Europe straps it on

As Britain, France and Germany prepared the ground to report Iran to the United Nations, the usually cautious Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke with unprecedented bluntness about his frustration with Iran.

"We are coming to the litmus test in the next few weeks," he said in an interview in Newsweek magazine.

"Diplomacy has to be backed by pressure and, in extreme cases, by force," he said. "We have rules. We have to do everything possible to uphold the rules through conviction. If not, then you impose them. Of course, this has to be the last resort, but sometimes you have to do it." -- from The Daily Telegraph

I am really looking forward to some free fireworks displays over Iran. But, more importantly, I think this brings up an interesting issue about the legitimacy of American foreign policy. Regardless of your politics it is clear as day that the United States has lost serious political capital because of Iraq. On the other hand, I think Europe did as well, in a different way. We lost capital with our allies. It will be hard to convince Europe (Germany, France, Britain) to follow us into any jingoistic wars for a while. But it is also true that European military people feel that it will be hard to convince any third-world countries to obey them in the near future. They simply do not pose a threat, unless we're there to help them. This is problematic, because as it turns out, they actually may be threatened if Iran is able to make nuclear weapons to top off their warheads.

Political capital is important when you need it, but the United States has no need of European assistance in military campaigns. We do, however, need their economic support when we want to pressure tiny little Holocaust deniers. Their support will also make us and Israel look better if we actually need to shock and awe these people. This support appears to be forthcoming without any prodding by us. So unless we need to invade any other countries for no apparent reason in the next few years, we really didn't sacrifice any legitimacy. There was no opportunity cost. We live in the best of all possible worlds.