It's not because Roger Cohen of the New York Times denigrates Ireland as a once "beer-soaked backwater" that makes me think he hates Ireland. Nor is it because he lambastes the "electoral crassness" of the Irish in rejecting last week the Lisbon Treaty that would have empowered Eurocrats at the expense of national sovereignty on such matters as immigration and regulation. Nor is it even because Cohen implores the Europeans to "deal with the ungrateful Irish." It is because Cohen, like so many other leftists, wishes to do away with the nation-state Ireland and replace it with a distant government in Brussels that makes me think he that he hates Ireland. For that matter, he hates France, Germany, Italy, and every other nation-state. Bureaucrats in Washington, DC are bad enough; imagine if we had to deal with an additional layer of bureaucracy in a far-away land--that, at least in part, is what the Irish rejected. It's not that his animus is peculiar to the Irish. In Cohen's fantasy, no countries just the world. The liberal intellectual's dream is the common man's nightmare.
Does Ireland have the will to resist the Eurocrats forever?....Spunky little country ain't it?
With all of the blood and courage it took Ireland to finally break away from Britain (sort of) and form their own government, what makes other Europeans think that they’d give up their sovereignty so easily?
The Irish have one of the best systems of education in Europe and are thought by many there to be the most enlightened and best informed. So it’s not a surprise that Irishmen saw the Lisbon Treaty for what it is and rejected it.
It’s ironic too that the head of the new union would be run out of Brussels. Considering that Belgium is in a constant state of flux and demise with Flemish and Walloons jockeying to split the country into a non-entity, it seems representative of this doomed contract.
It'll be interesting to see which form the "treaty" is repackaged as.........
I read in an article one Irishman quoted as saying "How many times do we have to vote 'No' before Brussels hears us?"
Cohen comments on the strong anti-treaty sentiment all across Europe yet aims all his vicious remarks at the Irish... he clearly has something personal against them.
His whole point about the EU providing foreign investment oppurtunities to Ireland is complete nonsense. Ireland's geographic location and EU membership have been long established, it was low corporate tax rates that brought investment (high minimum wages imposed by the EU actually hinder f.i). Ironically the Lisbon treaty would have taken such control over taxation AWAY from the Irish government!!
This 'treaty' would have superseded all the constitutions of its member countries, why anyone can't instinctively understand why this is wrong drives me crazy.
The Irish have saved Europe again.. for a year or two?!
Cohen is like Cronkite. Nations can't be trusted. But the problem is, the Irish have been raised on the mother's milk---Guiness. They'll hold fast for decades.
This guy's palpable rage is gold. Gold Jerry Gold!
The man's column was completely innocent of anything resembling an argument. He gets paid for this?
