OPINION: A SEPARATE EUROPE LOOKS THE BETTER BET (very impt. piece)

[Gloria]

Up now in the new World Media Watch at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

It's impossible to snip this piece without losing so much info. Read this, it is really important to understanding the geopolitcs of the world today....



1//GulfNews Online, United Arab Emirates 27/2/2005, 07:50 (UAE)

http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=153755



OPINION: A SEPARATE EUROPE LOOKS THE BETTER BET



By John O' Sullivan

John O'Sullivan, former adviser to Lady Thatcher, is currently editor of "The National Interest" and a member of Benador Associates.

(SNIP)

But the underlying dispute over the shape of the Atlantic alliance remained.



The United States supports the traditional model: an alliance in which the United States is the leader of middling and smaller powers acting together in world politics.



France and Germany, on the other hand, want the EU to develop into a single superpower with its own foreign policy and armed forces. Such an "equal partner" would inevitably develop as a rival to the United States in world politics.



And the West would gradually separate into two powers both superpowers but neither enjoying the overwhelming dominance of today's West.



Until very recently Washington has largely ignored this threat. How could an EU that spent an average of only 1.5 per cent of its gross domestic product on defence be a rival?



But Europe was never going to invade the United States. It could nonetheless damage US interests in lesser but still serious ways.



I can cite two examples:



1. A French "Green" politician, Noel Mamere, led a recent news broadcast with this statement: "The good thing about the European Constitution is that with it the United Kingdom will not be able to support the United States in a future war."



2. The new head of the European Defence Agency, Nick Witney, who is responsible for co-ordinating European defence procurement, said: "In matters of technology I think Europe is engaged in competition with America."



In other words an EU formed on Franco-German lines would prevent America's closest allies in Europe from cooperating with the United States in major crises and redirect defence spending away from joint Euro-American projects towards wholly European ones.

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[Frances]

1. Is the MSM in the U.S. covering any of this?

The fact that Europe may abandon the U.S. is important.

[Gloria]

2. Not that I know of. You hear about disagreements, but

I don't think the depth of the rift has been touched.

[aquart]

3. We're literally forcing it.

[KoKo]

4. Thanks Gloria....this is an important article...and one we won't hear

in the US in the Propaganda that the "Chimp Stormed Europe and had a wonderful meeting with Putin." "The Emperor Conquers Europe" scream the US headlines in MSM but what you posted is what could be the future.

Thanks...