ZGram - 4/19/2003 - "Ledeen: What if there's method to the Franco-German madness?"

zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Sat Apr 19 18:49:41 EDT 2003


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

April 19, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

An absolutely extraordinary article! 

Shortly before Ernst Zundel was arrested on February 5, we were 
sitting peacefully at breakfast,  sipping our German coffee, admiring 
not only each other but the splendidly sun-drenched morning outside - 
when, all of a sudden and out of the blue, Ernst outlined for me in 
clipped words exactly the scenario sketched below. 

I was so startled that I said to myself:  "Well, since we are 
married, am I permitted to think that maybe, just maybe, my husband 
is a little off his rocker?  Who would think of Europe as a threat? 
Who would be so foolish as to put 'Old Europe' in the cross-hairs as 
an 'enemy'?  Surely not America!"

Talk about clairvoyance! 

[START}

A Theory:  What if there's method to the Franco-German madness?

Micheal Ledeen

Assume, for a moment, that the French and the Germans aren't 
thwarting us out of pique, but by design, long-term design. Then look 
at the world again, and see if there's evidence of such a design.

Like everyone else, the French and the Germans saw that the defeat of 
the Soviet Empire projected the United States into the rare, almost 
unique position of a global hyperpower, a country so strong in every 
measurable element that no other nation could possibly resist its 
will. The "new Europe" had been designed to carve out a limited 
autonomy for the old continent, a balance-point between the Americans 
and the Soviets. But once the Soviets were gone, and the Red Army 
melted down, the European Union was reduced to a combination theme 
park and free-trade zone. Some foolish American professors and 
doltish politicians might say - and even believe - that henceforth 
"power" would be defined in economic terms, and that military power 
would no longer count. But cynical Europeans know better.

They dreaded the establishment of an American empire, and they sought 
for a way to bring it down.

If you were the French president or the German chancellor, you might 
well have done the same.

How could it be done? No military operation could possibly defeat the 
United States, and no direct economic challenge could hope to 
succeed. That left politics and culture. And here there was a chance 
to turn America's vaunted openness at home and toleration abroad 
against the United States. So the French and the Germans struck a 
deal with radical Islam and with radical Arabs: You go after the 
United States, and we'll do everything we can to protect you, and we 
will do everything we can to weaken the Americans.

The Franco-German strategy was based on using Arab and Islamic 
extremism and terrorism as the weapon of choice, and the United 
Nations as the straitjacket for blocking a decisive response from the 
United States.

This required considerable skill, and total cynicism, both of which 
were in abundant supply in Paris and Berlin. Chancellor Shroeder 
gained reelection by warning of American warmongering, even though, 
as usual, America had been attacked first. And both Shroeder and 
Chirac went to great lengths to support Islamic institutions in their 
countries, even when - as in the French case - it was in open 
violation of the national constitution. French law stipulates a total 
separation of church and state, yet the French Government openly 
funds Islamic "study" centers, mosques, and welfare organizations. A 
couple of months ago, Chirac approved the creation of an Islamic 
political body, a mini-parliament, that would provide Muslims living 
in France with official stature and enhanced political clout. And 
both countries have permitted the Saudis to build thousands of 
radical Wahhabi mosques and schools, where the hatred of the infidels 
is instilled in generation after generation of young Sunnis. It is 
perhaps no accident that Chirac went to Algeria last week and 
promised a cheering crowd that he would not rest until America's 
grand design had been defeated.

Both countries have been totally deaf to suggestions that the West 
take stern measures against the tyrannical terrorist sponsors in 
Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. Instead, they do 
everything in their power to undermine American-sponsored trade 
embargoes or more limited sanctions, and it is an open secret that 
they have been supplying Saddam with military technology through the 
corrupt ports of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid's little playground in 
Dubai, often through Iranian middlemen.

It sounds fanciful, to be sure. But the smartest people I know have 
been thoroughly astonished at recent French and German behavior. This 
theory may help understand what's going on. I now believe that I was 
wrong to forecast that the French would join the war against Iraq at 
the last minute, having gained every possible economic advantage in 
the meantime. I think Chirac will oppose us before, during, and after 
the war, because he has cast his lot with radical Islam and with the 
Arab extremists. He isn't doing it just for the money - although I 
have no doubt that France is being richly rewarded for defending 
Saddam against the civilized countries of the world - but for higher 
stakes. He's fighting to end the feared American domination before it 
takes stable shape.

If this is correct, we will have to pursue the war against terror far 
beyond the boundaries of the Middle East, into the heart of Western 
Europe. And there, as in the Middle East, our greatest weapons are 
political: the demonstrated desire for freedom of the peoples of the 
countries that oppose us.

Radio Free France, anyone?

=====

- Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the 
author of The War Against the Terror Masters. Ledeen, Resident 
Scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, 
can be reached through Benador Associates

=====
      

Michael A. Ledeen

   Dr. Michael A. Ledeen, who holds the Freedom Chair at the American 
Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's 
leading authorities on intelligence, contemporary history and 
international affairs. In a few years in government, he carried out 
some of the most sensitive and dangerous missions in recent American 
history. He has been profiled in the New York Times, and was the 
subject of a front-page article and a lead editorial in the Wall 
Street Journal. A profile of him concluded that "a portrait emerges 
of a man with an intense knowledge of 20th-century history, a deep 
commitment to democracy, and a willingness to be adventurous. This is 
a man who has helped shape American foreign policy at its highest 
levels."

As Ted Koppel puts it, "Michael Ledeen is a Renaissance man...in the 
tradition of Machiavelli."

Formerly Rome correspondent for the New Republic, the founding editor 
of the Washington Quarterly, and Contributing Editor of National 
Review Online, he is a regular contributor to the Wall Street 
Journal, The International Economy, the American Spectator, the New 
York Sun, and National Review, an adviser to multinational 
corporations in Europe, Africa and the United States, and a corporate 
director in America and Africa. He also writes about contract bridge 
for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Sun.

Dr. Ledeen is a celebrated scholar and lecturer. He holds a Ph.D. in 
History and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, and has been 
the recipient of many awards and research grants. His 15 books 
include Grave New World, which predicted the crisis of the Soviet 
Empire five years before it occurred, Machiavelli on Modern 
Leadership, (1999, St. Martin's Press), Tocqueville on American 
Character; Why Tocqueville's Brilliant Exploration of the American 
Spirit is as Vital and Important Today as it was nearly Two Hundred 
Years Ago (St. Martin's Press, 2000) and, most recently, his highly 
successful The War Against the Terror Masters; How it Happened. Where 
We Are Now. How We Will Win (St. Martin's Press, 2002). He is 
currently writing a book on Naples, Italy.

His essays and books have been reprinted in dozens of languages 
around the world. Dr. Ledeen lectures on War & Peace, Terrorism, the 
Middle East, and American Foreign Policy.






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