I just finished reading the joint US-EU summit declaration adopted today in Slovenia. After reading it words like lame, myopic, spineless, clueless, obtuse or plain stupid immediately came to my mind. I will spare you the details of the text, you can check them for yourself, but the bottom line is simple: the EU is totally and shamelessly adopting the US stance on every single issue. This total surrender to the USA is even more pathetic in the context of the US empire being weaker than ever before in its history, of Dubya being the most unpopular US President ever, and the extremely serious consequences for Europe of such a slavish endorsement of the Neocon’s agenda. What the Europeans are doing is as obviously self-defeating and myopic as somebody joining the NSDAP in 1945.
What a total disgrace.
Europe’s fate is linked to America’s. They know perfectly well that Asia and Russia are on the rise, oil is flying and the west is in decline. Their only hope is to rally around the u.s.
I disagree. Europe has the option of joining rising Russia and the rest of Asia rather than being joined at the hip with a sinking USA. The way Europe turned its back on Russia is particularly appalling, I think, since that is where Europe gets its gas. Instead, Europe decided to take every single step to antagonize Russia and Russia will not forget that. Ditto for the Middle-East were Europe is seen as a US colony. At the very least, Europe could have used Russia and the USA to bargain for a better position, but it just gave itself away to a sinking Empire run by a sinking administration. That is truly a policy of breathtaking stupidity.
VS,
It is not stupidity. They know that it is against their national interests, just like our intelligence agencies and even our Congressmen know that our present war in Iraq is suicidal. They just have no choice. Those who got them elected and hold all the reins of power dictate and they obey. The few who refuse are made examples of. The same folks who rule here in the US do so in EU.
I agree that Europe is unwise to antagonize Russia, but when forced to choose between Russia and the U.S., they will choose the U.S. Declining though it may be, it is still the power on the planet. Russia is rising but it is a long way from having risen. And they neither like nor trust Russia. They have gotten used to America. It is the devil they know. I have to say that they also prefer a country “like them” where most people are of European stock, speak English (or Spanish, another European language) and is run by white people. The latter is why they would prefer the U.S. to China, which also a rising power but is still far from surpassing the U.S.
Lastly, Europe has done very well in a world run by the U.S. How they would fair in an Asian or Russian century remains to be seen.