Global Policy Forum

By Gamal Nkrumah

Shell-shocked by the swift American and British occupation of Iraq, Europeans are taking stock. A dumbfounded and divided Europe has a difficult hand to play. And what is Europe anyway: the unwieldy European Union or the so-called "Old Europe" of France, Germany and Russia? Europe, under whatever guise, has become largely expendable.

The Americans have demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they have absolutely no time for the Europeans' predilection for dwelling on the downside. The Americans do not want to forget that France, Germany and Russia tried to appease the ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. They are not prepared to forgive "Old Europe's" affront.

Pax Americana dictates that the United Nations role be marginalised. The Europeans -- both those who opposed the US aggression against Iraq, such as France, Germany and Russia, and those who either participated in the aggression with the Americans, like the British, and those who supported it like the Italians and Spaniards -- all want to see the UN play a greater role in Iraq. Serious differences remain between the Europeans as to the precise nature of UN involvement in Iraq. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan attended the European Union summit meeting that convened from 16 to 17 April, in the Greek capital, Athens, to assess the situation, especially since Britain hinted that, with the US, it might be prepared to sideline the UN Security Council once again concerning Iraq.

Iraq topped the agenda at the Athens summit, even though the EU summit was originally convened to welcome 10 new member states, swelling membership of the EU from 15 to 25 nations. Most of the newcomers are East European countries that are staunchly pro-American. But a core group of older member states are also equally eager to prove their pro-American credentials. Italy hurriedly dispatched 3,000 troops to Iraq from its Adriatic port of Brindisi. The Italians say that the troops are to assist chiefly with humanitarian relief.

The French, Germans and Russians by and large remained staunchly disapproving of war against Iraq without UN approval. But much to their chagrin, they failed to garner much support for their opposition, with the notable exception of the host country Greece, which holds the rotating EU presidency. Even so, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis spoke for all Europeans when he stressed that the most urgent matter was to "reinforce the trans-Atlantic dialogue and avoid any worsening of relations between Europe and the US". However, there is a still a considerable amount of worry around Europe these days.

Earlier in the week, French, German and Russian leaders gathered at a summit meeting in Russia's Baltic port-city St Petersburg to discuss post-war reconstruction of Iraq. Significantly, they broke with tradition and failed to issue a joint declaration at the end of the summit meeting. The French, in particular, have high hopes that Pax Americana cannot remain unchallenged for good. "It's a multipolar world that, little by little, is organising itself," insisted French President Jacques Chirac at the St Petersburg summit.

France, Germany, Russia and other countries that opposed the US invasion of Iraq and who hold much of Iraq's debt, pressed strongly for remunerative contracts in the race to reconstruct war-battered Iraq. Even though the US is a relatively minor creditor of Iraq's, it will most likely play a leading role in restructuring Iraq's extensive external debts. Iraq's creditors are the very European powers that opposed the American aggression and have now been sidelined. Many Europeans are quite frankly anxious about the future in America's shadow.

The writing is on the wall: Washington seems intent on monopolising the commercial contracts. Washington contemptibly regards the Europeans as big losers who have got it all wrong.

Iraq also dominated discussions at the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington this weekend. Here again it was clear that Corporate America is raring for sweeping gains in post-war Iraq. Iraqi debts, money due on signed contracts, and reparations from the 1990-1991 Gulf War, amount to a staggering $250-300 billion. The European powers are understandably anxious to debate the prospects of what might turn out to be the largest debt rescheduling in history since Washington appears determined to exclusively determine the nature of a post-war administration in Iraq.

The Europeans are also naturally concerned because to date billions of dollars in Iraqi reconstruction contracts are being awarded to US companies. The Europeans, it seems, are being pointedly excluded because of their anti-war posturing.

The Europeans are privately furious about the unabashedly impertinent manner in which US officials are eyeing the spoils of war. Officials and former officials closely associated with the invasion of Iraq are honing in on Iraq's fabled bounty. Former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, James Woolsey, a board member of the notoriously suspicious Committee to Liberate Iraq, is among them. Another, Richard Perle was chairman of the board until quite recently when he hurriedly resigned, although he still is a board member. Former US Secretary of State George Shultz sits on the board of both the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and the Bechtel Group, the largest US contractor poised to make a fortune in the reconstruction of Iraq. Even worse: Jay Garner, the retired general the Americans selected to head the post-war Iraqi administration, presided over Coleman, a defence contractor that assisted Israel with the development of its Arrow missile-defence system.

