Appeasement
From PhiloWiki
Does Europe follow a policy of appeasement?
[edit]
Yes
- "The president’s approach, for all its limitations, is far superior to Europe’s ostrich-like approach. Europe has seen precious little adult, democratic discussion about the new reality that makes this terrorist threat very different from the days of the Basque ETA, the Irish Republican Army, the Red Brigades, or the Baader-Meinhof gang, where casualties were in the dozens per year.
- On 9/11, the North American continent suffered its biggest single loss of life due to hostile actions since the civil war battle of Five Forks in April 1865; the Atocha atrocity was the largest terrorist attack on European soil since 1925. Yet the average European policy-maker’s persistent, universal panacea – giving more economic aid – does not explain the fact that the 9/11 hijackers were far from poor, any more than the Jacobins, Bolsheviks, or Khmer Rouges came from underprivileged backgrounds. Poverty matters, but in hardly so direct a way – otherwise Africa would be a hotbed of terrorism, and the above-mentioned European radicals ought not to have existed.
- While, as a Jeffersonian, I cringe at what has gone on in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere, Europeans do not (and cannot) explain why the prisoners they have under custody have divulged almost no information, compared with those threatened with incarceration in less hospitable places like Egypt and Pakistan. It is far easier to be morally superior then to deal with the real complexities of a baffling new world.
- There is a political price to pay for this continued European holiday from history. I genuinely pray that it does not take another sickening outrage to wake up a European populace that would rather not think about these things, and whose leaders so spinelessly accommodate them. Osama bin Laden’s missives reveal that he hates Europe just as much as the United States – and it is easier to infiltrate a sleeping Europe. Europe must recognise far more than it does that by definition one cannot negotiate with, cajole, or win over committed, utopian terrorists – they simply have to be killed or incarcerated.
- In return for accepting this very unpleasant reality, the western allies would do well to accept that the military aspects of the war on terror (as Donald Rumsfeld implied) are only a part of the answer. To paraphrase Tony Blair: “We must be tough on terrorists, and tough on the causes of terror.” Perhaps this analytical insight is the beginning of a true conceptual rapprochement on what is the burning challenge of our times."
- "A confidential summary of talks between key European powers and Iran made available to The Associated Press on Tuesday shows there has been no progress in getting Iran to scrap nuclear enrichment — even though Tehran acknowledged it does not need nuclear energy.
- The United States and several other countries fear Iran is seeking to enrich uranium not to the low level needed to generate power but to weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads.
- Iran publicly insists it only seeks to make low-grade enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. But the summary of the last meeting on the issue involving representatives of France, Britain, Germany and Iran says Tehran acknowledged what Washington and its allies have argued all along — that the oil-rich country has no need for nuclear energy.
- "Iran recognizes explicitly that its fuel cycle program cannot be justified on economic grounds," the document says.
- Diplomats familiar with the talks said on condition of anonymity that the atmosphere between the two sides had improved during the second round held in Geneva on Jan. 17.
- But they agreed that no progress was being made on the Europeans' insistence that Iran's present temporary suspension of its enrichment programs be turned into a commitment to permanently mothball all such activities.
- "The two positions cannot coexist," said one of the diplomats, from a West European nation. "If the impasse cannot be resolved, then there will be no solution," clearing the path for Iran to resume work on activities that will allow it to enrich uranium, he said.
- Another diplomat agreed there was no progress on the core issue but expressed hope that common ground could be found in future rounds. "
[edit]
No
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