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Bloemer, Ms. Beloff and others
might be very close to the way
política! relations in Europe ulti–
mately will materialize, as indi–
cated in the Bible, in the second
chapter of the book of Daniel.
Like it or not, just over the
horizon in world events is the final
end-time reviva! of the Roman
Empi re, just before the restitution
of the Kingdom of God on the
earth lo bring world peace at las t.
This final restoration is pictured
as the toes of a g reat image in the
form of a man. The feet of this
image are "partly of iron and
partly of clay" (verse 33, Revised
Authorized Yersion), meaning it
"shall be partly strong and partly
fragile" (verse
42).
The ancient Roman Empire was
divided. The Europe to come could
well be composed of two confeder–
ated halves: "five toes" repre–
senting Western anda part of Cen–
tral Europc, the other five compris–
ing the nations of CentraJ or East–
ern Europe, perhaps existing in a
Finlandizcd form, giving considera–
tion to the security interests of the
Soviet Union.
" Five Fingers" on the Trigger
The eastern half of a new Europe
may well remain neutralized and
" nuclear free." This meshes with
ideas that have been in circulation
for the past few years.
For example, Sweden's indepen–
dent PaJme Commission has advo–
cated the idea of a corridor in Cen–
tral Europe free from battlcfield
nuclear weapons.
1
n Bulgaria, party leader Todor
Z hivkov is pushing for a nuclear–
free zone in the Balkans t ha t
would encompass bis country plus
Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia and
Romanía.
The wes tern half of Europe,
however, would still need to protect
itsel f- were the Americans to
depart.
In this light, one shou ld take
serious note of an article th at
appeared in the December
1 1,
1983,
New York Times,
written by
Melvyn B. Krauss, a senior fellow
at the conservative Hoover l nstitu–
tion in Cal ifornia. In it, Mr. Krauss
argued for what he caJied the " de–
Americanization" of European de–
fense-a concept on which Mr.
May 1984
Kissinger, in Brussels, also said he
would make proposals.
It
would be better, Mr. Krauss
said, for the new Pershing Il and
cruise missiles now going into
Europe to be controlled by the
Europeans themselves. He feels
there would be less public reaction
in Western Europe against them.
"Such a 'de-Americanization' of
European defense would be better
for western security," said M r.
Krauss.
But would it be good for
Ameri–
can
security in the future?
That is a question no one seems
to be asking.
Continued Mr. Krauss: "Far
more credible to Moscow ... would
U.S. and Japan in the high-technol–
ogy race.
Call for European " Superpower"
The late 78-year-old French philos–
opher-author Manes Sperber, in an
address in Munich, West Germany,
last year , called for Europe to
become its own superpower: "In–
stead of being the bone of conten–
tion between two superpowers,
Europe itself must become a
superpower,
neither expansionist
nor revengeful, but utterly deter–
mined through its own sufficiently
strong defense forces to deter any–
one who might feel emboldened to
want to take possession of it
because of its weakness."
Blunt exchanges dominated last winter's European security confereoce in
Stockbolm. No quick thaw in strained superpower relations is seeo.
be for Europe to have its own
nuclear deterrent. The obvious
problem raised by a nuclear West
Germany could be circumvented by
the establishment of a European
defense force so that instead of a
single finger t here would be
a sin–
gle hand with five fingers on the
crucial red button."
The Soviets would never permit
Western missiles in a future Fin–
landized Eastern Europe, but could
conceivably permit a united de–
fense force consisting of the five–
fingered Western "hand" of a
10-
nation confederated European third
force to have nuclear weapons.
Moscow would likely demanda
military nonaggression pact , in
addition to infusions of economic
aid, from Western Europe. S uch
an arrangement might prove very
tempting to the s luggish indus–
tries of Western Europe that have
been falling steadily behind the
Others, however , are not so bold .
At the Stockholm security confer–
ence, a British Broadcasting Corpo–
ration reporter was interviewed by
a Swedish television newswoman.
The interview occurred after Secre–
tary of State Shultz said that the
United States did not recognize the
post-World War
li
division of
Europe. The newswoman asked her
BBC counterpart whether he felt a
reunited Europe could ever come
about. He replied: "Unless there is
a major political earthquake, it [a
divided Europe] is a fact we will
have to live with."
But not forever , accordi ng to
your Bible.
Not far down the road, there will
occur a major politicaJ earthquake
that will astound the whole world,
when a new superpower system
arises in Europe to str ide for a br ief
period across the world scene (Rev.
17:8).
o
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