US conservatives cast wary eye at EU treaty

[Rose Siding]

US conservatives have teamed up with eurosceptics in Britain to tackle what they see as a threat to American strategic interests.

Organisations such as the American Enterprise Institute, home to leading neo-conservatives, and the Heritage Foundation, a more traditional conservative foreign policy think-tank, have expressed concern that "vital American strategic interests" are threatened by the European Union's constitutional treaty and its implications for foreign and security policy.

Helle Dale, director of foreign policy at Heritage, says: "Our concern is that the relationship between Britain and the US could suffer if Britain had to submerge its foreign policy into a common European foreign policy."

She is concerned that Britain would have to seek permission from France and Germany before it could commit itself to joint US-UK initiatives, such as the war in Iraq.

David Frum, a research fellow at the AEI and a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, says that while closer European economic integration has been - and remains - in US interests, there is "rising awareness that the non-economic component of the European project raises important strategic questions".
...........
In Washington there is no coherent policy towards the EU. While the State Department upholds the traditional US policy of broadly supporting integration, others - notably the Pentagon - are distinctly less enthusiastic.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/80de8de8-2f52-11d9-984e-00000e2511c8.html

[AlCzervik]

1. I think what concerns them is the EU having a large military

and not needing us so much. AEI and the other neocons wuld like us to be the only power wielder.

[Nicholas_J]

4. Correct

They fear a joint E. U military and particlarly one in which the French are involved. THey make some fierce military equipmwnt and Department 1 outclasses the CIA and the Mossad as the worlds best intelligence service. They dont mind little niceties like not torturing captives to get information. And they are ususally quite effective at getting it.

With this, the Paris-Moscow axis would be rather effective in working towards a mutual defense treaty between Russia and the E. U. and with that you might see the E. U,. taking responsibility for all of the nukes that the Russians still possess. Such a defense treaty would make a E.U./Russia liason a super power that would be on par with U.S. military might and challenge any military presence of America in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Some of this has already started:

Russia, France pledge to boost military cooperation

MOSCOW: Russia and France pledged on Friday to boost military cooperation, developing an alliance born out of their joint opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.

“Defense relations between Russia and France are old and excellent, but considering the global situation and the new risks in the world, they must be further reinforced,” visiting French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said at the start of talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov.

France and Russia spearheaded outspoken opposition to the US-led war and are leading efforts to ensure the United Nations plays a central role in Iraq’s reconstruction. “Military relations between Russia and France are a very important element for stability in Europe,” Ivanov said.

“We have a lot of things to say to each other,” he said, adding, “Lately, military-technical cooperation has received a very energetic impulse.” Alliot-Marie arrived in Moscow late on Thursday and was also due to hold talks on Iraq with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov before leaving late on Friday for Oman and India.

The French defense minister said the Moscow talks would also touch on Russian-French cooperation in joint military missions, including peacekeeping in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_26-4-2003_pg7_2

Russia, France Offer Gauge for Iraq Policy
By David M. Shribman

Since the beginning of the decade-long struggle between the United States and Iraq, France and Russia have been the leading powers sympathetic to Saddam Hussein. Linked by oil contracts, military sales, and loans, they have been Iraq's partisans, protectors, and proxies. Now, with a growing sense that Bush sees Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs as regional or even global threats, the State Department is keeping an eye on France and Russia. If the two, members of the United Nations Security Council, deplore UN sanctions and help Baghdad buy more time in its efforts to restrict the movement of weapons inspectors or to keep them away entirely, the administration will know that diplomatic efforts will be unavailing. If, on the other hand, France and Russia begin to take a harder line against Iraq, they will be sending a potent message inside Iraq.

"If Iraq realizes that its principal supporters, France and Russia, have gone wobbly, then that will send an important signal to the people you most want to convince in Iraq that the regime will change - the upper-level technocrats," said Charles A. Duelfer, former deputy chairman of the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq.

Indeed, the State Department is increasingly convinced that France and Russia could do more to avoid a military confrontation by standing up to Baghdad than by standing by Baghdad.

Here's why: France and Russia are far less concerned about the viability of Saddam Hussein than they are about the viability of their own oil and manufacturing contracts. By toughening their approach to Baghdad - and by prompting an internal rebellion against Saddam Hussein - they could help assure a new stability in Iraq that would actually help get their contracts renewed and their loans repaid.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/2002/0312france.htm

This Franco-Russiam Military alliance is being formed in order to try to provide a counterbalance to the Anglo American Aliance formed because of the war in Iraq.

An E.U. miltary force would include France, and the U.S. feels much more secure with NATO, because France is not a part of it.

[NEOBuckeye]

8. Fuck the Conservatives!

I'm all for a stronger EU. We need more superpowers to check the madness that this nation has lapsed into.

[Maple]

2. Alright, I'm writing the PM to request

that David Frums citizenship be withdrawn. He's an embarrassment to Canada.

Even Bush fired him, so what does that say about his ability?

[kainah]

3. there really is no end to their arrogance

another four years of saying, 'I can't believe it' when, in your heart, you really know that there's nothing they could do anymore that really surprises you. They passed that threshold some time in 2002....

[NorthernSpy]

5. how did this get to be any of their damn business?

Talk about arrogant!

:shrug:

[AP]

6. This story is meant to undermine Labour. It's the British RW version of...

..."global test."

Here's where Blair proves what kind of politician he realy is. Is he a Hugo Chávez or Bill Clinton who can hold his government together in the face of US RW attempts to undermine it? Or is he like a post-2000 American Democrat?

[sweetheart]

7. Could these spoilers be any more obvious

The could give a hoot about the UK's alliances, rather they view
the UK as a trojan horse to break the solidarity of european
interests. Blair the ignorant fool, falls right in to the trap,
as he's a worse apologist than neville chamberlain.