A little German ray of light

[Tigermike 3,114]

December 26, 2004

Comment: Michael Portillo:

A little German ray of light in Europe’s sneering darkness

Europe and America enter 2005 dangerously divided. On Tuesday America grieved for another 18 citizens killed in a terrorist rocket strike while France celebrated over two hostages set free. France was happy to think that its opposition to American foreign policy had saved their lives.

Much of Europe remains in denial about George W Bush’s election victory. Europeans often accuse the US of arrogantly failing to comprehend other cultures, but then make little effort to understand America.

Europe is snobbishly patronising about Bush and likes to blame him personally for the things it does not like. The election proves that most Americans are on his side. We should recall that even the election loser, John Kerry, did not oppose the war. It is not just Bush who is unco-operative on global warming. Not one US senator voted for the Kyoto agreement.

As the coalition has become bogged down in Iraq, smug Europeans claim that America is isolated, rather as the British used to claim that fog in the English Channel left the Continent cut off. The US can get by without allies. However, Europe cannot afford to be estranged from America. Maybe the Bush administration is using the dollar to illustrate the point. As it falls it is Europe, not America, that feels the pain.

The Iraqi quagmire certainly demonstrates that even superpowers have their limits, but Europe should feel not schadenfreude but anxiety, because by comparison our armed forces are truly puny. Europe is surrounded by dangers across north Africa and through the Middle East. Our security depends on America now as throughout the 20th century. US intervention was decisive in both world wars, and if it had not been for US protection under Nato during the cold war we might all now be speaking Russian.

After US policy had toppled the Soviet Union, we Europeans proved unable to sort out Bosnia and Kosovo.

It is silly to assume that nothing good can come from Bush. Since Yasser Arafat’s death President Bush has shown more interest in the Middle East peace process than would have seemed possible the day he was re-elected. If Europe truly wants peace it must close ranks with Bush rather than run an alternative process to curry favour in the Arab world.

We should not gloat over America’s difficulties in Iraq. Certainly, the Bush administration has made horrendous errors there. Maybe it has exacerbated the terrorist problem, at least inside Iraq. But terrorism is the enemy of us all and a democratic Iraq would be a boon to the world. It is profoundly in Europe’s interests to see a successful election and order restored. It makes no sense to set up new European defence structures. It is typically Gallic bravado to devise new headquarters and give new names to formations of troops. In the interests of creating a “European identity” we have new arrangements that merely duplicate Nato.

Sadly, Tony Blair, riding both the American and European horses as they galloped apart, did not resist the changes. As the former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar has said, we risk trading a single security organisation for two insecure ones.

Europe does not understand America because it still does not grasp 9/11. When Al-Qaeda bombed Madrid’s commuter trains in March some said it was Europe’s 9/11. It was not. The plane that hit Washington struck at the heart of the state in a way that slaughtering train passengers did not. After 9/11 Americans closed ranks to defy the terrorists.

By contrast the Madrid outrages aroused bitter divisions in Spain. The ensuing Spanish election produced an important lurch within Europe as the new government withdrew its support for America and its troops from Iraq. It opted out of the “new Europe” (as defined by Donald Rumsfeld) and rejoined the Franco-German axis.

Throughout 2004 European Atlanticists were in retreat. In truth the rout began before the Iraq war when Gerhard Schröder’s government declared its opposition to US policy. Since the end of Nazism Germany had played a dual role as a founder member of the European Community and an ardent supporter of Nato. Schröder bowed to German popular opinion. Abandoning America was a historic error.

Anti-Americanism is at record levels in other traditionally Atlanticist countries such as Holland and indeed Britain, too. The rot has spread to America’s friends in eastern Europe. Last month the Hungarian parliament defeated a government proposal to keep troops in Iraq until after the elections in January. The right-of- centre party, which when in government chafed impatiently to join Nato, campaigned to withdraw the soldiers.

The former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban argued that American torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison “shook the moral foundations” of the coalition’s occupation. So it did. Rumsfeld has exasperated America’s allies. But even so, to alienate America is short-sighted and risky. Blair is one of the few European statesmen who recognises that, and he deserves credit for it.

I often criticise Blair for lacking any interest in history. In this case, maybe it is an advantage. Many Europeans’ view of Afghanistan or Iraq is distorted by post-colonial guilt. Blair, on the other hand, has an uncluttered sympathy for the view that democracy is good for people and should be spooned down their throats.

Europeans’ interest in the spread of democracy tends to be limited to their own continent, narrowly defined at that. Schröder, for example, seems relaxed that Vladimir Putin is centralising power in Russia, and from there it would be a short step to acquiescing in Russian hegemony in Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine, where the presidential election is being rerun today. America cannot be so detached. Sooner or later it will need to re-engage with developments in that region, mainly because the US is rightly obsessed (on behalf of us all) about the security of energy supplies.

It is important that European Atlanticists gain the upper hand once more. Unfortunately, Blair lost influence during 2004. Our partners deny Britain a leadership role because we do not have to share the burden of the euro. The prospect of joining the currency has receded, and it is likely that Britain’s referendum on the European constitution will be lost. The new Europe that Blair hoped to lead has disintegrated.

He might try another tack. Perhaps America and Europe would find it slightly easier to come together over trade than politics. The US has made liberalising treaties with its North American neighbours despite the obvious political difficulties. We could work for a special north Atlantic trade zone.

The key figure would be (do not laugh) Peter Mandelson. The early days of 2005 will be crucial for him. If he is to have any credibility in Europe he must keep Blair at bay whenever he rings up for advice about the British general election, and he must give up taking public swipes at Gordon Brown. If Mandelson can restrain himself, he could do some serious good for transatlantic relations.

One ray shone through the European darkness in recent days. Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, backed Turkish membership of the European Union. That took political courage, because most Germans oppose it strongly. Turkish immigrants in Germany encounter racial prejudice and have difficulties in obtaining German nationality. For many Germans Turkish entry into the EU means only one thing: more migrants.

They do not see that Europe is lucky that Turkey is what it is. A neighbouring country with a large Muslim population that happens to be secular and pluralist. Fortuitously, it is pro-western, as evidenced by decades as a member of Nato. It would be irresponsible to put those advantages at risk by blackballing Turkey.

Europe regularly shows that its horizons have narrowed. It has become self-obsessed and has ceased to think strategically. Germany’s failure to live up to its responsibilities has been particularly disappointing. So there must be rejoicing when its foreign minister defies public opinion to make the strategic case for embracing Turkey. It almost makes me hopeful.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1415637,00.html