The Europeans, overwhelmingly secular and anti- religious, also look aghast at what they consider the uncouth and vulgar manner in which the America's Christian fundamentalist right, with its connections to no less than the US president himself, are behaving. Christian fundamentalist evangelist Franklin Graham who ominously delivered the invocation at George W Bush's presidential inauguration, denounced Islam as a "very evil and wicked religion". Graham's charity, Samaritan's Purse, is poised to provide water systems, shelters and medical kits to Iraq. Ostensibly in Iraq to feed and heal the victims of a war started without international sanction by the Bush administration, Samaritan's Purse and other Christian fundamentalist organisations are hoping to proselytise and win converts in Iraq and other neighbouring countries of the Muslim heartlands. This, many Europeans believe, is a recipe for disaster.

The United States' illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq has had disastrous ripple effects in the international arena. America might have won the first phase of the war, but it has lost its moral standing among the nations of the world -- both among its Western allies and among the world's poorer developing nations. Editorials and news headlines from around the world make the apprehension about America abundantly clear. At stake is the fate of the entire post-Cold War world. Fear, anger and revenge have sadly become the overriding motivational force. Jingoism -- or patriotism, to use the American euphemism for chauvinist xenophobia -- is also a factor at work. And so is greed and advancing corporate interests.

There are numerous unanswered moral questions that Europeans ponder. Amnesty International pointed out recently that US troops focussed on the protection of oil installation in Iraq instead of safeguarding hospitals and other vital civilian infrastructures.

Concerns are growing in Europe over the manner in which the US supposedly seeks to enforce democracy through the barrel of the gun. German Nobel laureate Günther Grass recently warned against the dangerous precedent and repercussions of the US aggression against Iraq. "It is President Bush and his government that are diminishing democratic values, bringing disaster to their own country, ignoring the United Nation, and that are now terrifying the world with a war in violation of international law," he was quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribune recently. Grass appeared to speak for many in Germany, and Europe, when he praised the German government. "I thank Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, for their fortitude in spite of all the [US] attacks and accusations," Grass said.

Indeed, an emerging feature of the anti-war movement in Europe is the unusual coincidence of government and anti-establishment viewpoints. The overwhelming majority of the population in countries like France and Germany support their respective governments' anti-war stance. The Europeans also argue that the whole point of the US aggression against Iraq was to find hidden Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. EU foreign ministers debated a long-term strategy on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and in spite of trans-Atlantic tensions over Iraq, they stressed the importance of collaborating closely with the US with regard to the stopping of the proliferation of WMDs. But unlike the Americans, no consensus emerged among the Europeans on whether the EU should sanction launching preemtive strikes against countries that develop these weapons.

Europeans also tend to be more suspicious of US attempts to implant its own brand of democracy on Iraq. Inauspiciously, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the most influential Shi'ite opposition group which is backed by Iran, declined to take part in the Nasseriya meeting between representatives of the exiled Iraqi opposition group and representatives of Iraqi tribal chieftains. SCIRI made it known in no uncertain terms that they will not participate in a US-sponsored attempt to create a puppet regime headed by the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC) headed by Ahmed Chalabi -- a Shi'ite business magnate and Washington's favourite candidate for the presidency of Iraq. The Europeans are both far more cautious and sceptical about backing exiled Iraqi leaders widely perceived as sellouts among their compatriots in Iraq.

And if it is any consolation for Europe, critical reaction to the US aggression against Iraq has not been restricted to "Old Europe". In the new and largely democratic Africa, too, there are strong misgivings about Washington's priorities and its bellicose behaviour. "The Americans live in a make-believe world that they are liberators of Iraq and plan to install an Iraqi government eventually," warned Nigeria's Daily Trust. "It will, however, take the next few months for them to learn whether the Iraqis will agree to be ruled by stooges of America or not." Chad's Notre Temps was even more equivocal. "It is alarming and revolting when one knows that the Third World's debt represents only half of what the war is costing the US."