Europe Isolates Franco-German Axis

Many Western media outlets in recent days have focused attention on anti-American street demonstrations in Europe and on French and German opposition to President Bush's policy on Saddam Hussein.

These reports create the impression that Europe does not support the President's ultimatum to the Iraqi tyrant that he must either comply with 12 years of UN Security Council resolutions calling on him to peacefully disarm or he will face a coalition that forcibly disarms him.

The truth is quite the contrary. In the past three weeks, 18 European governments have stepped forward to expressly endorse President Bush in his confrontation with Saddam.

It is not the United States that is isolated from Europe. It is the anti-American leadership of Germany and France that has become isolated in Europe.

French Ingratitude

115,000 U.S. servicemen died in France in World War I.

More than 60,000 U.S. service men were buried in French soil having died liberating France in World War II.

U.S. taxpayers paid $2.7 billion in non-inflation-adjusted Marshall Plan aid to rebuild France after World War II.

At the height of the Cold War, the Washington Post reported, U.S. taxpayers spent about $150 billion per year maintaining troops in Europe to defend against Soviet invasion.

German Ingratitude

407,000 U.S service men died defeating the Nazis and their fascist allies in World War II, liberating Germany from Hitler.

U.S. taxpayers paid $1.4 billion in non-inflation-adjusted Marshall Plan aid to rebuild Germany after World War II.

At the height of the Cold War, the Washington Post reported, U.S. taxpayers spent about $150 billion per year maintaining troops in Europe to defend against Soviet invasion.

"Thanks in large part to American bravery, generosity and far-sightedness, Europe was set free from two forms of tyranny that devastated our continent in the 20th Century: Nazism and Communism.... All of us are bound by Security Council Resolution 1441, which was adopted unanimously.... In doing so we sent a clear, firm and unequivocal message that we would rid the world of the danger posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.... Failure to do so would be nothing less than negligent to our own citizens and to the wider world."

"It is not really responsible behavior. It is not well brought-up behavior. They missed a good opportunity to shut up."

"Our countries understand the dangers posed by tyranny and the special responsibility of democracies to defend our shared values.... [I]t has now become clear that Iraq is in material breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions, including U.N. Resolution 1441, passed unanimously on Nov. 8, 2002. As our governments said on the occasion of the NATO Summit in Prague: ....'In the event of non-compliance with the terms of this resolution, we are prepared to contribute to an international coalition to enforce its provisions and the disarmament of Iraq.'"

"We will not approve any resolution legitimizing a war. That's that.... This debate only diverts attention from the United States' real interests.... Geostrategic and raw-materials interests. Critics are quite right when they demand no war for oil."