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After President Trump left the deal Europe renewed sanctions on Iran. Europe is ignored now by Iran and Trump. British, German and French leaders are divided by the unprovoked US-Israeli attack on Iran.
British ministers said little, obviously on legal advice that the Israeli attack could not be justified as an act of self-defence under the UN charter. President Macron said it was illegal but Herr Merz said: “This is the dirty work that Israel is doing, for all of us.”
The attacks by Israel and the US were as illegal as Russia's on Ukraine but nobody takes seriously the rules based international order.
Frau Ursula von der Leyen berates Russia for war crimes but supports what the IDF is doing in Gaza.
Europe has no moral authority in the world.
It does however have two imaginary enemies with which to justify increasing restrictions on democracy and freedom at home: Russia and populists.
The European project, originally an American idea, has failed to revitalise the continent which in living memory ruled the world. It has, on balance, done the opposite.
It is richer than ever before but is falling behind other countries and unable to defend itself from a non-existent threat from Russia.
Europe, as Neagu Djuvara said to me, has lost its intestinal or testicular fortitude.
I saw within minutes when I visited America recently that America has not.
Meanwhile the welfare states that Europe created to fend off Communism now seem impossible to maintain. With sadness and great reluctance I have to say that the American low tax model in the end has won and welfare states cannot survive indefinitely.
Does Western Christian civilisation have a chance?
I honestly doubt it very much.
In Eastern Europe or the USA, Argentina or post communist Cuba?
That leads us to the crisis in the Catholic Church.
In Eastern Europe or the USA, Argentina or post communist Cuba?
That leads us to the crisis in the Catholic Church.
I agree strongly. The "rules based order" was always an illusion and the EU was always a house built on sand. It did not necessarily have to be this way. Most people are unaware of how comprehensively the USA undermined its own allies in WWII and in its aftermath in order to take over global leadership. The problem is that America has been unable to maintain that leadership because it keeps switching between masculine and feminine values. At the moment masculine values prevail - as you say, testicular fortitude - but for now long? At least America still has the potential for occasional TF. I fear that is no longer the case with Britain or Europe.
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