What exactly is Europe’s problem?
Don’t the countries on the continent recognize that the mullocracy in Iran presents a crisis—an existential one, in fact—to their societies?
Apparently not.
Senior fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Sophia Besch contends that NATO requires no backing of “a war of choice,” the term of non-endearment used by opponents of the current US-Israel military campaign.
She bemoans the fact that an Iranian drone hit a UK Royal Air Force base in Cyprus, prompting coordinated European deployments, and that NATO had to intercept missiles over Turkey. And she warns that higher prices and mounting migration pressures risk fueling political instability across the continent.
Italian political scientist Nathalie Tocci adds her “giusto!” regarding the conflict, hailing most European governments’ opposition to further prosecution of the war.
Italy, she proudly notes, has denied US warplanes permission to use an airbase in Sicily.
Poland has refused to send Patriot air defense systems to the Middle East. France has rejected overflight rights and opposed a US-sponsored resolution at the UN Security Council condemning Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and calling for its reopening by military means. Spain imposed an early ban on the use of jointly operated Spanish-US bases for operations linked to the war.
And European populations largely agree. A recent study by multinational research firm Ipsos found that nearly eight in ten French respondents to a poll fear an escalation of the conflict beyond the Middle East, while more than three in ten Italians share the same concerns.
Four in ten Dutch respondents, moreover, consider the attacks on Iran to be a bad thing, compared with a mere 21% who view them positively.
President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to deploy an aircraft carrier and war frigates to the region is supported by less than half of French respondents. And half of Frenchies surveyed say they oppose it, fearing that the move might draw France into the conflict.
In Italy, 34% of respondents call for neutrality, while a mere 13% of respondents claim the country should provide even diplomatic support to the US and Israel. Supporters of military involvement? 2%.
A non-skittish and perceptive approach to the current geopolitical moment, however, was voiced by Mathias Döpfner, the respected CEO of the European digital publishing and media company Axel Springer, headquartered in Berlin.
In Politico, one of Axel Springer’s media, he calls the common European commentators’ “This is not our war” bromide “a view as wrong as it is strategically unwise.”
“Of course it is our war,” he explains, “more our war than America’s.”
Why? He’s both blunt and brave. “The infiltration of European societies by Islamist networks,” he writes, referencing the danger that Islamism, which Iran promotes, poses to his continent, “is further advanced and more acute here than in America.”
He also contends that “solidarity with Israel, whose very existence is under threat, ought to be far stronger in Germany than in the United States.”
Bucking the anti-American cant of so many of his fellow journalists, Mr. Döpfner notes that “the Americans are once again pulling Europe’s chestnuts out of the fire” and advises that “Europe shouldn’t stab the American government in the back” as it pursues its goals in Iran.
“If we have to cope in the future on our own,” he contends, “with both the fight against the Islamism directed from Tehran and the imperial aggression emanating from Moscow, Europe will be overwhelmed.”
At this writing, talks about a permanent resolution to the problem that is the mullocracy in Iran have yielded no agreement. The Iranian regime—or whoever is claiming to represent it—has refused the US demand to open the Strait of Hormuz and relinquish some 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium.
May Hashem harden the hearts of both the mullahs and our government to stick to their demands and refusals. That will lay the ground for whatever further actions may be needed to assist the Iranian populace in overthrowing the current regime and returning the country to a civilized state.
Anything less will only “mow the grass,” as Israeli officials refer to the degrading of enemies, leaving noxious weeds to emerge anew.
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