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den 15 november 2008


  Upp till bevis, Europa!

Birger Schlaug nämnde det förra veckan i tv-soffan. Och nu skriver New York Times om samma sak. Nämligen att vaktombytet i Washington kommer att öka trycket på Sverige och andra europeiska länder att bidra med pengar och trupp till världens oroshärdar. Med Obama som president kommer det inte längre att finnas några ursäkter att gömma sig bakom. Bush har ju varit paria i Västeuropa medan Obama är älskad och är de flesta européers favoritpresident. Och om kärleken är äkta måste den åtföljas av handling. Thomas Friedman i NYT skriver:

Examples: I understand any foreigner who objected to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the gross mishandling of the postwar. But surely everyone in the world has an interest in helping Obama, who opposed the war, bring it to a decent and stable end, especially now that there is a chance that Iraq could emerge as the first democracy, albeit messy, in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world. Obama was against how this Iraq war started, but he is going to be held responsible for how it ends, so why don’t all our allies now offer whatever they can – money, police, aid workers, troops, diplomatic support – to increase the odds of a decent end in Iraq? Ditto Afghanistan.

The U.N. says it doesn’t want Iran to go nuclear and doesn’t want the U.S. to use force to prevent Iran from going nuclear. I agree. That’s why I want all those people in China, France, Russia, India and Germany who are smiling for Obama to go out and demand that their governments use their tremendous economic leverage with Iran to let the Iranians know that if Tehran continues to move toward a nuclear weapon, in opposition to U.N. resolutions, these countries will impose real economic sanctions. Nothing – and I mean nothing – would more help President-elect Obama to forge a diplomatic deal with Iran than having a threat of biting Chinese, Indian and E.U. economic sanctions in his holster.

Och han avslutar:

President Bush, because he was so easily demonized, made being a free-rider on American power easy for everyone – and Americans paid the price. Obama will not make it so easy.

So to everyone overseas I say: thanks for your applause for our new president. I’m glad you all feel that America ”is back.” If you want Obama to succeed, though, don’t just show us the love, show us the money. Show us the troops. Show us the diplomatic effort. Show us the economic partnership. Show us something more than a fresh smile. Because freedom is not free and your excuse for doing less than you could is leaving town in January.

Alltså, Europas ursäkt för sin passivitet i Irak, Afghanistan och Iran lämnar sin post i januari. Då kommer vi att få se om kärleken till Obama är mer än vackra ord.

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