Twilight of the Continent

"The EU does not know why it should ever sacrifice its sons in military conflict. What sacred values are worth defending at such a high cost?"

None, apparently.

Dutch novelist Leon de Winter has a pithy piece in the OpinionJournal today on the welfare state in Europe and the paralyzing and potentially fatal philosophy that accompanies it.

De Winter lays the blame of an imminently nuclear Iran squarely at the feet of the 'troika' of Britain, France and Germany who recalcitrantly insisted on negotiation and reliance on 'soft power' while the United States was otherwise occupied in Iraq.

Europe could have suppressed the Iranian threat if it had convinced the mullahs two years ago that it was willing to contemplate military options. Only Europe lacks core values that it holds sacrosanct and that it's willing to defend at the highest cost. It will continue to operate on the diplomatic field and cling to soft power even though this is the path of certain defeat when confronted with power players burning with geopolitical and religious ambitions.

Why the fetishization of 'soft power'?

After the horrors of World War II, Western Europe turned to new ideals of radical pacifism and post-nationalism. The Continent had been devastated by war twice in three decades. In the 1950s, the desire to avoid more war led it to a new ideology, permeating society and politics, that viewed national interests and cultural traditions as relative.
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Little has changed in recent decades. Europe became wealthier and more convinced of its idea that world peace can be achieved by talk alone.
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In the European welfare state, the system ensures that each individual can rely on maximum social security. Without doubt, the welfare state is the ultimate achievement of European civilization. But it did not come without a philosophy: the welfare state gave birth to a postmodern cultural relativism that underpins the tolerant, liberal, pacifistic and secular European societies of today.

...The welfare state, based on its provision of social services and the participation of reasonably acting civilians, is unable to respond to globalization or mass immigration. Its structures work as long as the system is closed. But because of vast changes in demographics and economics, the welfare state has become too expensive. All over Europe its fundaments are cracking.

Why do we care? Here's the rub - by ceding the Iranian 'problem' to the feckless troika, our options have become quite limited, according to de Winter,

Thanks to European illusions about soft power, the free world has two options left on Iran: disaster or catastrophe. America and Israel will bleed for Europe's lack of conviction.