June 2002 Vol.5, No. 5 Contents by Melvin Rhodes by Darris McNeely by Darris McNeely by Cecil E. Maranville  Book Review: Statecraft by Margaret Thatcher by John Ross Schroeder  by Darris McNeely, John Ross Schroeder and Jim Tuck This Is the Way...Making Sense in a Senseless Neighborhood by Robin Webber In Brief...World News Review The Euro, the Dollar and the Pound In late May a series of upbeat economic reports showed that the European economy is gaining strength, and helped lift the euro to a 14-month high against the dollar. On May 29 the euro stood at 93.5 cents compared to the dollar, a significant rise. Many investors are showing confidence in the euro during this sustained period of success against the dollar. Meanwhile Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair continues to edge Britain toward a fateful union with the Continent by pushing his desire to adopt the euro as the coin of the realm. While polls are showing Britons remain skeptical (a recent poll showed 53 percent were against adoption of the euro), it is clear some leaders see Britain's future to be with Europe rather than America. In a new book that has drawn widespread attention in England, Will Hutton, former editor of The Observer, argues that Britain shares the liberal social values of Continental Europe and should join its currency to form a bulwark against a hegemonic United States whose driving political force is the religious conservatism of the South. "The rise of American conservatism has disconnected U.S. civilization from the European mainstream," Hutton argues. "Europe is our continent. We share the same history and the same core values. We should, of course, join the euro." On the other side, some hard-line Conservatives--among them the former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher--disdain the Continent's comparatively sluggish economies and rigid labor markets with a collective "no, thank you." Instead, they argue that Britain should renegotiate its membership in the European Union, cast its lot with the United States and join the North American Free Trade Agreement (International Herald Tribune, May 27, 2002). A major shift in relations between America and Britain would be historic. Will Hutton is wrong. Britain has far more in common with America than Europe. Britain shares with America a common language, democratic values and history that goes deeper than most understand. It shares a spiritual legacy from the biblical patriarch Jacob and the blessing conferred on the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. The story is told in our booklet, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. Write for your free copy today. Subcontinent on the Brink It is a toss-up today to determine which region is the most dangerous, the Middle East or India and Pakistan. Militant factions from Pakistan have been attacking military and police posts on the India-Pakistan frontier, pushing both nuclear armed nations toward their fourth armed conflict since 1947. India has massed nearly one million troops on the border. Diplomatic efforts to avert war have been intense. A constant parade of officials has been making their way to the region. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made a trip to both sides in late May. Russia's Vladimir Putin has also offered to mediate the conflict. The great fear in this conflict is the exchange of nuclear missiles. In the event of one miscalculation on either side, millions would die and large regions of the subcontinent would be rendered uninhabitable for decades. Both the United States and Britain have drawn up plans to evacuate their citizens from the region in the event of war. Officials from the U.S. State Department and the military's Pacific Command have begun drawing up evacuation plans for 50,000 to 60,000 U.S. civilians, virtually all of them in India, a Pentagon official with access to the plans said. The State Department has already warned U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to Pakistan and India and said Americans in those countries should consider leaving. An airlift of that magnitude would dwarf the evacuations of Americans from Vietnam, which Washington and U.S. forces abandoned in early 1975, said a military official familiar with U.S. airlift capabilities. Many reports state that al Qaeda forces are provoking the Pakistan attacks in an effort to undermine the regime of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Should this happen and should Pakistan fall apart, there is the fear of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Islamic terrorists, something no one wants to think about. India's big fear is a future threat from an armed Islamic front on its northwest frontier. This they cannot allow and will go to whatever lengths to prevent. At stake is more than the disputed region of Kashmir. A May 28, 2002, Stratfor analysis had this to say: "From India's viewpoint, Pakistan represents the only serious national security challenge. "On a deeper level, the Pakistani-Indian frontier represents the borderland between the Islamic and Hindu worlds. Whatever the current condition of India, the broad historical threat is that the Islamic world one day might unite. In that case, the manageable threat posed by Pakistan would become a potentially unmanageable situation, in which the weight of reemergent Islamic power would thrust up against