8 European Leaders Call for Unity with U.S. on Iraq

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20030130_231.html

Apparently which way Norway will go will depend a lot on the result of this "simulation".

 

8 leaders

José María Aznar, Spain
José Manuel Durão Barroso, Portugal
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy
Tony Blair, United Kingdom
Václav Havel, Czech Republic
Peter Medgyessy, Hungary
Leszek Miller, Poland
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark


That's actually a great article. I hope that when the UN inspectors have finished their job our European allies will back us no matter what the results of those inspections are.

 

I thought he played for the Maple Leafs

 

Let's see:

USA
Great Britain
Australia
New Zealand
Italy
Spain
Holland
Romania
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Poland
Israel
Kuwait
Jordan
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Qatar
Bahrain
Portugal
Hungary
Denmark

That's the US plus 20 allies, including 12 European countries and 6 Muslim countries (Turkey is both), plus the Aussies, Kiwis, and Israelis.

As somebody (I think Wake-Up Bomb) said, at what point exactly does this become multilateral??


Alex

 

Scottish troops to lead charge into Iraq

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/paperboy.cfm?id=1406062002

FREEDOM!!!!

The spirit of William Wallace fights with ya, lads.


Alex

 

Re: Scottish troops to lead charge into Iraq

What a great post.

 

Ooh, Metro! This is a great man we're talking about:

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/36022

And no other world leader has his taste in music:

http://www.praguepost.cz/news051000h.html

http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_courrier_zappa.html - scroll down to read about President Havel's idea of who should be the US trade representative

 

Albania and Slovakia weigh in...

http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V9118.AP-The-New-Europe.html

Meanwhile, the Irish are upset about the letter...but not for the reasons you might think...

http://www.atlanticblog.com/archives/000533.html#000533

Are we multilateral yet?

 

Re: Scottish troops to lead charge into Iraq

I doubt whether Wallace would have approved of Scots fighting for a London-based Government.

 

Further to this story:

According to The (London) Times, the Dutch PM - who has supported the US/UK stance - refused to sign the article because he thought it would cause disunity within the EU. Credit to him for having some foresight.

Also, apparently France and Germany were refused the opportunity to sign the letter. If you read the letter, it doesn't support the unilateral (ie without UN) use of force. This would have been consistent with the Franco/German line. Of course, the letter would have carried less weight with the media if France and Germany had been allowed to sign it.

re: unilateral/multilateral debate.

Any action taken by principally the US without specific UN approval would be unilateral, or perhaps bilateral with UK support. It wouldn't be multilateral as no more than 2 countries would either have specifically voted for the action or contributed to the action.

If, on the other hand, the UN approves the action, it would be multilateral. This is because a significant number of countries (including the P5) would at least have not opposed (abstained) the action.

 

It seems most European countries are taking the US position. I hope France consults with her neighbors and stops acting arrogantly and unilaterally.

 

There are 50 or so nations in Europe. 8 are siding with the U.S. That's 16%.

 

Soccer Rules!!

I noticed that the top three European leagues (EPL, La Liga, and Serie A), based on Champs League performance, will join us in an Iraqi war. Ya hear that, Bundes?

Ole'

But where's the CONCACAF support? It's not a multilateral effort until Honduras sends troops.

 

Re: Soccer Rules!!

They're still recovering from the asskicking the Salvadorenos gave them in the Soccer War.

 

Re: Re: Scottish troops to lead charge into Iraq

True, but he would have approved of Scotsmen taking the lead in fighting tyranny.


Alex

 

Re: Re: Re: Scottish troops to lead charge into Iraq

You may be getting Wallace confused with Mel Gibson.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Scottish troops to lead charge into Iraq

They're not the same guy?


Alex

 

Re: Re: Soccer Rules!!

I thought that was Maradona in '86 returning the favor done by Thatcher in the Falklands.

 

Thats still more than the countries supporting the arrogant French.

 

Re: Re: Re: Scottish troops to lead charge into Iraq

I don't see why you lot are making a big deal of this. It's not like the Scottish are seperate to the British Army.

 

> Thats still more than the countries supporting the arrogant French.

We aren't in some contest with the French. The point is that all of Europe used to be on our side in most things. After the Sept. 11 attacks, we had even greater support. Now it is clear Bush the Younger has done a terrible job keeping the hearts and minds of other nations on our side. The fact that we still have the support of eight isn't good news - it is bad.

 

While I'm not in favor of attacking Iraq, a talking head on MSNBC last night had a great line about the French. He said, "Going into war without the French is like going into war without an accordian. You're just leaving noisy useless baggage behind."

Murf

 

Well, to tell the truth you could count Spain out, since here 75% of the population is against the war. Since our president isn't going to election anymore, he feels he can do whatever he wants, but the fact is that Spain is the european country where less percentage of people supports the war, even less than in France or Germany.
Just informing you.

 

Heresy. I'll have to downgrade La Liga to equal with Bundesliga and le Championat.

Real Madrid - feh!