If the United States decides it must go to war with Iran it better not expect much support from Europe, The Washington Times reports:
The United States, in any military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program, can expect even less support from its European allies than it received during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“Europeans have already gone as far as they can as a group in playing hardball with Iran and are on the brink of rethinking their position at this point in time. Any escalation is certainly not in the interest of Europeans; it plays into the hands of extremists on both sides,” said Antonio Missiroli, chief policy analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Center.
He noted that European leaders and diplomats are expressing reservations about the tough line Britain and France have adopted on sanctions.
“Diplomacy has got a long way to run,” said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform in London. “But a few years down the line, we may have a serious trans-Atlantic rift over Iran.”
Clearly, there are several factors at play here. The Europeans evidently want to make sure diplomatic options are exhausted before they will seriously entertain war. They also seem to be looking for some kind of middle ground — and that is subject for debate in itself: can there be a middle ground position when it comes to the provocative, threat-issuing government in Tehran?
But complicating all of this is the Bush administration’s past record. Europeans were not happy about the invasion of Iraq and disputed Washington’s state reasons at the time for going to war. The Bush administration may fudge on the original reasons it gave (but they are on tape and easily accessible to anyone who wants to do a Google search) but the record is clear. For Europeans to go along with an American decision (if it comes) to go to war with Iran would probably require a HIGHER STANDARD to convince them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who discussed the Iran crisis with President Bush at the White House this week, is reported to be concerned that piling pressure on the hard-line regime in Tehran could shatter international unity on the issue.
Merkel is also proving to be one of Europe’s most astute leaders and politicians. Will Washington take note? And should it?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.