What happened to Europe versus America?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Counterpunch, May 30, 2003

Don't Look to the UN for Resistance
Re-Colonizing Iraq
By TARIQ ALI

Unsurprisingly, the Security Council has capitulated completely,
recognised the occupation of Iraq and approved its re-colonisation by
the United States and its bloodshot British adjutant. The timing of the
mea culpa by the 'international community' was perfect. Yesterday,
senior executives from over a 1000 companies gathered in London to bask
in the sunshine of the re-established consensus under the giant umbrella
of Bechtel, the American Empire's most favoured construction company. A
tiny proportion of the loot will be shared.

So what happened to the over-heated rhetoric of Europe versus America?
Berlusconi in Italy and Aznar in Spain--the two most right-wing
governments in Europe--were fitting partners for Blair while the East
European states, giving a new meaning to the term 'satellite', which
they had previously so long enjoyed, fell as one into line behind Bush.

France and Germany, on the other hand, protested for months that they
were utterly opposed to a US attack on Iraq. Schroeder had owed his
narrow re-election to a pledge not to support a war on Baghdad, even
were it authorized by the UN. Chirac, armed with a veto in the Security
Council, was even more voluble with declarations that any unauthorized
assault on Iraq would never be accepted by France.

full: http://www.counterpunch.org/

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