Is it any wonder that some people in the West actually believe that America is a greater threat to peace? We say we will defend ourselves. Which is scary to those who want to take the month of August off from work and not think about the barbarians in the woods. But let those barbarians say some soothing words and the soft Westerners heave a sigh of relief and head off to holiday. And when we point out that the soft words are not matched by soft actions, we are at fault for spoiling the holiday. We are at fault because without our reality check they could have enjoyed their holiday in peace--blissfuly unaware of the danger that closed in on them while they slumbered. The Europeans blame us because the Iranians would be glad to say whatever soothing words the Europeans want to hear to extend their holiday of ignorance just a little longer. That is pretty sophisticated, eh?
And Strategypage doesn't make me feel any better with this:
The European Union is offering economic bribes if the Iranians will convincingly pretend that they have stopped developing nuclear weapons.
Wow. In an ordinary run-of-the-mill weenie foreign policy, the Europeans would have simply convinced incredulous Iranian mullahs that all would be well with their nuclear ambitions if the mullahs just said the right words so Europe could look away comforted in their sophistication.
But no, in their sophisticated ultra-weenie foreign policy, the Europeans have succeeded in letting the Iranians know that the EU is so desperate to hear those comforting words that the mullahs can extract concessions from Europe as the price to lull the Europeans into their long holiday slumber once again.
Is that amazing or what? The Europeans are actually bribing the Iranians to lie to them! Because without such bribes, the Iranians are likely to revert to form, claim nukes as their right, and proclaim loudly that they'll use those nukes just as soon as they get them! Can't have that now, can we? It would ruin a perfectly good peace conference.
Besides, if anything goes wrong those crude, selfish Americans with their revolting notions of power can save them all again, right?
Ah, the incredible lightness of being the EU.
