Europe's Rallying Cry: No Security - Or Peace!

"The EU prefers to talk about soft power partly to distinguish itself from the United States. As world superpower, America has for decades automatically linked the projection of that status with military might. It has, however, rarely coupled that might with soft power - for example, building strong and independent state institutions. The decision to invade Iraq exposed the weaknesses of hard power alone. But it also reinforced a view inside the EU that soft power was preferable to the military option.

The EU has adopted this soft power approach toward Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Sudan. It has provided aid for reconstruction and has sent soldiers to protect refugees or police officers to build up new security forces. But in every one of these cases, that soft power has failed to deliver security or peace."

-- Judy Dempsey, on Yurp's reluctance to care for it's own security (while constantly criticizing the job the United States does) in the International Herald Tribune.

Yeah, let them run things and everything will work out fine,...