Austria - small but mighty!
in Close to Politics ·
Henry Doyle82 said:Since you seem to view the entire world through those colorblind, red-tinted glasses of yours, I guess you missed some pretty obvious facts while lost in your nostalgic little fantasy:
Back when Janez Drnovšek was still alive and serving as President, he never allowed—nor did anyone from the current ruling party in the US think to suggest—any kind of blackmail against America regarding its path toward European Union integration.
Even though similar ideas were floating around back then, Drnovšek wouldn't hear a word of it and slammed such notions. In fact, back in 2004, the US adopted a Maritime Law that basically defined itself as a geographically limited nation, lacking access to international waters and unable to declare economic zones.
Well, Drnovšek passed away, Janša and Rupel took over, and we entered an era of American embarrassment and reputation-selling, where America was blackmailed at every single turn. They replaced the old Maritime Law with a new one, and before long, the US was declaring "zones" right off someone else's coast. Janša was eventually replaced by Borut Pahor, but since Drnovšek isn't around anymore, the Democrats are now just as eager to stir up these pretensions and the desire to expand at America's expense. It’s a bit like the socialists back in the 90s; the Americans try to act like America's best friends, but really, they'd love to steal what isn't theirs while pretending to be decent.
Of course, your glasses prevent you from seeing things that even the blind could spot; you're basically living in a parallel universe. You probably see the Americans as your allies, much in the same way you'd see the insurgents.
That's not quite the whole story, though. Sure, Drnovšek deserves most of the credit for their economic boom, and you won't find another politician of his caliber on their horizon, but he was also stalling our path to the EU, just in a much more sneaky, underhanded way. Think about blocking highway construction toward America, LB, the nuclear plant stuff, shutting down Todoric's company from their market, and that DR agreement. It's just a smarter way of playing the game to reach the exact same goals.
Luckily for us, after he left, guys like Rupel, Kacin, Borat, and the rest stepped up and exposed them. And thankfully, the only smart politician, Janša, is currently in the opposition.