France and Germany are uniting (not in the literal sense; they’re creating stronger ties) to oppose the United States. They’re basically trying to pull Britian out from the United States’ grasp and create a united Europe vs. the U.S. kind of situation (as long as Bush is in office). So effectively Bush has completely screwed over its foreign relations with two of the largest European nations. This is hilarious to me because in both the world wars France ended up being invaded by Germany
Well, if Europe wants to compete with us and have some control over the state of international affairs, they have to unite. This is a good first step, but the most important steps have yet to come: total free trade between all anti-U.S. European countries, and the creation of a military force sovereign only to the EU. It’ll be interesting to see if European countries are able to unite, or if there self-interest prevents them from doing so(Germany is bound to make out the best through my suggested plan and dominate the others).
It could be nice with something to balance the USA, but I wouldn’t want a United States of Europe: I like the European Union as it is now, a confederation. And it’s also a dangerous game to play, since the USA don’t want anyone to equal and balance it.
France and Germany are uniting (not in the literal sense; they’re creating stronger ties) to oppose the United States. They’re basically trying to pull Britian out from the United States’ grasp and create a united Europe vs. the U.S. kind of situation (as long as Bush is in office). So effectively Bush has completely screwed over its foreign relations with two of the largest European nations. This is hilarious to me because in both the world wars France ended up being invaded by Germany [/b]
History is full of irony- for the back end of the 18th and a good deal of the 19th (not to mention all throughout medieval history), it was France and Britain kicking the shit out of each other, a scenario that got hugely reversed less than a century afterward.
A United States of Europe… I don’t know, it would be good to have a counter-balance to the USA as one country having too much power is not a good thing, nor is two countri4es having power when one of them is Red China :thud:
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Senior French diplomats concede they have given up on their relationship with the US as long as President George Bush remains in office. Since opposing the war in Iraq, France has been ignored in Washington and Paris says its attempts at reconciliation have failed.
Well, who could blame them? Our government hasn’t treated any countries opposed to this so-called ‘war on terror’ equally as those that do (and do so probably out of being under the threat of being labeled terrorist-infested):fungah:
It’s cool cause trans-european politics have typically revolved around the idea of “balance of power” - that is, if one nation in europe gains too much power, all the other nations band against it. It’ll be interesting to see if they carry this to a global level, and forgo any anti-european universal power sentiments in order to effectively compete against a NON-european power. If the “balance of power” politics are carried beyond a continental level to a global level.
Sadly, this will not create any kind of balance of power; rather, it will disrupt any semblance of balance that the world currently has. If every nation in Europe bands together, and they’re always at the necks of the US, then nothing will ever be accomplished. The UN will have to be dissolved, as it will be rendered completely useless. Another arms race will probably begin, as each super power tries to outdo the other in order to increase their penis size. Let’s face it; it’ll be another Cold War.
Oh, and France is full of nothing but stubborn fucks. Yes, Bush is a complete and utter moron, but think about it. If this happens, Europe’s going to see a lot of problems. And yes, the US will as well, but they’ll go down with us. And besides, as much as everyone hates Bush, I doubt Europeans will all band together in such a way; they’ve got different agendas, different ideals, different everything. And let’s not forget how stubborn the British are.
Originally posted by KaiserVonAlmasy
[b]And let’s not forget that in about 14 months this whole thing may well be unecessary anyway.
knock on wood [/b]
Even if we do get a new president, he or she (sometime, folks, sometime!) will have to have a different foreign affairs policy than Bush, and also withdraw from Iraq (although some events indicate that we’re slowly withdrawing even now). With the US’s luck, we’ll get a Bush successor who’ll screw us over even more.
Ugh, I have a bad feeling about that. See, Europe is nothing like USA, each country (and town and village, even) have very distinct and different temperament, memories, traditions, ideas etc, etc. Really tight unions between nations here has never ended well.
Yeah. Centuries old powers tend to have that little problem. I suppose it’s because the US is so young and that each state doesn’t TRULY have an identity outside of the US tends to keep us together. That and it was arranged this way pretty much from teh start.
Nice article, but seems to misinterpret some facts.
As for one, the Franco-German relationship has been around since several years now. I think it started a few years after WW2 as a way to keep Germany under control and maintain strong ties to Europe. That relationship had been damaged by those ever idiotic top politicians last year at our election. Seems like they’re trying to glue it back together.
A franco-german parliament is in my opinion totally unlikely. The talk about the stronger together role in Europe should be seen at the background at the european constitution that is currently being discussed. The smaller countries are banding together to ensure that they have more to say in the new Europe and the old, big powers are scared of that. They seem to think that if they don’t stand together now, they will loose big time.
All in all, this isn’t really anything new, just the article is a bit off. Speaking of a common front against the USA is imho totally off.
>Speaking of a common front against the USA is imho totally off.
Well, its not that off if the state of the world continues its current path. There may come a time where Europeans decide that it is more in their interest to forget their differences and at the least unify more economically than they are now, than it is not to.
It may also be that tomorrow the sun won’t shine. :ah-ha!:
All kidding aside, I see too much bickering and old conflicts here in Europe to believe that they could pull that off.
