Basic HTML Version
WORLD LEADERS
(Continuedfrom page 4)
tration in Washington for making
such a principled stand so late in the
game, when only harm to the West–
ern alliance can result.
For example, Josef Joffe, the
senior editor of
Die Zeit,
a Ham–
burg weekly, writes in the July 28,
1982,
Wall Street Journal:
.
"Today, the issue is the wisdom
of American policy, not the merit
of its arguments. Today, Ameri–
ca's friends in Europe ask in
bewilderment: Why did the Rea–
gan administration go for a high–
cost, low-payoff policy which
would only come to grief?. The
deal having been signed and
sealed, there was only the faintest
of chances that the Europeans
would meekly renege on their con–
tracts. ln the affairs of nations,
there comes a point where the
cost of victory tends to dwarf the
value of the original objective.
"Was the attempt to punish the
Russians worth the damage to the
alliance which will take years to
heal? ... Why not pull back from
the brink before disaster really set–
tles in?"
NATO Breakup Feared
T he disaster that many fear is the
disruption of the interlocking
national defense policies upon
which the security of the Western
wor ld has relied since shortly after
the Second World War.
NATO embodies the Western
half of the taut East-West power
balance in Europe and has helped
secure the
longest period of peace
in European history.
Without harmony on trade issues
and likemindedness toward the
East bloc, the focal point of
NATO's orientation, it is unlikely
that the alliance can Iast.
It will be more difficult than
ever for Western European Jeaders,
for example, to vigorously pursue
the plan to update the alliance's
nuclear arsenal next year as sched–
uled. This in turn will intensify agi–
tation on the western side of the
Atlantic for the United States to
cut its ties to its "ungrateful"
NATO partners.
Calls for an American mititary
42
:..7
FOCUS OF CONTROVERSY: Workmen assemble pipeline in Siberia. Decision to pur·
chase Soviet natural gas by Western Europe has angered American officials.
withdrawal from Europe are indeed
coming more frequently than ever.
For example, a leading U.S. figure
in the field of strategic thinking,
l rving Kristol, called for the recon–
struction of NATO along with a
new and independent role for a
nuclear-armed Europe, in the
August 12, 1982, issue of
The Wall
Street Journal.
American troops, said Mr. Kris–
tol, should be withdrawn from
Europe. NATO then should be
reshaped as a European organiza–
tion. Furthermore, maintained Mr.
Kristol, "a European NATO would
have its own tactical nuclear weap–
ons- all 6,000 now there could sim–
ply be Ieft behind.
It
could also
have, if
it
wished, a much larger
complemerJt of long-range nuclear
missiles than
it
now possesses.
lt
would predictably place those mis–
siles on submar ines or on ships at
sea-far from European centers of
population .... Thi s European
NATO could then form an alliance
with the U.S. if it so desired (as it
presumably would)." (Italics ours.)
But that's the big question!
Would a future independent, nu–
clear-armed Europe, comprising
nations that have been at odds with
the United States over fundamental
economic and political issues, choose
to remain allied witb and friendly
toward the United States?
Europe In Transition
According to James Oliver Golds–
borough, author of the book
Rebel
Europe.
Western Europe is ob–
viously in a transition period- "the
historical stage at which Europe
now finds itself, namely halfway
between a much weakened Atlantic
system and a still embryonic Euro–
pean framework."
Readers of
The Plain Truth
have been told in many articles
down through the years that Bible
prophecy foretells that there is yet
to come the final end-time restora–
tion of the Roman Empire. This
will occur just before the divine
ushering in of the peaceful world
tomor row; brought about by the
restoration of the kingdom of God
on earth. The prophesied European
combine will be composed of "ten
horns"- meaning 1
O
nations or rul–
ing entities ( Rev. 17:12).
This resurrected Roman Empire,
controlling its own destiny and
defense, will be powerful enough to
stand up to both the United States
and the Soviet Union- perhaps
even to demand a release of sorne
Soviet satellite European nations in
return for a prornise of trade and
nonaggression with Moscow.
The United States- and Brit–
ain-will be left on the outside
looking in!
T he prophetic outline of Eu–
rope 's near future is becoming
clearer as a result of the widening
rift with the United States.
The
Plain Truth
will continue to keep
its readers abreast of the onrush of
critically important events and
trends in Europe.
o
The PLAIN TRUTH