Europeans Declare War on Bush

John L. Perry
Saturday, July 21, 2001

The leaders of Germany, which launched two world wars, and France, rescued both times by American military might, are ganging up on the United States.

As representatives of the Group of Eight industrialized nations gathered in Genoa for their annual summit, French President Chirac and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer were treating President Bush almost as if he were leading some enemy invasion of the Continent.

Their intent is to rally enough support from the three other European nations – Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom – with possible help from Canada and Japan to send the American president home with his tail between his legs.

They have selected two major issues on which to challenge the new leader of the world's sole remaining superpower: the proposed Kyoto environmental treaty and the Cold War-era Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty.

Bush opposes both, and that is enough for European socialist politicians, who have been chafing since the end of World War II to undermine America's dominance.

Never mind it was the United States that saved Europe from Adolf Hitler's Nazi Third Reich that was to last a thousand years.

Never mind it was American tax dollars that funded the Marshall Plan, which got Western Europe back on its economic pins after the devastation of World War II.

Never mind it was U.S. leadership and military resources that created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which drew a line from top to bottom of the Continent across which the heavy armor of the Soviet Union, followed by communist rule, dared not venture after that war.

Never mind it was American nuclear missiles that kept the Soviet Union from even entertaining the idea of incinerating European cities.

Never mind it was the capitalist economy of the United States that has fueled a worldwide commerce from which Europeans have for decades been major participants and beneficiaries.

The socialists now in seats of government throughout much of Europe – playing to leftist constituencies at home – are intent upon trying to elevate their own political fortunes at the expense of Bush's and of U.S. national interests.

It is not a cheerful political environment that awaits Bush in Genoa. In Friday's Times of London, writer Martin Fletcher describes a "sense of foreboding hanging over the summit."

He quotes France's Chirac as saying:

"President Bush has declared [the proposed Kyoto Protocol] a bad accord. On the contrary, we think it is a good agreement.

"We must continue to discuss it to convince the United States to come on board.

"The Europeans and, I hope, Canada and Japan, will pass on this unanimous message."

Whether that's what Chirac, at the bottom of his Gallic heart, actually wants is open to speculation.

Hypocrisy on Kyoto Protocol

No major European parliament has adopted the Kyoto protocols, which would wreak havoc with any participating nation's internal economy. Chirac and others ignore conveniently that the U.S. Senate voted 55-0 – as bipartisan as it gets – to reject the Kyoto treaty. When Bush told them it wouldn't fly in Washington, they were hearing the truth.

Since it is not a sure bet that any major country could get the accord as written through its legislative body, Bush and the United States are convenient whipping boys for Chirac and other European politicians who might rather have Kyoto as a festering issue than a ratified treaty.

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has blown lukewarm and tepid cool on Kyoto, is now insisting he has always "remained consistent," saying "we will do our best to put the pact into effect in 2002."

"It is favorable to create a system in which the whole world, including the United States, can cooperate."

Japan is one of those countries that has not gotten around to doing what it says it wants the United States to do about Kyoto.

So also is Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair let Bush know when he stopped over in London en route to Genoa that he had already made up his mind – in favor of Kyoto. Blair stopped short, though, of saying he would recommend the treaty to Parliament.

While France is busy beating up on Bush over Kyoto, Germany is taking the lead in denouncing his plan to provide his own country with a missile defense.

That Bush intends it to be a regional umbrella large enough to offer protection to America's allies on the Continent is of no apparent interest to the European socialist politicians.

The London Times is quoting Germany's Fischer as saying of Bush's plan to amend or abandon the ABM Treaty so America can build those missile defenses:

"We shouldn’t give up something that has proven itself without a better solution. There must be no new arms race. Nuclear stability must remain."

That of course is what Russia, along with communist China, has been saying for months.

Ironically, there are two rather unlikely sources of light at the end of that missile-defense tunnel for Bush.

One is Britain, where Blair has promised Bush he will keep an open mind on revising the ABM Treaty to accommodate the U.S. nuclear shield.

The other is Russia, itself.

While consistently opposing Bush's missile plan, Russian President Putin has left enough cracks in the door to allow him to switch from opposition to acceptance.

It depends on whether Bush can convince him that the U.S. plan is no threat to Russia – indeed, even a potential benefit should any of Russia's rebellious neighbors decides to launch missiles against it.

And in the final analysis, it might depend on whether Putin can then sell that concept to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, with whom he has just signed a "treaty of friendship," which at its core is the framework for a strategic-military axis aimed at the United States.

If all that were not enough for Bush to have to juggle while in Genoa, the Democratic Party's plurality leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle, is throwing darts at his back while the president of the United States is overseas trying to construct and conduct American foreign policy.

It would be surprising if George W. Bush, in the land of the 16th century political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, were not thinking something like:

"Save me from allies and countrymen. I can handle my opponents."


John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is senior editor for NewsMax.com.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001