Sir, - Any American paying attention to the British and Irish press must often wonder why we even bother.
From our treatment of the terrorist prisoners in Cuba to our"tendency towards unilateralism", it seems we just can't live up toEurope's high moral standards. But then it would be difficult to comeacross a discussion of American foreign policy in these parts whichdoesn't work from the assumption of American guilt.
Take, for just one example, the recent speech in Dublin by ChrisPatten, the EU Commissioner for external relations ("US should not getfenced in by advancing isolationism", The Irish Times, February 22nd).He purports to demonstrate that the US, under President Bush, iswithdrawing from multilateral cooperation into an isolationism"indifferent" to the fate of other countries.
His evidence? US withdrawal from a handful of internationalnegotiations and such "unilateral" action as "telling Europeancountries that they will be penalised if they are so unwise as to tradewith . . .Cuba on terms which have not been approved by US law makers".Ah, yes, another EU official standing up for the moral right ofEuropean businessmen to do business with stolen property.
As for the negotiations, here Patten hews predictably to thestandard technique of ignoring the substantive reasons behind theselective withdrawals. Don't, for instance, mention that the EUeffectively put paid to the US signing up to the Landmine Treaty bysaying "no deal" to the American need for a once-off time-limitedexemption - to ensure against North Korean adventurism. Don't mentionthat, once the US had withdrawn from the implementation conference forthe Kyoto agreement, the EU - in order to keep other countries likeJapan on board - agreed all the concessions which the US had requested.And, above all, don't mention the hundreds of negotiations andinternational organisations in which the US remains fully engaged.
So what's really at play here? American isolationism or Europeanposturing? Genuine European-American cooperation cuts both ways andrequires a good-faith effort to take on board legitimate Americanconcerns - as Frank Aiken did in guiding the negotiations of theNon-Proliferation Treaty.
And what evidence actually exists for the US, going it alone? TheGulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan? Where has the US not consultedand not sought allies?
No, this is really all about those who aren't willing to pay theprice of pulling their own weight militarily affecting alarm atAmerican plain speaking (how "naïve" and "simplistic" these Americansare, they cry) and at the American willingness to step up and takeresponsibility.
Americans are used to this sort of carping disdain from Europeansocialists but it seems that something sinister affects even otherwisesensible people when they speak at the supra-national level of the EU.The bottom line is that certain rights accrue to those who acceptresponsibility and one of these is the right to disregard advice fromthose who are talking merely to justify their own gutlessness.
All of which brings us back to the treatment of the prisoners inCuba. Here, we have your reporter Elaine Lafferty ("Why America isstill unable to forgive," February 19th) explaining the supposedlydiffering views between Europeans and Americans on this issue byreminding us that "Americans are isolationist, ignorant blood-thirstymaniacs".
This comment passed without remark anywhere in the rest of the Irishmedia - can you imagine the reaction here if an American journalistdescribed the Irish in like terms? But, then, if it's true aboutAmericans, it must be true about the Irish as well because, as thepolls have consistently shown, from two-thirds to over 90 per cent ofthe Irish (and English) just like Americans, feel that the conditionsin Guantanamo Bay are just fine.
People do tend to be sensible. The truth, of course, is that the"controversy" over the prisoners has been as bogus as the accusationsof American unilateralism, largely fuelled rhetorically by thosepoliticians who have never met a terrorist they couldn't find an excusefor.
The actual response of the governments and peoples of Europe to theimages of the prisoners under guard in Guantanamo has been relief andgratitude - relief that these suicidally dangerous terrorists have beentaken out of action and gratitude to the US for having done so. -Yours, etc.,
G T DEMPSEY,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.