{"id":807747,"date":"2026-03-06T11:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/807747\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:12:15","slug":"the-president-is-surprised-by-the-lack-of-european-support-for-military-action-against-iran-he-shouldnt-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/807747\/","title":{"rendered":"The President is surprised by the lack of European support for military action against Iran\u2014he shouldn’t be"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scars of the Iraq War run deep in Europe.\u00a0At the time,\u00a0France, led by President Jacques Chirac, could not countenance\u00a0supporting\u00a0an attack on Saddam Hussein,\u00a0given the weak evidence for either weapons of mass destruction or a link to the horrors of 9\/11. When the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, agreed to back President George W. Bush there was a popular backlash. Tony Blair, the\u00a0then\u00a0U.K. leader, still suffers under the \u201cBliar\u201d tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In America, there might be bafflement that European leaders are not fully behind the actions of President Donald Trump and the attack on Iran in alliance with Israel.\u00a0In war you stick with your allies.\u00a0A grotesque dictator has been removed.\u00a0There is a chance\u2014slim maybe\u2014that Iran will see a more positive future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2003,\u00a0Blair said there was no\u00a0option\u00a0but to stand \u201cshoulder to shoulder\u201d with the U.S.\u00a0Many in Europe agreed\u2014in 2000,\u00a082% of Britons and 62% of the French were \u201cfavorable\u201d\u00a0towards\u00a0the US.\u00a0The Western global agreement was strong,\u00a0politically\u00a0and economically.\u00a0America had secured western Europe after the Second World War\u00a0and\u00a0there was much to be grateful for.\u00a0Trade flowed between the two power\u00a0blocs of the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

History and\u00a0populations\u00a0have changed.\u00a0Younger voters know\u00a0far less\u00a0of either the Second World War or the Cold War.\u00a0The U.S. is now seen \u201cunfavorably\u201d\u00a0in Britain, France, Germany,\u00a0Italy\u00a0and Spain, according to YouGov,\u00a0a\u00a0polling company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

European leaders see a 21st\u00a0century where\u00a0America, personified\u00a0by\u00a0its president, has taken a different route\u00a0away from\u00a0the post-war settlement. At the World Economic Forum in Davos\u00a0this\u00a0January,\u00a0the tension between the US and Europe was palpable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been coming to the World Economic Forum for 16 years<\/a>,\u201d I wrote\u00a0from the Alps. \u201cI have never seen\u00a0such a crisis in U.S.\/Europe relations.\u201d\u00a0Ursula\u00a0Von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, said that the \u201cold order\u201d\u00a0was dead.\u00a0\u201cEurope needs to adjust to the new security architecture and realities that we are now facing,\u201d\u00a0she\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We are seeing that warning play out.\u00a0Trump has made threats of trade embargoes and economic pain\u00a0to those who do not support military action without compromise. Europe, with a total economy\u00a0totaling\u00a0$27 trillion,\u00a0has shrugged rather than panicked.\u00a0At the\u00a0Mobile World Congress\u00a0in Barcelona, from where I am writing this column, Huawei<\/a>, the Chinese technology supplier, has\u00a0a bigger pavilion than Google<\/a>.\u00a0Europe believes it can make its economic way\u00a0without US largesse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more: \u201cTechnology is our superpower\u201d\u2014Africa and India take seat at top table as AI revolution spreads<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Economic confidence is bringing\u00a0diplomatic\u00a0boldness.\u00a0Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, has followed Mark Carney\u2019s lead and laid\u00a0out plans for new global order not dominated by America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this duty\u00a0[to\u00a0protect and\u00a0improve the lives of citizens]\u00a0use the smokescreen of war to hide their failure and, in the process, line the pockets of a select few\u2014the same ones as always; the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is naive to believe that democracies or respect between nations can spring from ruins. Or to think that\u00a0practicing\u00a0blind and servile obedience is a form of leadership\u2026\u00a0We will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and that is also contrary to our values\u00a0\u200b\u200band interests, simply out of fear of reprisals from someone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Sanchez, Pax Americana is over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to respond if you run a global company?\u00a0Business leaders are a pragmatic bunch. When the facts change, so do they. One senior chief executive I spoke to at MWC said\u00a0that Europe needed to\u00a0maintain\u00a0stability rather than add to global risks.\u00a0If that\u00a0means\u00a0splitting more aggressively with the US, so be it.\u00a0\u201cIf you are an airline outside the Gulf,\u00a0for\u00a0example,\u00a0this is all good news,\u201d he said waspishly.\u00a0Technology security firms based outside\u00a0of\u00a0America are\u00a0hopeful of new deals as non-US\u00a0businesses\u00a0look for new partners\u00a0that can help them expand east, not west.\u00a0In a multi-polar world, everyone has more than one customer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Risks abound.\u00a0America is still the world\u2019s greatest power.\u00a0International conflict brings death, displacement,\u00a0and economic consequences. But this is indeed a new century. Europe will\u00a0have\u00a0to reset its attitude to\u00a0defense\u00a0and spend far more. State support for\u00a0feather-bedded populations\u00a0will need to change. New world orders mean\u00a0hard work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Europe has made a calculation.\u00a0Voters are now more negative than they are positive about the U.S.\u00a0Trump will not last forever.\u00a0Maybe America\u00a0will\u00a0rediscover the value of a global world order which\u00a0has\u00a0boosted its economy beyond all compare. But if it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0then the message is clear. Europe will\u00a0make an effort\u2014stuttering maybe\u2014to stand on its own two feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scars of the Iraq War run deep in Europe.\u00a0At the time,\u00a0France, led by President Jacques Chirac, could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[32,2000,299,5187,1699,774,10470,233550,233551,771],"class_list":["post-807747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-donald-trump","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-letter-from-london","tag-londonarticles","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116181935685705009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}