an India that might not be able to resist. These are hypothetical fears, far in the future, but they are not trivial." America, well into its war on terrorism, cannot afford to see Pakistan fall into chaos. Al Qaeda would then be able to operate at will from remote mountainous regions. Since inserting itself into Afghanistan, America has established a new doctrine of intervention where sovereign countries are unable to deal with elements hostile to American interests. Israel has followed the same principle in its incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas. William Safire pointed out in The New York Times of May 31, 2002: "The Indians point to the new global antiterrorist principle enunciated by George W. Bush and practiced by Ariel Sharon, and say, with unassailable logic, they have been patient enough. But India, which could win another conventional war with Pakistan, surely wants no nuclear exchange. What can it expect from the world in return for more restraint? "India demands pressure on Pakistan to exercise its internal sovereignty. Either the government of President Pervez Musharraf controls Pakistan's portion of Kashmir or it invites policing from outside. "But there's this complication: The U.S. needs Musharraf to help root out Al Qaeda, which has gone underground in Muslim Pakistan and is trying to provoke nuclear war with Hindu India. And too many Pakistanis fail to realize that the terrorists railing about the 'occupation' of Kashmir by India hope to call down millions of casualties on both countries." Kipling's "Great Game" continues to be played in this critical region (see December 2001 issue, p. 16). A Right-Wing Movement Sweeps Through Europe The winds of political change are blowing across the continent of Europe. Upheavals have recently been spawned in the Netherlands and France. Dutch rightist party leader Pim Fortuyn was assassinated on May 6--depriving him from sharing personally in the spoils of his party's surprising showing at the Dutch polls. It came second in a country whose governmental structure usually embraces a coalition of different parties. Also, French extremist party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen came in second in the next to last stage of the French presidential race, consigning socialist French Prime Minister Leon Jospin to third place and paving the way for his ouster from government. This left France in a state of shock, producing a national scare that in turn engendered the overwhelming victory of incumbent President Jacques Chirac in the runoff. These headline-grabbing changes are indicative of what is taking place a little more quietly in much of Europe. According to The Economist, "A pattern may now be emerging across the EU. Centre-left and social democratic governments are losing power to centre-right governments. In the past year the left has lost power in Italy, Denmark, Portugal and now the Netherlands. In France, the Socialists' candidate (Leon Jospin) failed to reach the final round of the presidential election" (May 18, 2002, British spellings). Germany's Social Democrat chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, faces a tough challenge from the more rightist Edmund Stoiber in September's elections. Jörg Haider's right wing Freedom Party is gaining ground in Austria's ruling coalition. Racially extremist National Front movements are on the rise in both Britain and France. Said Claude Allégre, former socialist education minister: "We are witnessing a Europe swinging back towards the right, and sometimes towards the extreme right. And France is no different. Why should it be? Pink Europe is finished" (The Sunday Times, April 28, 2002). The New York Times succinctly sums up the current situation: "From Spain to Scandinavia, European politics is drifting to the right. As the economy slows, political parties stressing law and order and stricter controls on immigration are gaining ground, and mainstream conservative politicians are becoming more popular." At the heart of the problem is the westward refugee movement from Eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall are no more. People are pouring into the nations of Western Europe demanding asylum amid a climate of high unemployment (on the Continent) and strained social and financial resources. Often the citizenry deeply resents the sudden presence of these refugees, however compelling their individual cases may be. Margaret Thatcher's observations are instructive in her new book, Statecraft. "During my lifetime most of the problems the world has faced have come, in one fashion or the other, from mainland Europe, and the solutions from outside it" (2002, p. 320). From time to time ever since the era of the Roman Empire, the European continent has been host to damaging revolutionary movements that periodically repeat themselves, devastating the land with suffering and death. The worry is that a coming European superstate is next. Requesting our free brochure, The Book of Revelation Unveiled, will give the reader much more detail. wnp Sources: The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor (electronic edition), The Economist, Statecraft, The Sunday Times (London). Contributors: Darris McNeely, John Ross Schroeder and Jim Tuck Send any comments / changes regarding this page to webmaster@churchofgodtwincities.org © 2002-2022 United Church of God, an International Association