It would, after all, benefit them economically in the long run. Creating an alternative, second Superpower in the world, in the form of the EU, would mean that many smaller countries no longer feel the need to Kowtow to America, that alternative markets exist for goods, and that America, itself, will have to walk a little softer from now on.

If I really thought that France was seriously trying to become the nucleus of a second, also peaceful superpower, I would cheer them on. The world could use a backup "globocop."

However, I do not believe that the French are realistic about this, and I believe that the Europeans are even less realistic. They are fantasizing about "soft power" while a darkness rises in the Mideast, stretching forth its hand to seize nuclear weapons; they are trying to lever us out of the area while imagining that they can appease the growing mass of Islamic Fundamentalists by throwing them both the Israelis, and their own daughters, as so many sacrifices.

Europe should reflect that the Muslim ideology holds that the reconquest of former dar al Islam territory takes priority over new conquests, and that parts of Spain, the Balkans, and Southern Italy were once Muslim.

If we pull out, we are no longer in the line of fire.

You are.