'John Wayne' doesn't want to, Joerg. Not after the thanks he got the last time he tried to sort out something in Europe.

The sheriff tried to stick old Rooster in the clink after he sorted out the sheriff's little problem - that's how I interpret the wording of the European-written ICC treaty.

They say no good deed goes unpunished, and the ICC is proof of that adage....

But the 'emancipated Atlanticists' could make a difference in the choices which European countries are making. I think one very clear lesson of the past 20 years is that if Europe doesn't develop the capability to intervene in global "hot spots" they will be obliged to sit by and watch the Americans do it - or not. Experience shows that Europe justifiably dislikes either action or inaction. The US doesn't enjoy European inaction.

What one wishes to seen done correctly one must be prepared to do oneself - or at least take a major role in. To do that Europe needs to develop a military capability and the ability to project force. Hopefully (almost certainly) not in the American fashion but in another manner better suited to European goals and principals.

Inaction is not principled - it is flaccidity converted to a policy.Perhaps the 'emancipated Atlanticists' understand this?

Doesn't necessarily have to be military - at least in the John Wayne 'Green Berets' sense.

I think there is an enormous need for effective peacekeepers, for example. Peacekeepers who will not allow the bandits to ovverun them and take their weapons and ammunition, but hold discipline and defend themselves as needs must.

Another thing Europe could use is a fleet of transport aircraft. During the Asian tsunami crisis a significant point of friction between Germany and the US was the fact the US fleet was unavailable for use in ferrying German supplies to the stricken area because they were all taken up with ferrying American supplies or otherwise engaged.

Seems to me that means that Germany (or Europe, more like) needs an alternative to US government-owned aircraft. That can be a fleet of dedicated aircraft owned by EU governments or possibly it could take the form of a contract giving first option on such a fleet from the commercial sector.

Having capability means making certain one has the means available to accomplish the mission - as certain as possible anyway. Germany didn't do this then - and from what I heard in the press many Germans laid the blame on George Bush.

Because he apparently had a duty to take US planes out of service flying relief supplies to stricken Asia, unload them and fly them to Germany - so the German governmet could use the planes to fly GERMAN supplies to striken Asia! With a necessary delay in those supplies arrival for some hours, of course.

We'll see. I'm a scepric myself about the 'new Atlanticists'. Sarkozky seems to be the main example of the genre, but Merkel trod that path before him - but all her talk of 2005-2006 has not been converted into much tangible action to date, has it?

I think if the writer had avoided the comment about the mosques there was the germ of an idea here. As it was the piece ended upp looking somewhat Steynish - which is a shame.

If this phrasw "Activated by the number of mosques rising on their soils, failing integration policies and the radicalization of young Muslims, leaders in the three major European nations....."

had instead begun with "Activated by increased numbers of first and second-generation Muslim immigration, failing ...", would it have been more acceptable, Joerg?