Enemies
I don't know how seriously to take Irwin Stelzer, the Sunday-Times ever-optimistic US economics commentator (and I think advisor to Rupert Murdoch) but his latest column is a corker.Aside from implicitly arguing that economic analysts can predict variables as long as they're set by supply and demand ('Nor can we confidently predict the course of oil prices, since these are not set by the forces of supply and demand but by a cartel '), a view not supported by say the forex market, Stelzer makes a remarkable comment about US foreign relations.
He says, in the context of George W Bush's handling of the economy, that he was 'simultaneously fighting a rearguard action against France and other enemies of America at the United Nations'.
So there we have it, a (non-loopy) US right wing commentator now believes that France, and we have to assume Germany and Russia are enemies of the United States. Obviously we've been here with France, but given he must mean Germany this is a bit of a shocker.
It also is very worrying for any British patriot. The current government's policies is essentially to do what the US wants and hope everything will be ok. Any future government led by Michael Howard (notwithstanding his belief to stand up to external powers, however mighty) is likely to be more pro-US. This is not a position dissimilar to Germany's before the current Iraq crisis. And so one assumes that if at any time our interests diverge, and the UK opposes US action in the mild way that Germany has done, we will run the risk of being labelled enemies of the US.
I guess that explains the current government's policy but I'm not sure it's a good long-term basis for our country's future.
posted by Matthew @ 1/05/2004 11:22:00 PM
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