Not unlike an 18th century novel, the story of the divide between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Europe over the Iraq war can be told through a series of letters.
The first letter, signed by eight member and prospective European Union states, appeared in late January 2003. It endorsed Operation Iraqi Freedom in the name of shared values, namely democracy, freedom, human rights and the Rule of Law. The second, signed by ten eastern European states and published soon afterwards, derived from an email penned by an American diplomat.
Both had an incendiary impact and forced a re-assessment of relations not only between the United States and Europe, but also within the borders of Europe itself. Media commentary has focused on diplomatic spats triggered by the two missives. Behind the scenes, however, a more philosophical drama is being played out that privileges a particularly eastern European mindset.
And, as in any drama originating in this part of the world, the best lines are reserved for the dissidents.
In the early 80s, Adam Michnik was repeatedly jailed because of his involvement in the radical trade union Solidarity and its opposition to the Polish regime. Two decades on, Michnik is now editor of Poland’s most important newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza. He says his experience of persecution is the central motivating factor in his support for the US-led Coalition and its invasion of Iraq. ‘I’ve always looked at this war from the point of view of a political prisoner in Baghdad’, he told Le Monde last year.
In the Le Monde interview, he acknowledged the existence of dictatorships as pernicious as Saddam Hussein’s (in Uzbekistan, for example) but said none of these required military intervention, as they did not directly threaten global peace. He then made two points that provide the basis for his pro-US position, while demonstrating just how much his worldview had been shaped by a lifetime spent in a country that has been used as the playground of the great powers.
‘Inside the United Nations there are two forms of arrogance,’ he said, ‘That of the Americans and that of the anti-war Paris-Berlin axis’. Both equally, he said, were dangerous for the democratic world.
When asked if he had any concerns about what would fill the vacuum following the fall of the Ba’athist regime, Michnik returned to history. ‘War is always a political defeat’, he said. ‘But the logic of those seeking peace as if it