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May 05, 2009
"CHECK, PLEASE! " by Mark Steyn
CHECK, PLEASE!
Steyn on the World
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
HAPPY WARRIOR
At the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, they’re premiering a new ballet about a young French boy who’s befriended by a giant helium-filled balloon. Any balletomanes at the US embassy might be forgiven for assuming it to be some hastily concocted metaphor to Euro-American harmony in the Age of Obama: a lithe young Continental prancing around the stage enraptured by his dazzling bag of gas. But, as it happens, The Red Balloon is an adaptation of some fey French movie from the Fifties, when a twirling Euro-ninny and his novelty gasbag were the stuff of cinematic whimsy and not the twin pillars on which western civilization has come to rest.
As is now well known, President Obama’s outreach to the Europeans – talking up the Continent’s “leadership” in the world and managing to keep a straight face while doing it – went unreciprocated.
When it came to the good war – Afghanistan, the one the anti-Iraq types claim to be in favor of – Nato, a “military” “alliance” of 28 countries, rewarded the impeccable multilateralist with an extra 5,000 troops - or approx 180 soldiers per nation. And by “soldiers” they don’t mean men with guns who fire them at the enemy but “non-combat” forces who man the photocopier back at the barracks while the Third Infantry Division and a few brave lads from Britain, Canada and a couple of other places are up in the hills sticking it to the Taliban all day long. Our allies are happy to stand shoulder to shoulder with us, as long as there are a couple of provinces between their shoulders and ours.
On the other hand, the Obama happy talk seemed to go down well with the North Koreans, who promptly held one of their missile tests, and with members of the piratical community, who seized an American vessel for the first time in a couple of centuries. As the New York Times headline writer put it: “Standoff With Pirates Shows U.S. Power Has Limits.”
Well, all power has limits. Today, the salient feature of the modern world is the urge to self-limit. The wealthiest jurisdictions on the planet have no “power” as it’s conventionally understood – and, indeed, that’s the point: They’re projecting post-power power, which, being that it’s non-existent, has no limits whatsoever.
In 2002 the Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen gave a speech in London saying that “the EU must not develop into a military superpower but must become a great power that will not take up arms at any occasion in order to defend its own interests.”
Good luck with that. Mr Lipponen objected to my derision by suggesting I’d missed some subtle nuances of his along the way, but for the life of me I can’t see what they are. Aside from anything else, anyone urging a Continent capable of “taking up arms” would be up against basic Euro-math: You can have massive welfare or a credible military, but not both. Indeed, with Europe’s deathbed demography, the former is barely affordable even without the latter.
Shortly after 9/11, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, John Manley, conceded that his country was dining in the best restaurants without paying its way – or, as he put it, "You can't just sit at the G8 table and then, when the bill comes, go to the washroom." That’s the sort of straight talk politicians do when they want to sound as if they’re getting real but have no intention of doing so. And so the horrors of 9/11 faded, and Canada and Europe resumed their habit of dining at the Nato table and stampeding for the washroom when the check came. The idea that Continental nations are going to find money to upgrade their militaries any time soon is delusion: A few years ago, the US spent 3.4 per cent of GDP on defense, the other Nato members spent on average 1.9 per cent. The most recent figures show the US spends 4 per cent, while the rest of Nato now averages 1.7 per cent – and it’s mostly high wages for unionized armies keeping it even at that level: The Continental country with the highest defense spending is Greece, and that’s almost all on personnel. The average age of a Belgian soldier is 40 – which at least ensures that the eternal Democrat plaint that we’re sending “our children” into harm’s way is replaced with the faintly surreal alternative of sending our late middle-aged into harm’s way.
Meanwhile, Susan Rice, America’s UN ambassador, urges Iran to “halt its illicit nuclear program” and “take the steps that would enable it to be a responsible member of the international community”.
You mean like Belgium or Finland? Lacking the exquisitely refined sensibilities of Mr Lipponen, the mullahs can’t see what’s in it for them.
My old colleague at The Daily Telegraph in London, the historian Sir John Keegan, likes to say that “without armed forces a state does not exist”.
The European Union exists only because for half-a-century they’ve been under American military protection: Promoted as a counterweight to the US hegemon, the EU in fact exists only because of it.
So what happens when America embraces Euro-sized government? The US can’t buck the basic arithmetic any more than Sweden can: A social-democratic America at home presupposes cuts in Pax Americana abroad. Those allies in tough neighborhoods – Israel next to Iran; India next to Pakistan; Japan next to North Korea; Eastern Europe in the shadow of a resurgent Russia – have already noted America’s passivity in the face of explicit threats. But eventually Western Europe will, too: at the top table, the big guy is heading for the washroom.
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Wild Thing's comment........
"The Red Balloon is an adaptation of some fey French movie from the Fifties, when a twirling Euro-ninny and his novelty gasbag were the stuff of cinematic whimsy and not the twin pillars on which western civilization has come to rest."
Obama...the Red Buffoon.
"Any balletomanes at the US embassy might be forgiven for assuming it to be some hastily concocted metaphor to Euro-American harmony in the Age of Obama: a lithe young Continental prancing around the stage enraptured by his dazzling bag of gas."
LOL Steyn can really turn a phrase .
Posted by Wild Thing at May 5, 2009 04:40 AM
Comments
He's a great writer and weaves his way through a subject that would make Shakespere proud. And when you hear him in person it is even more impressive. But sometimes it would be nice to cut through the chaf to get to the wheat. All that to say, that if we don't wake up, and the U.S. takes a leading role, and stop trying to emulate Europe we will all be conquered by the likes of Russia, Iran and any other jerkwater country that happens to get a nuke.
Posted by: Mark at May 5, 2009 08:54 AM
Mak Steyn is hated by the MSM. He writes the reality of political situations instead of the lying, omissive spins as the MSM does. The Canadian Human Rights Commissiion even accused him of human rights violations for writing the truth.
Europe has been overprotected by America and is now a lost cause. Under Obama's Marxist policies, America is going to emulate Europe's last 50 years of failure.
Posted by: TomR at May 5, 2009 12:41 PM
Mark, yes I love hearing him in person.
I agree, I am afraid Obama wants to be
just like Europe, and all the bad things
about it non of the good.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 5, 2009 05:24 PM
Tom, oh my gosh, I never knew that about
the Canadian Human Rights Commissiion.
thank you.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 5, 2009 05:28 PM
