June 15, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

WASHINGTON: Veteran US lawmaker Tom Lantos on Thursday complained young Americans were dying to defend freedom while Europe’s youngsters “stroll the avenues” in prosperous Paris and Bonn.

Lantos, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee, admitted that the United States shared some of the blame for the “tattered” state of the transatlantic relationship.

But he said that Europe, while enjoying a post-war “umbrella” of protection provided by the United States, had failed to do the “heavy lifting” to safeguard its own security.

Lantos also implored Europe to recognise what he said were mounting threats from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and lambasted the “hollow” output from last week’s G8 summit.

He argued at a hearing of his committee that the transatlantic relationship had fallen into disrepair because it lacked the organising principle provided by the common threat from the Soviet Union. “Now, without that unifying force, the transatlantic alliance has become tattered — like a flag that has weathered one too many hurricanes,” said Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who battled the Nazis and communism in his native Hungary.

“The United States is partly to blame, with our my-way-or-the-highway approach but the Europeans are also at fault because often they leave us doing the heavy lifting.” “Young men and women from New York and San Francisco and Ames, Iowa are daily giving their lives in defence of freedom while their counterparts in Bonn and Paris stroll the avenues, admiring Europe’s great prosperity.” Lantos argued that Europe’s wealth and security were a direct result of American protection after World War II.

“But instead of doing their part to keep this umbrella upright, Europe continues to rely on our shelter. The military spending of all of its countries combined is dwarfed by US military spending.” “If French and German soldiers aren’t willing to serve on the frontlines, Afghanistan could devolve once again into a state-sponsored launching pad for terror.” He also condemned the output from last week’s G8 summit in Germany, saying it was the latest of a string of missed opportunities to get the relationship back on track.

US concerns had led to a watering down of the content on global warming and he said the attempt to censure a “horrendous” Iranian regime over its nuclear programme was diluted beyond recognition.—AFP