Germany has been America's preferred European ally for a very long time. Even during the War, Washington could not wait to resume normal service, and duly did so as soon as possible. White Americans are more German than anything else, whereas there has been very little migration to America from this side both of the North Sea and of the Irish Sea since before Independence.
The House of Representatives once came within one vote of making German the only official language of the United States, and numerous expressions in American English are verbatim translations from German, while numerous features of American culture more broadly, such as the fixation with precise adherence to rules, are also of German origin. Until 1917, there were many German or Austrian place names in America; before then, anywhere now called Liberty was probably called Berlin, or Vienna, or something like that.
So it is no wonder that the Statement of Principles of the Henry Jackson Society calls explicitly for a single EU defence "capability" under overall American command but day-to-day German control, European federalism, centred on Germany, having been a key American aim since the Forties.
But the German electorate has never been all that happy with the whole thing, and is now very opposed indeed. Germany may well leave the euro soon, as was always going to happen eventually, and as was always going to be the end of economic and monetary union when it happened. There can be no political union without economic and monetary union, any more than vice versa.
And there can certainly be no more single EU defence "capability" under overall American command but day-to-day German control. Too bad for Colonel Tim Collins, with his campaign for that "capability" to include the abolition of the RAF. And too bad for Liam Fox and his "Special Adviser" (CIA handler) Luke Coffey, who are plotting for it to include the abolition of all three of the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, leaving only something along the lines of the Israeli Defence Force, or the United States Marine Corps but without the elite status or the other Armed Services.
Still, we do not need to worry all that much about the MoD. Apart from the Lib Dem Eurosceptic Nick Harvey, I do not know about Peter Luff, but Gerald Howarth is late of the European Arab Bank, Andrew Robathan has been on his travels courtesy of CMEC (Nicholas Soames, Hugo Swire, Crispin Blunt, Alan Duncan, Commons receptions to celebrate Norouz, you get the idea), and Lord Astor is actually CMEC's Vice-Chairman. No wonder that Fox feels the need for Coffey to keep him company. Cameron has effectively given him a team of warders.
Swire, Blunt and Duncan are also Ministers, and could perfectly easily be bumped up to join Ken Clarke and Andrew Lansley in the Cabinet, as could Howarth, or Robathan, or whoever. Liam Fox is far from irreplaceable, and appears to have been set up for a fall, taking the neocon entryist tendency down with him. We live in hope.
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Doing their dirty work for them again.
ReplyDeleteTruly a fixture a university with five Masters scholarships for graduates of Birzeit, a very special financial relationship with the UAE, a "Memorandum of Understanding" with Iran, and an MI6 recruiter on the staff of every college and department.
Your old college hosts Palestine Solidarity Conferences as official college events, with persistent emails to students trying to bully them into attending, including the Jewish ones. But then you knew that already.
The Durham Palestine Educational Trust's scholarships are no longer restricted to Birzeit, but are now open to "outstanding graduates of all Palestinian universities".
ReplyDeleteI second that, Anonymous. But unfortunately Lindsay is right. The Arabist aristos have every ministerial job at the MOD apart from the top one and several more in other departments. They control the FO completely because Hague so desperately wants to be one. Cameron is one. They can't believe their luck with Fox's choice of Spad. The knives are out for him and over some glass of Pimms in this sunny post-exam period Lindsay has obviously been asked/authorised to say so.
ReplyDeleteThe only "authorisation" of anything on here comes from David Lindsay.
ReplyDeleteAny joy on taking away charitable status of HJS? Assume Statement lodged with Charity Commission not schoolboy edit on website.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Nick Harvey married to a university contemporary of yours? No wonder you are pushing for him for Defence Secretary.
ReplyDeleteN, one can only do so much, especially when not in the best of health. In any case, it hardly seems worth bothering now. The list of signatories is wildly out of date in how it styles numerous people, even assuming that they would all still wish to be included. Michael Ancram is the most obvious example. Perhaps that is why, like the anti-war Douglas Hogg, he was given no peerage?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, she graduated in the summer and I arrived in the autumn. But yes, we have mutual friends. I have met her a few times, and him once. So what? Defence is not a Cabinet spot that the Tories would ever give to the Lib Dems. However, like Simon Hughes and a couple of others, he should be a key figure in the shift to Euroscepticism among Lib Dem MPs and activists during this Parliament.
Obama's America is not funding the HJS, so that only leaves one possibility. No wonder Trimble has been appointed to their internal "inquiry" into the flotilla.
ReplyDeleteHelping you own country against foreign domination is not "dirty work". Promoting rule by a foreign state that steals our citizens' identities and fires on them on the high seas, now that is dirty work. So is lying this country into one war and trying to lie it into another one.
ReplyDelete"one war"?
ReplyDeleteThe 57 varieties of premise for the war in Afghanistan all have been and are totally false, too.
"another one"?
If you mean Iran, then it wouldn't stop there. Not by a very, very, very long way.
"The Durham Palestine Educational Trust" lists Patrons including the Vice-Chancellor, the former Vice-Chancellor and the former Astronomer Royal. No wonder you fit in so well at Durham. Funded by the Al-Qasimis, in some sort of treaty relationship with Iran and its great and good Patrons of an "Educational Trust" for somewhere called "Palestine".
ReplyDeleteTake away charitable status? Why not prosecute them for treason? Notice how they don't bother trying to deny that the statement on their site is not the real one which says what you say it does.
ReplyDeleteScoop, as followers of Leo Strauss they believe it is their duty to lie to us simple people. Makes you wonder how the original Statement was ever made public. Bet the list of signatories was never complete, there have always been some glaring omissions. Liam Fox for one.
ReplyDeleteIt is now no more worth prosecuting them than worth trying to take away their charitable status. They are already on the way down and on the way out. Cameron has played them brilliantly. Within that, Hague's social climbing has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
ReplyDeleteHague has been extremely close to Alan Duncan since they were at Oxford together. Duncan has a picture of Yasser Arafat in his office and used to have it on his website. This is the man that Hague made his PPS and Party Vice-Chairman and IDS made Shadow Spokesman with special responsibility for the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteToday Hague is Foreign Secretary, IDS is also in the Cabinet, so are the anti-war Clarke and Lansley, and Duncan has been made a Privy Counsellor as the customary sign that he will be in at the next reshuffle. But Liam Fox is surrounded by anti-Atlanticist, anti-Zionist toffs. Seems clear what Cameron really is.
This Government's domestic policy will be, and already is, mostly ghastly. But its foreign policy might not be all that bad. To say the least.
ReplyDelete