Thursday, February 17, 2005

Who owes who?, and for what?

Helle Dale opines on US-EU relations and EU arms sales to china. Doesn't the EU realize that they can only give away the farm ONCE? The fact that all the effective assets in the Iranian Navy and Air Force are Russian, French, and German should not be lost on President Bush as he travels to Europe to mend relations that the Euros made such a huge effort to sabotage.

"Europeans, however, have so far grudgingly agreed to dispatch a small number of trainers to help with the Iraqi police under NATO auspices, though where they will be allowed to conduct their instruction is still uncertain. The French government persists in the absurd opinion that the place cannot be Iraq.

"A far more meaningful gesture of good will would be for the EU to listen to American concerns over China's arms build-up, and to step back from a really
bad decision. Since the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, both the United States and the EU have had arms embargos in place against China (the American far more stringent than the European). It is the EU's plan to lift its embargo by June, according to EU Foreign Affairs High Commissioner Javier Solana.

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