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Are
We Witnessing the Last Days of the Present World Order?
In
a Feb. 12 article titled "3 Western Pillars Already Shaken,"
The International Herald Tribunestated:"Before a shot has
been fired,the political tensions ahead of a looming Iraq
war are inflicting grievous wounds on the triad of institutions
that embody aspirations for multilateral security cooperation
among Western democracies: the European Union, NATO and the
UN Security Council.
"This
combination of interlocking security arrangements, which has
enabled the West to ride out trans-Atlantic tempests for decades,
faces a simultaneous challenge from within that could spell
change or even irrelevance for all parts of the system."
German-American
relations were already strained due to anti-American rhetoric
on the part of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in his reelection
campaign last year. And then, when it came to actually enforcing
UN Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq,U.S. insistence
on military action was met by hard resistance from Germany
as well as France-a stance that was then countered by support
from the majority of European national leaders.
The Tribuneexplained:"The
crisis is so hard to manage, experts said, because it calls
into question, simultaneously, all three load-bearing pillars
of cooperation: European unity, the U.S.-led alliance and
relations among the United States and other veto-empowered
Security Council members, including France and Russia.
"'Before,if
confrontation arose in the Security Council,NATO would close
ranks, and splits among the European countries never threatened
NATO unity, but this time the trans-Atlantic fault line is
fissuring all three of the organizations that emerged intact
from the Cold War,' according to a cabinet-level British official."
Where is this all leading-and why?
The
end of NATO?
The Wall
Street Journalcame out with a surprising editorial on Feb.
10 titled "The End of NATO." It stated: "France and Germany
continued this weekend to gamble with the institutions that
have kept something called the Western alliance united for
half a century.The question to contemplate now is whether
that alliance, formally known as NATO, continues to serve
the interests of the United States.
"This
may seem a radical thought," the opinion piece continued,
"but it is certainly warranted by the astonishing recent behavior
of nations thought to be U.S. allies. Three countries-France,
Germany and their mini-me minion, Belgium-have moved from
opposition to U.S. policy toward Iraq into formal, and consequential,
obstructionism. If this is what the U.S. gets from NATO, maybe
it's time America considered leaving this Cold War institution
and re-forming an alliance of nations that understand the
new threats to world order."
Reference
was made to Germany's suggestion that Iraq be turned over
to UN peacekeepers while allowing Saddam Hussein to remain
in authority-ostensibly to keep the United States from invading
the country."The real point of this exercise," stated the
Journal,"is to prevent the U.S. from enforcing the U.N.'s
own resolutions . . . The fact that Germany would even consider
offering it suggests an agenda aimed less at defusing war
than at actively promoting American defeat."
Worse
still, in the Journal'sopinion, was Belgium's announcement
"that it would do Paris's bidding and veto Turkey's request
for NATO resources to defend itself against Iraq . . . For
Belgium to block such a request for self-defense from another
NATO ally is to drive a stake into the heart of the alliance."
France, Germany and Belgium had argued that they could not
yet make such a commitment, as it would have implied approval
to U.S. military action before official Security Council sanction.
U.S. Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said it was "shameful, for me it's
truly shameful."And, telling journalists at a defense conference
in Munich that America and the other NATO countries would
defend Turkey anyway, he stated, "What will be hurt will be
NATO, not Turkey."
Belgian
Foreign Minister Louis Michel remarked that Mr. Rumsfeld's
"attitude of 'teaching the old Europe' is insulting. Mr. Michel
praised the Europe of democratic values, humanist Europe,the
Europe of the Age of Enlightenment.He accused the Bush administration
of trying to impose 'a valet-lord' relationship with Europe"
("Belgium, Germany and France Cause NATO Split," EUObserver.com,
Feb. 10). Clearly there are huge differences in perspective.
American
outrage
Many members
of the U.S. Congress were outraged at what they viewed as
a betrayal by key allies.At Congressional hearings,"some lawmakers
suggested the survival of the alliance may be at stake-a concern
also voiced by (Secretary of State Colin) Powell.He told senators
Tuesday (Feb. 11) that NATO and UN alliances could fall apart
because of a reluctance to provide military support sought
by Turkey" (Associated Press report, Feb. 12).
In a House
International Relations Committee meeting the next day, the
committee's top Democrat, Rep.Tom Lantos, said that he was
"particularly disgusted by the blind intransigence and utter
ingratitude" of France, Germany and Belgium. "If it were not
for the heroic efforts of America's military, France, Germany
and Belgium today would be Soviet socialist republics," Lantos
said. "The failure of these three states to honor their commitments
is beneath contempt" (ibid.).
