Some of America's friends, purported Western allies, have shown their true colors at last. Regrettably, without shame, they have proven to be nothing but parasites.
While basking in the protection offered by America's military capability so they can fund their bulging, barely-functioning welfare programs, and taking advantage of America's powerful economy with preferential tariffs in their favor, when asked for support, these putative allies run for cover.
In naming and shaming these "fair-weather" friends – Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg, Greece and the United Kingdom, among others, the last might be a good place to start.
Somehow, somewhere along the line, leading politicians of the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer specifically, seem to have overlooked a bit of history. During World War II, Great Britain would have been destroyed by Germany but for one crucial factor – the military and economic might of the United States.
Without delving into details of the massive financial loans the US made to Britain and a lend-lease arrangement for purchasing supplies, the almost unlimited quantity of military equipment and foodstuffs sent to the island, and the thousands of US troops who perished to ensure that Britain did not end up becoming a German colony -- among many other avenues of support -- it is lamentable that to the leaders of Great Britain today, virtues such as loyalty, common purpose, shared culture, the best interests of the West, and their "special relationship" with the US apparently mean little. They seem totally to have forgotten America's costly sacrifices on their behalf.
While Iran's terror is aimed at large swaths of the West, it is Israel, as the homeland of the Jewish people, that is Iran's first target for elimination. It seems that, in the eyes of Europe's elite and the European Union, the Holocaust – when the murder of some six million innocent Jewish civilians as well as countless others took place -- has become passé, if not a liability. In 2001, long before the Gaza War, France's ambassador to the UK, Daniel Bernard, already called Israel a "shitty little country" -- and "polite society defended him."
With the US-Israel alliance currently confronting Iran -- called by the US Department of State "the leading state sponsor of terrorism" -- very little assistance was asked of the UK: merely to use its base on the island of Diego Garcia for transit purposes. Starmer shockingly refused, claiming the war was illegal under international law. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, to no one's surprise, concurred, walking back his earlier stance that favored toppling Iran's regime. Since when, however, did Iran abide by international or any law other than Sharia? This minor detail apparently escaped Carney.
Meanwhile, for nearly five decades, relatively little, if any, condemnation was heard coming from the UK, France and Spain about Iran's despotic and murderous activities across a wide array of geographical arenas. Then, when the US made a small request -- the use of a base to remedy this global horror -- the UK turned it down.
Although Starmer later compromised, he did so only after President Donald Trump said that the war was already won. Sadly, Starmer revealed himself as an ungrateful coward; a disgrace to the once-great nation of Britain, to NATO, and the Western alliance as a whole.
France's President Emmanuel Macron, as usual, acted no better. He called for the war to end the very day it began, and later stated, "France did not choose this war, we are not taking part..." Revealingly, Macron recently expressed grave concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while overlooking Iran's mass murder of more than 40,000 of its protesting citizens in just two days.
On March 9, Macron personally went to Cyprus, which had suffered a drone attack from Iran that caused only minor structural damage to a British base, and instructed French warships, including an aircraft carrier, with supporting ground forces, to deploy there. When his office issued a statement that read, "Together with our European partners, the aim will be to strengthen security around Cyprus and in the Eastern Mediterranean," the hypocrisy became too big to overlook.
There is, in fact, no more loyal friend to Western interests than Israel – a tiny nation fighting to preserve civilization for all of Europe and the free world while in the crosshairs of Iran's terror activities. Yet, when Israel comes under missile barrages from Iran and its proxies, Macron never offers to send assistance of any kind, even if only defensive, nor did the UK, Spain, Germany, or any other European nation -- nor Canada. No one did, except the United States.
The Europeans' moment of schadenfreude -- joy at other people's suffering -- arrived with force in mid-March when Trump called upon them, as well as other nations, to send naval forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The result of Iran's closure of the strait has catapulted the price of crude oil above $100 per barrel. Not a single leader had unreservedly committed to assist in opening this crucial sea passage, including those NATO nations that rely on the US to protect them, and Europe as a whole, in the event of an attack by foreign actors. Failure to assist in this regard, warned Trump, would be "very bad for the future of NATO." Trump implied that he would reassess US commitments to the organization.
Nowhere in the UK, France, or Spain were there significant demonstrations against Iran's killing of innocents; no calls for "Death to the IRGC." According to neo-Marxian ideologies, united with radical Islam, only "Death to Israel," "Death to America," and "Fuck (or Gas) the Jews" are acceptable
At every opportunity, it seems, the leaders of the UK, France, Spain, Canada and other nations would rather identify with civilization's enemies than with their allies striving to prevent extinction of the civilization itself. As can be expected from these socialist sell-outs -– representative of a coalition of convenience between political Islam and radical leftism, known as the Red-Green alliance -- enmity towards Israel takes precedence over all else.
