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A NAFTA of the Willing
For more than 50 years, the U.S. State Department has encouraged all European nations
to work towards an integrated European Union with both an economic and political structure. It was understood that
the EU would be dominated by the economic might of Germany and the intellectual sophistication of France, at least
that was the Franco-German version. Their inspiration was a vision of a European superpower able to rival the United
States and act as a permanent counterweight to American hegemony.
Two things happened on the way to fulfilling their dream. First, managing EU economies by Euro-left standards failed
to produce growth. Second, no supra-national entity replaced the nation-state, only a series of alternative forums
- UN, NATO, EU- exploited by competing national interests - particularly the interests of France.
With an aging native citizenry and an unassimilated immigrant population, European leftists increased government
spending to roughly half of GDP. The U.S. federal government is about 30 percent. Over the last 20 years, the US
had an average annual economic growth rate of 3.6 percent. Europe's annual rate dropped to 1.7 percent, over that
same time period, European unemployment has been 50 percent higher than the United States. Productivity of the
regulation-bound European work force is about 83 percent of the US work force.
The Brussels, French and German government elites created three more impediments to growth. First, they regulated
labor markets according to union wishes. This created a situation where employers refused to expand or moved elsewhere
rather than hire when they couldn't fire. Second, they wrote rules that prohibited EU members from running deficits
during recessions. Finally, they produced a rigid take-it-or-leave-it interest rate that was the same for countries
with inflation or recession.
Relying on the military protection of the United States, EU nations put about one percent of GDP into their military
which they defined as having only a domestic and defensive purpose. They could do this because for decades American
taxpayers put troops on the ground which prevented a local hostile German military buildup and also provided a
ready force with nuclear capabilities aimed at what was then the USSR.
Finally, the elites provided jobs for un-elected technocrats writing out-of-touch regulations. In January, for
example, British hog farmers were put on notice by Brussels that they were subject to three months in jail and
a fine of a thousand pounds if they failed to provide "manipulable material in an environmental enrichment
program." It seems that in Brussels they had published a report called "The Welfare of Intensively Kept
Pigs." It dealt with things related to piggy mental health - namely that bored swine tend to chew on each
other's tails. To relieve that problem, Brussels, through the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, issued a regulation which required furnishing footballs and basketballs for the pigs to play with in their
pens and mandated changing the balls frequently so that the pigs did not get tired of the same ones.
With the collapse of the USSR a few years ago, the EU fancied enlargement. However the Franco-German bloc needed
to act quickly. In an expanded EU, they would only account for 58 of 321 votes in the key Council of Ministers.
How could they dominate indefinitely? They recently proposed to ignite and then exploit anti-American feelings
in order to pre-empt the decision-making of the Common European Foreign Policy. The bloc, with its two vassal states
Belgium and Luxemburg, called for the European Union to have two presidents. One presidency would rotate among
the members and one would always be either French or German. Furthermore, they leaked a plan for dual Franco-German
citizenship with a possible federal union to follow. But fate intruded.
Along comes Iraq. Along comes the rest of Europe writing a letter to the Wall Street Journal. Along comes the Vilnius
Ten. And along comes Donald Rumsfeld and his cogent crack about old Europe and shifting centers of gravity. "Old
Europe" is not geography; it is a state of mind. Would young and ambitious entrepreneurs looking to make their
mark in the world choose Berlin or Warsaw? Prague or Paris?
As the German economy slips into recession and French diplomacy ruins the Ivory Coast, Chirac and Schroeder unilaterally
sabotage both NATO and the UN. Their proposal? Once he sees that he is surrounded by America and its allies, Saddam
should give up his dictatorship to a UN occupying force. For 15 NATO members and Turkey, the message is "I've
got your back but not today." We know when you are in danger better than you do.
After Iraq has been liberated, the bill for France and Germany will come due. First, the new regime and thus the
world will find the facts about on-going Franco-German support of Saddam during the supposed UN sanctions. The
trail looks something like this: Businesses sell sanction-restricted items to Saddam at wildly inflated prices.
Some of the profits wind up in donations to or support of certain politicians. .Second, the mindless mantra for
European integration will cease and alternatives to a French-lead EU may be up for debate.
A movement for a NAFTA of the Atlantic, which supporters have called TAFTA (Transatlantic Free Trade Area), may
suddenly look worthy of consideration. Such an organization would back free trade and the free movement of capital
throughout Europe and across the Atlantic. It would parallel NATO on the economic front without requiring members
to subsidize French farmers, carry the load of excessive regulation, operate under unrealistic economic rules or
take a back seat in a faltering super state run by someone else.
In London, with its centuries of global trade experience built around the pound sterling, a new center of gravity
could be created. A politically stable Atlantic civilization, including Eastern and Southern Europe, could flourish
under freedom.
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