Broad Support - So now

Broad Support - So now Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have joined the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the UK, Italy, Denmark, Spain and Portugal in supporting the war on Iraq.

So the score looks like this:

• Supporting War: 18 European nations, plus Kuwait and Oman
• Opposing:France and Germany
• On the fence: Six NATO countries (counting Turkey and Greece) and a bunch of Middle-Eastern countries that'll be on the fence until we're in Baghdad

Given those numbers, I have exactly one question for the New York Times, for the "Peace" movement, and for Ted Kennedy: Who's going it alone, here?

Sure, Robert Scheer calls them "Nations you can guy on E-Bay". But it's much more significant to note that most of them are nations with recent experience with tyranny - and, like the Baltic States, Poland and the Czechs, nations who know who to thank for their own newfound freedom.

Sullivan has a great take on that today.

in a way, the coalition to disarm Saddam is a sign of a changing world. Terrorism tends to threaten societies that value freedom more powerfully than those who don't. Citizens of free societies have more to lose from terror - more civil liberties, more personal freedom of movement and thought. A fatwa on an author is not as keenly felt in countries with a weak tradition of freedom of thought; but in countries like Britain and especially America, threatening free thinkers with death is a horrifying assault on a deeply shared value. Religious terrorism is also particularly anathema to free societies, because it threatens freedom of religion by equating it with violence and intolerance. So I don't think it's surprising that, say, China and Russia are more ambivalent about disarming Saddam than, say, America or Australia. And it's equally unsurprising that the European Eight keenest on ridding the world of Saddam's weaponry are those most sympathetic to an Anglospheric worldview.

As always, the whole thing is worth a read.

Posted by Mitch at February 6, 2003 10:17 AM