Speculating about America's future place in the world, former President Bill Clinton recently said, "In all probability, we won't be the premier political and economic power we are now." Clinton suggested that Europe might eventually take America's place. France and Germany are now entertaining this same thought. It seems the French and Germans see themselves as the dominant players in Europe. They are thinking, of course, in terms of economic power. Militarily Russia is the most powerful country in Europe - to which France takes a very distant second place. But that is not something the French and Germans are worried about, especially since Russia has cleverly advertised its economic weaknesses. Seeing themselves as the dominant economic powers in Europe and within the EU, France and Germany would like to enjoy some of the economic and political advantages that the United States enjoys by being the world's leading economic power in control of the world's leading currency. They envy the American dollar and would like to put the euro in its place. The United States exports her inflation because of the dollar's position. France and Germany would like this advantage for themselves.
The Iraq War has also served to divide America from France and Germany. Americans have begun to spontaneously boycott French products. This hasn't won much sympathy with the French public or with Europe in general. In the aftermath of the Iraq War France has played the stinker. On May 6 The Washington Times revealed that the French government "secretly supplied fleeing Iraqi officials with passports in Syria that allowed many ... to escape to Europe." Even before the war began the French and Germans worked behind the scenes to derail American plans. The United States military was planning to send its heaviest combat division into Northern Iraq via Turkey. But this division was forced out of its position by French and German diplomatic maneuvering. According to Michael Ledeen, author of The War Against the Terror Masters, the French joined with the Germans to prevent the U.S. from staging forces through Turkey. Ledeen insists that the Turkish vote against allowing U.S. access to Turkish territory was due to "an act of anti-American intimidation by France and Germany." The French and Germans told the Turks that cooperating with America would lock them out of Europe for a generation. Ledeen quoted one Turkish leader as saying, "there were no promises, only threats." Ledeen added, "It is hard to imagine that such actions were solely the result of greed, whether personal or national."
Here we see what European power amounts to. It is something that instinctively opposes America's leadership of the free world. And here we see, as one might expect, Russia in the serpent's role, whispering temptation into French and German ears. The promise is that the French and Germans "will be as gods."
In his April 21 editorial, "Follow the Money," William Safire pointed out that Russia and France were determined to play dirty: to drag their feet on the removal of U.N. sanctions against an Iraq that had been freed from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. The threat of continuing sanctions against Iraq was a nasty bit of business, and a clear case of extortion aimed at the United States - the country that has taken most of the risk and all of the criticism in the war against terror. France profited from its special relationship with Saddam's Iraq, as did Russia. Yet America is maligned as the imperialist bully that is greedy to lay its hands on Middle East oil. This description of the U.S. is an old saw for the Russians and Chinese. Now the Germans and French want to use it.
If one wants to see real corruption, the French president is in the middle of a serious scandal. Formerly Jacques Chirac was the mayor of Paris. Recent revelations show that his Paris associates were involved in fraud, bribery and self enrichment at the public expense. (See CNN article) Worse yet, President Chirac was personally implicated in a major bribery scandal in September. (See https://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/corrupt/governmt/chirac.htm.) If it was not for the corruption of the French socialist opposition, Chirac's political career might be over. But rottenness on one side will protect rottenness on the other.
Whatever the motivations involved, whatever corruption and blackmail might do, France and Germany are moving away from America. How can this be prevented? A couple of weeks ago Prime Minister Tony Blair flew out to Russia to meet with Russian President Putin. His objective was to bridge the growing divide. For his trouble the British Prime Minister was treated to a mocking commentary from former KGB Lt. Col. Putin on the fate of Iraq. "The question is," said Putin, "where is Saddam Hussein? Where are those weapons of mass destruction, if they ever existed at all? Is Saddam in a bunker sitting on cases of mass destruction weapons preparing to blow everything up?"
It has been suggested by Israeli sources that Saddam Hussein is hiding within the territory of Russia's "union" partner, Belarus. Of course, if the French were providing passports so that Iraqi officials could flee to Europe, Saddam and his leading henchmen could be on the Riviera.
The nasty game played by Russia and France was discussed in a Wall Street Journal "Review & Outlook" commentary on May 5. According to this column, Russia was supplying Iraq with weapons and assistance throughout the 1990s; Russia courted Saddam's favor and so did France. The Wall Street Journal also noted that the French press has long speculated about Saddam Hussein's financial support for Chirac's old political organization, Rally for the Republic. It has been alleged, as well, that Saddam held the related threat of blackmail over the heads of key French politicians.
Perhaps the most troubling idea to emerge since the break between America and France is Russia's idea of building a "Greater Europe." It would appear that Russia wants to merge the European Union with the Commonwealth of Independent States. In other words, the Kremlin would like to "integrate" Western Europe with the "former" Soviet Union. This idea was once laid out in Mikhail Gorbachev's book, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World. Describing Europe as "our common home," Gorbachev explained that Europe should naturally form its own bloc. According to Gorbachev, "The concept of a 'common European home' suggests above all a degree of integrity, even if its states belong to different social systems and opposing military-political alliances." This was the strangest part of Gorbachev's book. But now it begins to make sense as Russia, France and Germany appear to be joining forces to counter the United States.
By pretending to abandon its quest for global dominance, Russia has positioned itself to join up with Europe against "selfish U.S. interests." Using an assumed position of weakness, Russia now urges France and Germany to take leading roles. By combining Western Europe with the "former" Soviet imperium a new and unstoppable power could be created in opposition to the United States. In theory this power would be dominated by France and Germany. In reality, however, Russia would dominate.
The analysis here is simple: Which part of this new European monster would have the largest share of weapons? Already Russia's nuclear and conventional might far surpasses that of France and Germany combined. There is a Russian proverb that says, "Never ask the wolves to help you against the dogs." France and Germany enjoy economic power. Economic power is the power of a rich man walking down the street with his money, able to buy everything in sight. Military power is the power of an armed man to take the rich man's money at the point of a gun. Between the two types of power the final argument is one of firepower.
At the end of this month a Russia-EU summit has been scheduled. On May 4 President Putin stated that he would strive to use this summit to advance the idea of a "common European marketplace" that would join the Commonwealth of Independent States with the European Union. "We intend to work with our colleagues toward creating a common economic space together with Greater Europe."
Would the capital of Greater Europe be Paris or Moscow? Would Greater Europe be America's friend or foe?
