Tuesday, May 31, 2005
The French cause more trouble, thank God.
The French have now rejected the continental Constitution of the EU in a national referendum. This is excellent news for everybody.
For the Euros it gives them a chance to step away from the ledge. The idea of the EU was to drop trade barriers, invigorate the economy, and create a sense of European citizenship that transcended other nationalisms. It has become a bureaucrat's delight that enshrines corrupt economic relationships between interest groups and government. It's laws have slowly grown to micromanage the lives of the individual citizen. They have outlawed spanking for pete's sake.
For the U.S. this is even better news. The EU has openly become an attempt to mitigate U.S. power. Specifically the French have called for a more multi-polar world. Historically that system is not the most stable: see World War I. And the French elites are not doing it for idealistic reasons. We should note all of the French Divisons in the Sudan. Oh yeah, there aren't any. They want power because of Napoleonic pride.
It's funny that when a national leader kills millions in a war only fought to further his nation's national glory and is a German we call him a tyrant. When he is a Frenchman he is a hero.
It may not have been the voters goal to disrupt the process of creating a European superpower, but they did it. We are going to have enough trouble dealing with the real future superpowers of India and China. We do not need an organized, ineffectual, militarily irrelevant, Europe whining at us on a daily basis.
For the Euros it gives them a chance to step away from the ledge. The idea of the EU was to drop trade barriers, invigorate the economy, and create a sense of European citizenship that transcended other nationalisms. It has become a bureaucrat's delight that enshrines corrupt economic relationships between interest groups and government. It's laws have slowly grown to micromanage the lives of the individual citizen. They have outlawed spanking for pete's sake.
For the U.S. this is even better news. The EU has openly become an attempt to mitigate U.S. power. Specifically the French have called for a more multi-polar world. Historically that system is not the most stable: see World War I. And the French elites are not doing it for idealistic reasons. We should note all of the French Divisons in the Sudan. Oh yeah, there aren't any. They want power because of Napoleonic pride.
It's funny that when a national leader kills millions in a war only fought to further his nation's national glory and is a German we call him a tyrant. When he is a Frenchman he is a hero.
It may not have been the voters goal to disrupt the process of creating a European superpower, but they did it. We are going to have enough trouble dealing with the real future superpowers of India and China. We do not need an organized, ineffectual, militarily irrelevant, Europe whining at us on a daily basis.
