Imaginati-va cum ar sa traiti intr-o lume in care au loc atentate zilnic, unde ca cei care se opun intrarii in UE sunt fie linsati mediatic fie asasinati in plina strada, indiferent ce masuri de securitate ar avea. Mercedesul din poza este una din cele doua masini blindate cu care se deplasa Alfred Herrhausen, CEO Deutsche Bank din acea perioada, ce a fost omorat pe 30 noiembrie 1989 in urma unui atac profesionist (primul in care s-au folosit senzori in infrarosu, o bomba cu microprocesor pentru a calcula viteza si sincroniza momentul detonarii cat si explozibili militari de varf la acea data), atac ce nu a fost elucidat nici macar azi. Si el ca si Thatcher au fost supusi unor presiuni imense, pentru ca ambii se opuneau adoptarii monedei Euro in forma propusa de socialisti, motivand ca pe termen lung acest lucru va aduce mult mai multa suferinta tuturor statelor implicate, in principal din cauza renuntarii la suveranitate.
Margaret Thatcher era singura voce care a avut curajul sa fie de partea lui. Nu intamplator, chiar dupa acest incident, ea a fost parasita de catre toti aliatii ei din partidul conservator, fortata sa-si dea demisia, si scoasa de pe scena politici mondiale. Aici a fost respectul si recunostinta tuturor pentru ceea ce a realizat ea in acei ani.
Am pus poza de mai jos ca sa stiti despre ce perioada vorbim, care erau presiunile, pentru ca tare imi e ca unii au cam uitat. Astfel de oameni se nasc o data la cateva sute de ani.
European Union is "fundamentally unreformable" and also culturally hostile to the United States, therefore making military cooperation impossible. European defense is an idea in search of itself. It currently amounts to a paper army with paper resources, and its battlefields is a desktop in Brussels. The paucity of command and control assets and high-readiness units is potentially debilitating, as is the scarcity of high-end air units and precision weaponry.
"(A unified) 'Europe' is the result of plans. It is, in fact, a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure: only the scale of the final damage done is in doubt."
During my lifetime most of the problems the world has faced have come, in one fashion or other, from mainland Europe, and the solutions from outside it. [..] What we should grasp, however, from the lessons of European history is that, first, there is nothing necessarily benevolent about programmes of European integration; second, the desire to achieve grand utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom; and third, European unity has been tried before, and the outcome was far from happy.
(On Who Got Credit For Ending The Cold War) "The role of Ronald Reagan had been deliberately diminished; the role of the Europeans, who, with the exception of Helmet Kohl, were often keen to undermine America when it mattered, had been sanitized; and the role of Mr. Gorbachev, who had failed spectacularly in his declared objective of saving communism and the Soviet Union, had been absurdly misunderstood."
"(Gorbachev's) remarks in Prague seemed to me, to say the least, of doubtful validity. Yet nor should they be lightly dismissed. They represent the articulation of a strategy, common to the left in many countries, of seeking to escape all blame for communism and then going on to take credit for being more pragmatic, modern, and insightful about the world which those who actually fought communism have created. It is a pressing necessity to expose and defeat both distortions." -
"It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think that they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge."
"(I)t is highly questionable whether when 'Europe speaks with one voice', as we are so often told it is doing, anyone is really listening. Europe's reputation as a serious player in international affairs is unenviable. It is a feeble giant who desperate attempts to be taken seriously are largely risible. It has a weak currency and a sluggish inflexible economy, still much reliant on hidden protectionism. It has a shrinking, ageing, population and, with the exception of Britain, rather unimpressive armed forces and, not excepting Britain, muddled diplomacy".
"The blunt truth is that the rest of the European Union needs us more than we need them."
Rest In Peace, dear Margaret.
All quotes are from her last book, 'Statecraft'.
