Felix G. Rohatyn, U.S. Ambassador to France from 1997 to 2001, offers his view in the IHT opinion piece, Executions in America: Dead to the world, that the death penalty – viewed by our enlightened cousins as “a throwback to the Middle Ages” – in America hampers our ability to secure agreements on unrelated issues, including North Korea;
It creates significant problems for the United States when it requires European support on difficult security issues. Dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, or the war in Iraq, or North Korea’s bomb… all are made more difficult by the intensity of popular opposition in Europe to America’s policy.
The core of his argument is this;
Contempt for the laws of our allies is a major factor in our increasing isolation in the world, and our present posture in Iraq reflects that reality… Taking the views of 300 million Europeans into account is not a sign of weakness on our part, nor is it a commitment to change our views… That is a sign of enlightenment. (emphasis added)
A few important items to note about this last quote.
First, former Ambassador Rohatyn has mixed up who is contemptuous of whom. European governments view Americans as somewhat barbarous and backwards because of the death penalty and freely display contempt American criminal law, and American culture in general, not the other way around.
Second, European laws prohibiting capital punishment reflect the views of the ruling elites, not the public who elected them, most of whom approve of the practice (for example, 82 percent of Britons would like to see the death penalty brought back). Is the total disregard of basic democratic principles – or perhaps doing what is best for them if they like it or not – the “enlightenment” Rohatyn is speaking of? Or would Germany and France dealing with Iraq while attempting to block a U.S. invasion to seize WMD (and even those European intelligence agencies believed would be found) be a more fitting example of enlightened European ideals?
While the ideals that brought about the Constitution of the United States did spring from European thought a few centuries ago, as Rohatyn points out, it seems that their governments have strayed rather far from those ideals in practice. Taking “into account” the view of some Europeans has already occurred; we disagreed.
If European leadership would be so petty as to allow their contempt of American laws, democratically supported by the way, on capital punishment to hinder cooperation against rouge nations like Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, then what would he propose we do?
No, America need not look to Europe for social or political enlightenment.
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