L'Unilateralisme
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In a fit of pique more fitting of an adolescent than a head of state, Chirac lambasted the Eastern European nations that signed a letter siding with the U.S. on Iraq, saying they had "missed a great opportunity to shut up."
He even suggested they might be blocked from joining the EU because they're refusing to toe the Franco-German line of appeasement. But if Chirac guessed the Eastern European nations, long silenced under the iron fist of Soviet control, would be cowed by his Gallic bluster, he was wrong.
"We are not joining the EU so we can sit and shut up," Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda responded to Chirac.
Romanian President Ion Iliescu replied even more tartly: "Such reproaches are totally unjustified, unwise and undemocratic."
They're not alone. Political leaders in many of the 13 countries waiting to join the EU support the U.S. in the Iraq dispute. And they're letting Mons. Chirac know.
Which really gets to the heart of the matter - who'll control the new Europe? France and Germany, humiliated by America's role as the sole remaining superpower, have tried to use the EU to expand their influence beyond their own meager powers.
France, in particular, wants to have it both ways - accusing the U.S. of "l'unilateralisme" and of being a "cowboy," while pursuing its own brand of unilateralism in the EU - trying to forge a nondemocratic socialist superstate based on Franco-German control.
If anything, those heavy-handed attempts at coercing smaller, would-be EU members to go along with their anti-Americanism have won France and Germany little but resentment.
It's pretty clear the new nations on Europe's fringes aren't keen to be pliant members of a stagnant, America-hating bureaucracy.
For them, democracy is a new adventure. They want economic growth and freedom - not the stagnation the French and German models provide. And nations like Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary gratefully recall U.S. support in their struggle against the Soviets. They want the new Europe to have close ties with the U.S.
Sadly, the same can't be said of France and Germany, the "old Europe," as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called them. They've taken great pains to confound U.S. efforts to dismantle Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. In doing so, both nations are guilty of blatant hypocrisy - pursuing lucrative commercial ties with Iraq, while hinting the U.S.' real obsession is oil.
Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder will reap what they sow. The EU's periphery - Eastern Europe, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Denmark and others - don't share their mistrust of America. Sixteen European nations support the U.S. on Iraq. Just three don't.
If war comes, the real loser won't be Iraq. It'll be France and Germany. Their hope of a subservient Europe of weak satellite states dancing to their tune is dead. They're isolated in the middle.
