Which way will they tilt?

From The Brussels Journal:

Last week, the EU endorsed a fishing deal with Morocco. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that the deal includes the coastal waters of Western Sahara, a territory that has been occupied by Morroco for more than thirty years.

In the same week that the people of Montenegro had to produce a special qualified majority in order to have its independence recognized by the European Union, that same European Union sends now some very dubious signals to the indigenous people of Western Sahara. It endorsed a fishing deal with Morocco worth 114 million euros, and didn't object to the coastal waters of Western Sahara being included in the deal. According to international law, an occupying country isn't allowed to make deals that include the natural resources of occupied territory.

[Snip]

What's the matter with the European Union? Where are all those advocates of the Big Principles, those who object to war and occupation, even when the goal is to overthrow a merciless dictator? In the end, this fishing deal is a de facto recognition of the Moroccon occupation of Western Sahara

[Snip]

But on a more fundamental level, this case shows once again that the European Union doesn't care much about a people's right to self-determination when its own interests are at stake. . .

The European Union is not about principle on any level. The objections raised by European powers, mainly France and Germany, to the US action in Iraq were not based on any antiwar sentiment, but on the amount of bribe money Saddam was paying.

In the very long histories of the nations of Europe they have time and time again proven themselves capable of utter ruthlessness when their perceived interests are at stake. The key is that they must perceive the threat. They never perceived a threat from Iraq because they believed that Saddam could be managed.

The United States, by liberating the millions of Iraq, was upsetting a very profitable applecart. Get inside someone’s pocket and he will never love you.

As Victor Davis Hanson has pointed out on any number of occasions the Western World invented modern warfare. The “hot knife through butter” quality of American victories in the first and second Gulf Wars over the largest, best equipped and best trained Middle Eastern army gives an indication of the relative combat power of a military force schooled in the Western way of war versus one brought up in the Eastern.

The Moslem populations of European nations need to take note of this. As long as the EU’s leadership believes that it is cheaper to appease that is what they will do. But the second that they perceive that insurgent Islamic immigrant populations pose a threat to their comfortable lifestyles they can once again show the world the face of the ancient ruthlessness which Rome showed Carthage.

Of course that same ancient ruthlessness could easily cause the Union to fully ally itself with the Islamofascists if they perceive their ultimate best interests lie in that direction.

That is the danger of either an ally or enemy who’s only governing principle is realpolitic – unpredictability.