While Israel predicably – and falsely -- gets the blame for leading the US into war with Iran, the major European powers -- the UK, France, and Germany -- reveal their antipathy towards anything that might applaud or validate Israel's existence, perhaps out of envy over Israel's incredible economic and military success.
Western Europe and Canada's elitist leaders appear unable in any way to acknowledge that "those Jews" -- supposedly those upstart "oppressor-colonialist racists" who have lived on their land for "only" 4,000 years when in fact it was the Europeans themselves who colonized large parts of the planet -- might be showing them up. They appear to abhor the emerging "new world order" in which an America, which in their eyes committed the capital crime of not always being perfect, along with its most reliable ally, Israel, is the central protagonist. In their view, Trump is the primary obstacle to the idealized "civilizational transformation they have already advanced in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Ottawa." They focus more on Trump than on the enemies of the West.
These elites likewise abhor any acknowledgement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's success in defending Western interests. They therefore use every opportunity to vilify him and denigrate his breathtaking achievements. Netanyahu, called by Andrew Roberts "The Churchill of the Middle East," has endured unimaginable opposition from all quarters in a seven-front war. His villainization began long before the war.
When Trump lauds Netanyahu by declaring, "if Bibi wasn't around, Israel would not exist today," there is no way the leftist elites can admit that their "goodness," which entails tolerating the intolerable, might be catastrophically misplaced.
The joint war leadership of Trump and Netanyahu -- not to mention a reluctance to endanger their own careers and citizens if someone else is already doing the dirty work for them - may be one of the reasons that the leader of the UK, France, Spain and others distance themselves from actions against Iran, irrespective of how necessary they are for their own interests. Trump and Netanyahu are evidently obstacles to a "brave new world" wherein the brotherhood of man, humanitarianism, climate change, globalism, diversity, equity, central planning, and all sorts of other fanciful Marxian ideologies reign supreme.
The opportunity for Western leaders, and the European Union as a whole, to display some form of moral clarity, some form of concern for the desperate cultural, religious, and political zero-sum contest against an extremist form of Islam – predominantly sponsored by Qatar and Iran – has clearly been brushed aside. Instead, they voice their preference for adolescent, starry-eyed alternatives such as 'regional stability, the application of a corrupt UN-approved "rules-based international order" -- according to EU-approved human rights practices -- and a negotiated compromise leading to a presumably peaceful settlement. It is political correctness run rampant.
Political analyst Shuki Friedman noted in 2022:
"Iran's evil regime has been fomenting terror and instability in the region and far beyond almost since its inception in 1979. Trampling human rights is its bread and butter....
"When an existential struggle against a death-sanctifying axis is labeled an 'illegal war' or 'unjustified aggression,' the term 'international law' is stripped of its original meaning and moral substance. Instead, it is transformed from a tool designed to protect humanity from barbarism into a legal instrument in the hands of those who seek to destroy the very possibility of democratic life."
In plain terms, Iran's treatment of its own people, coupled with its dedication to world domination under severe Sharia law and achieved through terror, is the shape of a future barbarism that many Western leaders are impliedly allowing to foster.
Argentina's President Javier Milei said last month:
"Socialism found out that the basis for the free enterprise capitalist system is anchored on Judeo-Christian values. They found out if you attack Judaism, if you attack Israel, then you break the basis for the capitalist system and Western civilization."
Most Western leaders, by their muted response to Iran's mass murder of its own unarmed civilians, and their failure to support an alliance to displace Iran's murderous regime, would seem to make them not only parasites but also identifying not so much with the oppressed people of Iran but, instead, their oppressors. Their attitude harbors a severe moral collapse; the sooner they are ejected from power, the better for all of Europe and the West.
Journalist Melanie Phillips wrote in January:
"The terrible fact is that, with the entire global humanitarian establishment having turned into a force to demonize and delegitimize Israel, conscience in the West has become harnessed to absolute evil. The label of 'human rights' activists is accordingly given only to those who support the West's enemies."
In this shameful and cowardly way, the battle for Europe's soul is fast being lost with virtually no resistance from its leaders. The problem is not just what has overtaken Europe, but the entrenched fecklessness of its leaders.
Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Dr. Haug holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology and is author of 'Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity'; and 'Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.' His work has been published by First Things Journal, The American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, Gatestone Institute, National Association of Scholars, Jewish Journal, James Wilson Institute (Anchoring Truths), Jewish News Syndicate, Tribune Juive, Document Danmark, Zwiedzaj Polske, Schlaglicht Israel, and many others.
