I don't think I see why NATO and the EU should have to be fully coordinated or whatever... Their goals are quite different (one would think and hope!). I am sure that France wanting the EU to be more of a balancing power Vs NATO and the US carries more weight than Cyprus not being part of NATO! After all, the EU should not strive to be another NATO sending troops here and there, but they should send aid in the form of engineers, teachers, doctors... I guess that is what this sentence has at it's heart anyway: "The United Nations will supply legitimacy; NATO will break the furniture; the European Union will organise a trip to the nearest IKEA and provide development and political support; the Council of Europe will monitor elections; and the World Bank and assorted NGOs will do their thing." Agreed that the fact that Cyprus is viewed as "problematic" is a concern, but then again I don't think the EU should just go along with everything NATO dictates...I mean if Bush decides to bomb another "WMD threat" should the EU not protest? The "Cyprus issue" is not what is causing all this... it is indeed a "clash of world-views" and I think it is important to have another (more sane) world-view out there...
I do not disagree with what you say. The real problem with the above is to let the Cyprus national interest be hijacked by France, or anyone else for that matter, with the mistaken impression in mind that it is Cyprus that has hijacked them and leading them to wherever Cyprus wants.
That is the problem. Let them figure these things out, Stravaraland should try to be out of this. Not be part of this. Because mice get squashed when they dangle in the feet of the elephant. I think.
And this (as well as the cartoon you see above) by way of the Economist
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I don't think I see why NATO and the EU should have to be fully coordinated or whatever... Their goals are quite different (one would think and hope!). I am sure that France wanting the EU to be more of a balancing power Vs NATO and the US carries more weight than Cyprus not being part of NATO! After all, the EU should not strive to be another NATO sending troops here and there, but they should send aid in the form of engineers, teachers, doctors... I guess that is what this sentence has at it's heart anyway: "The United Nations will supply legitimacy; NATO will break the furniture; the European Union will organise a trip to the nearest IKEA and provide development and political support; the Council of Europe will monitor elections; and the World Bank and assorted NGOs will do their thing." Agreed that the fact that Cyprus is viewed as "problematic" is a concern, but then again I don't think the EU should just go along with everything NATO dictates...I mean if Bush decides to bomb another "WMD threat" should the EU not protest? The "Cyprus issue" is not what is causing all this... it is indeed a "clash of world-views" and I think it is important to have another (more sane) world-view out there...
I do not disagree with what you say. The real problem with the above is to let the Cyprus national interest be hijacked by France, or anyone else for that matter, with the mistaken impression in mind that it is Cyprus that has hijacked them and leading them to wherever Cyprus wants.
That is the problem. Let them figure these things out, Stravaraland should try to be out of this. Not be part of this. Because mice get squashed when they dangle in the feet of the elephant. I think.
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