Posted by Dan Ewert : 9/08/2002 03:50:00 PM (Archive Link)
The EU makes much of their supposed highmindedness in respect to international affairs. They consider their diplomatic talking approach to be more enlightened than America’s somewhat more action-oriented thinking. However, I find the European method troubling on both a conceptual level and a practical level.

For the conceptual part, let’s face a fact… humans can be brutal. We kill, we steal, we war, we torture, we lust, we envy, we hate, etc., etc. The world has seen greater and lesser degrees of such base behavior over time and even in the Pax Americana era, people in many countries suffer from it daily. Those who don’t extensively experience it, surly know of it in isolated, non-destabilizing instances, e.g. a woman getting her purse stolen in Cedar Rapids. The point, though, is that at his base, man is…well… a base animal. It’s the primal, conscienceless thoughts that will always be a part of humanity and cannot be exorcised. The Europeans, however, have a notion that this isn’t the case. They feel that educational enlightenment and a high standard of living will prevent people or nations from taking up arms, from being in any way belligerent, and from exhibiting the aforementioned behaviors. For them, a global utopia is possible. This is absurd. You cannot eliminate baseness and violence from humanity any more than you can remove speech, art, or religion… they are all basic components of the human personality and identity. Nor can baseness and violence be controlled. Remember that we are talking about the dark side of humanity. It’s been said that if you dance with the devil, then you’re certainly not the leading partner. While the highminded elite may think they are controlling the base, the reality is the reverse… the base is controlling the elite because the base is manipulative and crafty by nature while the elite has grown ignorant of that which they oppose. The base sets the rules of the game and the rest are forced to play in it.

The practical level very much springs from the conceptual. We must remember that the belligerents of the world (the base) understand both their oppositions’ (the elite’s) strengths and weaknesses, while the same cannot be said of the elite’s understanding of the belligerents. They know the elite’s desire to talk things out and they also know of the elite’s fear of violent conflict… an unfortunate combination. As such, the belligerents will use the elite’s behavior against itself. If the elite complains to the belligerent about an action they are undertaking, then the belligerent will speak to assuage the elite, but speaking is all they will do. They will not fear the elite as the elite has no military will. If the mean-spirited child knows they will receive no more than a verbal scolding from an adult, then why stop mean-spirited action? The belligerents are men of action and such individuals only respect and respond to action from others. Anything less is humorous and utterly ineffective.

When all of this is put into practice, it’s obvious why I prefer American diplomacy. Americans are willing to face and accept the fact that there are bad people out there and those bad people are opposed to us. We also recognize that these people do not fear words, but they do fear missiles. The U.S. does not allow the belligerents to set the rules of the game in which it must play… we establish the game itself. As TR said, America speaks softly and carries a big stick. The EU only does the former.