European Union
Posted at 6:20pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Mercosur Demands Lebensraum
By Neil Stevens
The South American trade union demands that its people know no boundaries, according to the BBC:
The EU laws, due to come into force in 2010, could see illegal immigrants held for up to 18 months and face a five-year ban on re-entry if expelled.
....In a joint declaration, [Mercosur leaders] rejected "every effort to criminalise irregular migration and the adoption of restrictive immigration policies, in particular against the most vulnerable sectors of society, women and children".
They used to call this sort of thing an invasion, sending your people across national boundaries and demanding full rights to that territory. If the EU caves on this, I bet Hitler would be kicking himself right now. He might have had Poland without a fight had he just demanded an end to "restrictive immigration policies."
Posted in European Union | Foreign Affairs | Godwin's Law | illegal immigration | Immigration | Lebensraum | Mercosur — Comments (11) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:00pm on May 23, 2008 International allies question Obama's Iran policy
By Soren Dayton
Barack Obama's Iran policy is getting questioned ... by our center-left European allies. From the London Times:
David Miliband has raised questions over Barack Obama’s policy on Iran, which officials in Washington and Europe fear threatens to undermine the tough stance adopted by the West towards Tehran over recent years. ...
British intelligence chiefs are understood to have identified Iranian nuclear proliferation as the second greatest security threat, behind Islamic terrorism but ahead of renewed aggression from Russia.
Let's be clear. Our policy on Iran was developed with our European allies, especially the UK, France, and Germany. In abandoning it, Obama is advocating abandoning commitments we have made to our allies.
This is not the first time that our allies have expressed alarm at Obama's ignorant, inexperienced proposals that break commitments we have made to our allies. Read on.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | European Union | Iran — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:33am on May 8, 2008 US allies blast Dems on trade
By Soren Dayton
The European Union's Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair's right-hand man in Europe, blasted the Democrats for their isolationist rhetoric:
It is irresponsible to be pretending to people you can erect new protection, new tariff barriers around your economy in this 21st century global age and still succeed in sustaining peoples’ living standards and jobs. It is a mirage and they know it.
It is a mirage. It is the same mirage that led a representative of the Obama campaign to tell the Canadian government that Obama's isolationist rhetoric in Ohio was "just politics."
I can assure you that our allies are very worried about this. I recently attended a dinner of Europhiles in Washington in which a number of diplomats from left-leaning governments declared Obama "scary" and "ignorant" on globalization, Europe, and NATO.
Read on for more on Mandelson and other allies we are alienating.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Democrats | European Union | Isolationism | Trade — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:15pm on Jan. 24, 2008 Kosovo: Who are the good guys here? (Comments enabled)
By Neil Stevens
The word is that Kosovars are on the verge of declaring formal independence from Serbia with the support of the EU and, apparently, the United States.
Should I cheer? I can't tell which parties are trustworthy here. On one hand you have Serbia, a country that not too long ago was a party to genocidal activity in Bosnia, and probably has folk who wouldn't mind some 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo. On the other hand, Christians in Kosovo and their churches have been under attack since the region fell under NATO protection, and there's the suggestion of Islamic terrorists getting their way here.
Is it even possible for us to come up with a resolution here that one could cheer? I'm open to corrections here on any of my impressions above.
