Joao Miranda escreve: "Nos séculos XII e XIII, a União deslocou-se para leste. A versão Sacro Império Romano incluía o Benelux, a Alemanha, a R. Checa, a Suíça, a Áustria e a Itália. Os eurocépticos do costume estão de fora. Portugal e Espanha estão a passar para o lado certo da guerra de civilizações. Os franceses desta vez estão inocentes. Neste período, a União era um paraíso liberal em que os proprietários das terras (príncipes, duques, condes, barões) faziam o que queriam e não ligavam muito ao imperador. Um modelo a seguir."
A propósito dos franceses, acrescento aqui uma nota de um artigo de Patrick J. Buchanan em Março de 2003 e a propósito de "...Americans are puzzled. Why are they organizing the Security Council against us? Why are they sabotaging the president's plan to bring democracy to Iraq, as we restored democracy to France? Why are they doing this?": Why the French Behave As They Do?
"...To understand what France is about, and perhaps deal with our French problem with more maturity than dumping champagne in the gutter, let us go back five centuries.
In 1500, there was born in Ghent a future king who would come to dominate the world as we do today. At six, the death of his father Philip of Hapsburg gave Charles the crown of the Netherlands.
At 16, the death of his grandfather Ferdinand made him Charles I of Spain and of all its dependencies in Italy and America. At 19, the death of his grandfather Maximilian brought Charles all the hereditary lands of the Hapsburgs and the expectation of being elected Holy Roman Emperor.
In 1519, that title had been in the Hapsburg family four generations. Yet it remained an elective office. And two young and ambitious rulers challenged Charles for that title: Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France. Francis was by far the more formidable.
He set about bribing the electors. But Charles had access to the Medicis and the Fugger bank of Jacob the Rich, the strongest in Europe. Charles bought up more electors and was chosen Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
France was surrounded. Charles ruled almost all of what is today's Spain, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Hungary and Italy, except for the Papal States. What did Francis, seething with resentment, do? Exactly what balance of power politics dictated. He began making alliances with the nations not under Charles' control, and went to war.
In 1525, Charles' armies crushed the French Army at Pavia and captured the French king. "Nothing is left to me," Francis I wrote to his mother, "except honor and life."
By agreeing to humiliating peace terms, Francis won his freedom and returned to France. There, he began preparing at once for a new war, winning the support of the pope and the Italian states that were coming to resent the dominance of the hegemonic Charles.
Defeated again, Francis made alliances with Scotland, Sweden and Denmark, with rebellious princes in Germany, even with the infidel Turks, an unprecedented act for a Christian king. Francis fought Charles until his death in 1547.
Point of this history: For Francis I, read Jacques Chirac; for Charles V, read George W. Bush.
Again, consider the world from the Paris point of view.
French was once the language of every court in Europe. I speak German only to my horses, said Frederick the Great. But now, because the Americans speak English, English is the language of diplomacy, of the Internet and the Global Economy. (...)"
PS: Hoje, a tradicional linguagem de "orgulho americano" (ou será do Estado Federal Americano?) de muitos liberais europeus culpa os Franceses de tudo, sendo certo que são culpados de muita coisa desde que perdeu a sua monarquia, mas foram os franceses que tiveram sempre o ónus de combater os Alemães sem hesitações (para seu próprio mal), ali mesmo ao lado e apesar das fragilidades mais do que óbvias:
Em 1871 contra Bismarck. Na Grande Guerra porque era aliado da Rússia. E na Segunda, em desvantagem mais do que óbvia, por causa da Polónia. No mês seguinte perderam (e só podiam perder, os generais sabiam disso) 100 000 homens a tentar o impossível contra as tropas alemãs.
A posição da Inglaterra sempre foi mais confortável: protegidos na sua ilha, enquanto os europeus continentais combatem, o Império cresce. Os americanos aparecem em ambas as guerras apenas no 4º ano de guerra e na Ásia a guerra acaba com duas WMD sobre civis...porque de outra forma as baixas militares poderiam ser elevadas...
Não é por acaso que nas academias miltares como West Point, o francês permaneceu como a lingua militar até recentemente. Chamarem pacifistas e cobardes aos franceses...e fazem o mesmo com os alemães...até parece que querem vê-los novamente a retomar a sua tradição quase milenária...
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