Alliance? What Alliance?

We've gone over this many, many times: John Kerry constantly refers to getting our "allies" involved in the war (that we're going to pull out of).

We respond "except for France and Germany, they all are, already".

And of course, it's really not that important...

A broader European coalition to help out in Iraq? Don't count on it. There isn't much that France and Germany could contribute, beyond some marginal peacekeeping forces, even if they wanted to. And they are likely to remain unwilling to do so even if John Kerry is elected.

But isn't this the key to John Kerry's foreign policy?

Of course it is.

Which is why any conservative that follows this stuff endlessly reiterates - there's no there there.

European militaries are just nothing to write home about

In Bosnia, where the French and Germans did collaborate in the sort of coalition Kerry favors, the United States had to deliver an embarrassing 85 percent of the missile strikes because of the primitive condition of the European air forces.

Why is Europe so weak? The trend began well before the end of the Cold War. Increasingly, Europe opted for the free-rider approach, happy to let American taxpayers shoulder the major share of the burden...A broader European coalition to help out in Iraq? Don’t count on it. There isn’t much that France and Germany could contribute, beyond some marginal peacekeeping forces, even if they wanted to. And they are likely to remain unwilling to do so even if John Kerry is elected.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Mitch at September 21, 2004 05:46 AM | TrackBack