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Secretaries Panetta and Clinton are on a little fence-mending mission in Evropa: The Obama administration sought to reassure anxious European allies Saturday that budget cuts won’t undercut the U.S.’s commitment to their security. The Pentagon announced plans last month to cut the permanent U.S. force in Europe to two brigades, down from four, as [...]  Theodore Dalrympyle doesn’t hold out much hope: Belgium’s inability to form a central government would not matter so much if the country did not need to reduce its public spending. Though Belgium is the largest per-capita exporter of goods and services in the world and has healthy private savings, it also has a large [...] The London-based Financial Times takes stock of President Obama’s defense pivot, and makes some recommendations to its European readership: The Obama administration is right to make these cuts. After all, the economic crisis is arguably the biggest threat to western security today. Defence, like other budgets, must be pared back to boost fiscal credibility. [...] It’s been a little while since a German chancellor spoke this way: Peace should not be taken for granted if the euro fails, German chancellor Merkel told MPs Wednesday (26 October) ahead of the eurozone summit where an increase of the bail-out fund firepower may lead to Germany’s own state assets being taken as [...] Writing in the Financial Times, Philip Stevens notes President Obama’s redeployment of a combat brigade from Europe to CONUS and welcomes the move: In the circumstances, many would say that the intelligent course for Europeans is to plead with the Americans to stay. The harsh truth, though, is that Europe needs shock treatment. As [...] It does come with certain drawbacks, according to the Daily Telegraph’s Andrew Brown along with – here’s the shocker – the BBC: Are young men of Pakistani origin really fizzing with testosterone, and do they target young white women for sex because they see them as easy meat, as Jack Straw claimed last week? [...] You’ve got to admire it: A German entrepreneur is bypassing a European Union ban on light bulbs of more than 60 watts by marketing his own brand as mini heaters. Siegfried Rotthaeuser and his brother-in-law have come up with a legal way of importing and distributing 75 and 100 watt light bulbs — by [...] Looks like, after being left to dangle for the length of a book, Dutch politician Geert Wilders is going to get a pass: The Geert Wilders trial is as good as over. The public prosecutor has called for the populist politician to be acquitted of all charges against him. The trial will continue, but [...] Last year, the president received criticism from sources large and small about his decision to row back his predecessor’s plan to protect Evropa from Iranian launched ballistic missiles. This year, the president is all set to – wait for it – integrate NATO under a US missile defense umbrella to protect Evropa from Iranian [...] Al Qaeda and its affiliates are apparently planning Mumbai-style attacks against targets in Britain, Germany and France. The French director for internal intelligence is quoted as saying that the terrorist risk to France has “never been as high” as it is right now. In the hopes of blunting that threat, US drones and helicopter [...] |
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