Europe

Fire of Liberty

Peter Brookes has a wonderful Op/Ed on Europe's slow but sure turn from a complete devotion to "Soft Power" to America's view of combining "Soft Power" with the use of "Hard Power." While a considerable amount of European governments and their respected leadership have teetered from opposition to support of this application of power, one individual who has stuck behind the US is Spain's former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. See here, here, and here for more on a true friend of America.


As Brookes notes in his piece, Aznar sees that Europe needs America more than America needs Europe. With their declining military budgets and dependence of "soft power," Aznar foresees enormous problems for Europe down the road. As a former PM, Aznar was well aware of the European Union's plan to develop a Foreign/Security policy separate from NATO and knows that without heavy lifting, state of the air weapons and the over zealous devotion to soft power, the Europeans will fail to defend themselves let alone be able to provide a fighting force to deal with places like Afghanistan, Iraq or Africa if they were needed. As a true Atlanticist, Jose Maria Aznar is well aware that the Europeans decoupling themselves from the US would create a situation that would forever change the dynamic of Europe forever.

Mr Brookes does point out that the US seems to be garnering results with its approach to the World with Europe. As always, your critics will sit on the fence blasting you but once successes like Afghanistan, Iraq and their subsequent elections occur they start to get behind you. Take a look at Brookes' take on the situation:

It's reasonable to conclude that American (and Coalition) "hard power" in Afghanistan and Iraq is—at least partly—responsible for sparking the mind-boggling, positive changes that parts of the Arab and Muslim world are experiencing today.

Make no mistake: The ability to back up "soft power" with the credible threat of "hard power" makes a big difference in international affairs, especially when dealing with prickly states like Iran, Syria or North Korea. Europe seems to have forgotten this important canon of international affairs.

Perhaps, equally important is that the success of American efforts in the Arab and Muslim world is changing European minds about President Bush and the wisdom of his brand of forward-leaning American foreign policy.

Aside from Brookes and Aznar's assessment, you also have pieces in notoriously anti-US/anti-War newspapers like The Independent in the UK, which runs a headline and story like this:
Check here for story. We'll see more and more of this as the situation in Iraq improves and freedom emerges more and more throughout the Middle East.