Even several
days before Belgium's action,"Richard Perle,a former assistant
secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and now
chairman of the Pentagon's Policy Advisory Board, condemned
French and German policy on Iraq in the strongest terms"-particularly
the former."France is no longer the ally it once was," he
said. "I have long thought that there were forces in France
intent on reducing the American role in the world" (United
Press International report, Feb. 4).
"Very
considerable damage has already been done to the Atlantic
community, including NATO, by Germany and France," Perle went
on to say. Yet he believes Schroeder is a "discredited chancellor"
who is out of step with the rest of Germany. But is he? And
what about the rest of Europe?
European
majority opinion
There
is no question that Europe is facing its own share of division.
The president of the European Union-now of Greece, which presently
holds the rotating leadership-said Feb. 12,"We are at a critical
juncture." Unless the EU nations could resolve their differences
regarding the Iraqi situation, he went on, "the European Union
will enter a deep crisis." And Iraq surely will not be the
end of the differences.
"Czech
and Polish officials at the Munich meeting said that their
countries saw the United States as a guarantee of their stability
and position, even against larger European friends. They complained
in identical language of 'arrogance' on the part of French
and German policymakers, who upbraided Prague and Warsaw for
publicly supporting Washington and challenging the line adopted
by France and Germany" ( Tribune).
Indeed,
many have accused the United States for acting unilaterally.
However, when most of Europe's leaders rallied around President
Bush,France and Germany were suddenly the ones out of step.Washington
was quick to label them the new unilateralists, obstructing
cooperation among the allies through minority opposition that
could force the United States to eventually abandon NATO.
But are
France and Germany truly in the European minority?
Robert
Kagan, author of the new book Of Paradise and Power: America
Versus Europe in the New World Order,explained on a Feb. 7
Fox News program that America and Europe "have developed such
different views about the legitimacy of the use of force and
the kind of international order we would like to see that
it's like that book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.We
don't even understand each other sometimes when we talk.We
use the same words but come up with different meanings. There
really has become a serious ideological divide between the
majority of Americans and Europeans."
Asked
about the level of rampant anti-Americanism in Europe, Dr.
Kagan's response was that "some of it we can't do anything
about. It's the price of having more power than everyone else.
Europeans have some resentment about their historic dependence
on the United States and their resentment that the United
States has all the power. "
Yet it's
not just French and German leaderswho oppose the United States.
Kagan stated that "in France and Germany the governments and
the people are together, clearly."In fact, a shocking article
from Reuters on Feb. 10 reported that in a poll taken in Germany
by the respected Forsa institute, "57 percent agreed with
the statement:'The United States is a nation of warmongers.'"While
this view is understandably outrageous and incomprehensible
to most Americans, it apparently represents what many Germans
think.The survey further found that "93 percent believed Bush
was ready to go to war in pursuit of his (own) interests,
while 80 percent said the United States wanted war to boost
its power."
But again,
is this really representative of the rest of Europe? What
about the opinion in the nations that early on gave their
vote of confidence to the United States in the Iraqi situation?
Dr. Kagan explained: "In a country like Spain where the prime
minister has actually sided with Bush . . . (this) is against
his own population, (as) 80 percent of Spaniards disagree
with American policy." He went on to say that, "by and large,
except for a few courageous souls like Tony Blair, and the
Spanish prime minister, and Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, there's
pretty much unity in Europe. I live in Europe. But let me
tell you, there is very little debate going on about this
subject. Most people are just opposed."
The
world is changing
The Wall
Street Journalconcluded its editorial:"We realize the end
of NATO has been trumpeted prematurely before .. . But the
Cold War is over, and the main threat to the West now is global
terrorism employing nuclear and bioweapons. If NATO cannot
adapt to this reality by moving its resources to meet that
threat, then as currently constructed it has outlived its
usefulness."
These
are truly momentous times! We appear to be witnessing the
beginning of the dismantling of the present world order. Bible
prophecy foretells that in the years ahead a new European
superpower will rise to dominate the globe for a short time.
It is characterized as strong as iron and yet brittle too
(Daniel 2:40-43)-evidently fragmented by the interests of
the various nations that make it up.
Prophecy
also speaks of a vanquished America and Britain and a series
of calamities that will eventually send the human race crashing
headlong to the very brink of self-annihilation (Matthew 24:21-22)-only
to be rescued at the last moment by the dawning of a new and
glorious age.You need to keep reading The Good Newsfor understanding
of the times in which we live .
-Tom
Robinson
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