European Diplomacy and Moral Cowardice

Appeasing Iran in Geneva

The time to start worrying is when European diplomats become involved in a crisis. As they failed to prevent or bring and end to wars in the Balkans, Ukraine, Africa, Gaza, Lebanon and so many other places, they are now trying to bring their long experience of failure to the Israel-Iran war. They of course brought us to the point where Iran was a sneeze away from a nuclear device (crude or otherwise). They are now scheduled to meet, in Switzerland, with Iranian “diplomats” so as to bridge the gulf between Iran and the United States.

While in college, my very excellent history professor said that diplomats hate war not because they are moral or pacifists but rather because war means their jobs are over and they have failed. But they can never admit failure so European diplomats leave no rock unturned in trying to find some diplomatic language that will allow free countries to surrender to dictatorial fanatics. The key ammunition in the diplomat’s arsenal is language – meaning how can he write something that will mean one thing to one side and another to the other side. This skill leads to many caviar and champagne parties but of course the best case scenario is war deferred to someone else’s watch.

The fact that a diplomat’s job is to lie for his country is fine, but the problem gets more acute when diplomats lie in order to harm a country without any benefit to their own. It does not bother me so much when diplomats use their doublespeak to get their countries out of difficult situations but when their countries are not involved, when they have no skin in the game, their lies become dangerous. It becomes even more dangerous when they do have skin in the game and don’t even realize it. That is the situation we are in now.

Diplomats in Germany, UK, France and UAE will be meeting the Iranian foreign minister in Switzerland on Friday. The UAE understands fully what is at stake here, but they are scared that the Israelis will not be permitted or able to finish the job and their cowardice forces them into diplomatic stances that they know are dangerous. The French, German and British diplomats on the other hand don’t even seem to realize the danger a nuclear Islamic Republic of Iran is to them. They have spent decades on non-proliferation and yet when push comes to shove, they step back in the cowardly fashion they bring to every confrontation. Fascinating how the people who took to the streets in protest against American intermediate range missiles in their countries to counter Soviet SS-20’s are the same people who can’t stand to see Israel destroy a fanatical regime’s nuclear capabilities.

The fact that they are willing to meet with the FM of a country that sends a ton of explosives only into populated neighborhoods in Israel’s cities does not seem to faze them. There are no preliminary demands made of the Islamists in Iran. They won’t meet with Israeli government ministers who don’t agree with them- they even sanction them – but they are willing to sit in a fancy hotel in Geneva and discuss what concessions they can get out of the United States that so that Iran’s dream of annihilating Israel, stands. But nothing more can be expected of diplomats who know only failure and moral cowardice.

Which moves us to France’s president Macron who worked hard to find a way to condemn Israel while “supporting” it. He called on Israel only to attack nuclear and missile facilities since anything more might harm the ability of the Iranian people to free themselves from the yoke of the Islamic Republic. Yes, Macron can call for the fall of democratically elected governments but anti-western and anti-semitic dictatorships have a moral authority beyond the support of the people. Macron, addicted to diplomatic double speak and worthless cliches needs to make sure that the beautiful people, wink, wink know he really doesn’t support Israel.

Surrender at all costs is the mantra of the European and global diplomatic cadres since surrender can be made palpable via diplomatic double talk. The idea of course is to pretend you have achieved something momentous – but not to actually achieve anything.

But there is nothing like good scotch and caviar in a fancy hotel in Geneva on someone else’s dime.