslavia situation - all they were doing was pontificating at the EU while thousands were being killed.
OTOH, we have a huge ego and want to project power everywhere - we have a presence in 150 countries, spend more on defense that the next 15 countries combined, are raising defense budget by 4% in real bad economic times, etc etc. No other country is crazy enough to do this. Europeans had ruled parts of the world before and have also realized it is quite expensive.
There has to be a reason why they won't fight any more and I think I have found most of the answer. I don't always agree with Buchanan but this time I agree 100% about that question. There is too much truth in this piece for us to ignore it, except for a few of us.
I think Pat is missing the big picture. If you put the record of Interpol, Scotland Yard the Surete, etc side by side with the American record in catching these criminals, er, "terrorists" I don't think Europe would look bad at all. Where the disagreement is that we are trying to bully the Europeans into a military approach rather than a law enforcement approach. This has never been successful, now or in the past. Particularly in Germany and Britain, if you look at the past ten years you'll see a lot of terrorists caught by some good police work. These countries are staging areas for the attacks. The police have seen it before and know effective methods.
By contrast the USA is using the exact same approach we used in Viet Nam. We are using miltary forces to try to control large areas of real estate and the civilian population. Then we detain people we know are not terrorists, but would be likely to have knowledge of them or come in contact with them. This includes people like schoolteachers, doctors, nurses, mail carriers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, chauffers and the like. We bribe these people, or threaten them, or use our famous "harsh interrogation" methods to try to obtain information about terrorists. This was not deemed a successful approach for gathering intelligence "on the ground" by Viet Nam analysts after the war, but we never developed a new "book" because for the most part we stopped doing that type of intelligence. I have heard CIA people speak about this, both retired people and who have quit in protest over various issues. They all say the same thing. "There wasn't time to develop a new book so we just dusted off the one we had and we've been using it ever since". By using this approach, the architects of these wars have killed more Americans than the terrorists, and many other bad things.
Mr. Buchanan is guilty of a rush to judgement. The Europeans have it right. We have it wrong. They are roght to refuse to get involved in such folly.
I find this argument fascinating since there have been far more arrest and terrorist cells disrupted across the European Union than anywhere in the world. The fact that the NATO countries don't have a desire to engage in warfare in Iraq is a total other issue which has to be judged in light of the history of such efforts in the region, the complexity of the problem and the ever evolving nature of American objectives and strategy.
I've always felt it was tied into NATO and Europe's need for us to be a part of it in WWII and the cold war compared to it's purpose now. It's easier to avoid terrorism by staying out of any confrontations with it, knowing the U.S. will be doing the dirty work either way. They all know in the long run, it's going to hurt their relationship with the U.S., if it even does at all. They have everything to gain by not fighting.
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