Watching European capitals scramble to calibrate their response to the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, one is reminded of a recurring scene in a very bad play — one that has run, with minor variations, since Suez. Europe blusters. Europe convenes. Europe issues a communique. And then Europe does nothing.
The pattern is so familiar by now that it barely warrants analysis. And yet the current crisis deserves closer scrutiny, not because Europe has surprised observers, but because the depth of its strategic irrelevance has been so thoroughly exposed — and so thoroughly obscured by the fog of its own rhetoric.
Let us be clear about what has happened. Washington, in close coordination with Jerusalem, undertook a major military operation against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure.
Whatever one thinks of the strategic wisdom of that decision — and there is much to think — the US made a choice of historic consequence in the Middle East, affecting energy markets, regional stability, international law and the security of American allies in Europe, without any meaningful consultation with those allies.
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