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The global playground
As European officials express concern that the Bush administration's designation of Iranian agencies and firms as 'supporters of terrorism' could block relations with Tehran for years to come, President Vladimir Putin's description of these new U.S. sanctions, as America "running around like a madman with a razor blade in his hand," is appropriate and worrying.
Europe, enchanted by America's spread of dollar-democracy, has remained throughout America's closest 'ally'. Europe's formal political figures no longer represent the voice of the people but the interests of the ruling elites, all of whom pay court to the American Empire. Most people on the streets in Europe are not really discussing their role in the international arena, but are reacting to America's global expectations.
Meanwhile in America, the US air force has just asked Congress for $88m to equip B2 stealth bombers with racks strong enough carry Big Blu bombs referred to as 'the Mother of All Bombs', and the US military is building a forward base in Iraq called Combat Outpost Shocker, just five miles from the Iranian border. Robert Byrd, a Democrat member of the Senate Armed Services committee, is saying that action taken by the Bush administration "raises the spectre of an intensified effort to make the case for an invasion of Iran".
As this is taking place, European governments are exchanging the baton of support and deference for America's policy towards Iran; Europe is always moving in block, following the direction implied by the US 'decider'.
In John Bolton's soon to be released book 'Surrender is Not An Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad', one can see the extent to which the USA is pushing towards gaining control of all global relations. By explaining how President Bush specifically asked Ban Ki-Moon, the incoming UN Secretary-General to "get rid of (Lord) Malloch-Brown" as the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, Bolton depicts perfectly the inadequacy of the UN as an impartial global regulatory body. Lord Malloch-Brown was accused of being anti-American, after he created friction in July by suggesting that Britain should distance itself from the United States.
Despite this, European governments continue to promote the impartiality of the United Nations and its strengths, while the people on the street continue to accept it. Through the UN, Europe is able to give indirect support to America's wars for the globalization of democracy, get a stake in the game and have the benefit of being protected by the United States Army. However, we may be reaching a turning point in the relationships between European governments and America's global quest.
It is important for European people to remain respectful of American people. But at this juncture in human history, we as Europeans can no longer afford to be the unconditional allies of America's global adventures.
The world's current political arena resembles a playground in a school. America moves around the globe like the big bully, Europe just nods to everything the bully does, laughing at his jokes, while the most bullied kids in the class are currently the Muslim people. At one point the European people must realize that by being friends with the bully, they are going to end up without any other friends.
So as America's situation gets grimmer in Iraq and at home - in Iraq, having to implement a diplomatic draft for its new 6000-post embassy in Baghdad, and at home with tens of thousands of people demonstrating against the war, in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle; Europeans should begin to question the ways of America's globalization.
Long-time activists like Michael Dixon, who in the late 1960s formed the Seattle branch of the Black Panthers, have come out to the streets of America to say; "Young people are the force that can stop this… What you do or don't do will determine the future of the United States". Veteran investors, like Jim Rogers who predicted the 1999 commodities rally, are moving out of America by switching their investments to Chinese yuan, Japanese yen and Swiss francs, and are acknowledging that the US economy is in recession and that "many parts of industry are actually in a state worse than recession". European people should begin to reject their governments' support for America's foreign policy. The United States is behaving like all empires have behaved just before falling.
In his new book, John Bolton writes: “Many Brits believed that their role in life was to play Athens to America’s Rome, lending us the benefit of their superior suaveness, and smoothing off our regrettable colonial rough edges.” This statement from a former US ambassador to the United Nations exemplifies the way this world is being governed. I hope that European people can see this, and avoid becoming once again the support platform from which the US can launch an attack, this time on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Pablo Ouziel is an activist and a freelance writer based in Spain. His work has appeared in many progressive media including Znet, Palestine Chronicle, Thomas Paine’s Corner and Atlantic Free Press.