proving US military power

[smerlus]

-    “What France and the U.K. can wield even together with other European partners is insignificant relative to the U.S.,” says Dr Stephen Blackwell, a European security expert at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute. “It is a nonsense to talk of a counter-balance to American power. What Europe should do – and what it is doing, I believe – is building a force that can augment American power and bring specialties to bear like intelligence and special forces.”

-    A French naval crewman who served on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in 2002 was even more frank on the topic.

“The Charles de Gaulle is the most powerful ship in Europe, and it was like a bathtub toy when we sailed with the American fleet,” he says. “No one has any illusions of matching America in such things. But I think the French – the Europeans – want you to stop treating us like we owe you something. It is time to let us move out of the house.”


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4099098/