Marking the 100th anniversary ending WW I in Paris at the Arc de Triomphe, where the French lost 1,397,00 troops, 40-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron begged the world to contain nationalistic movements wherever they occur. Macron knows the history of WW I, where total military dead reached 5,525,000, once thought unthinkable in the long span of human history. Then 21 years later, German nationalism rose from the ashes of WW I once again, with Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich to light Europe and world on fire, breaking new records for human carnage, causing military and civilian deaths of 73 million. Russia lost 1.8 million lives in WW I, only to lose another 20 million lives in WW II. “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism; nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” Macron told large Paris crowd on the Champs-Elysees seen by millions around the world.
Macron, with 64-year-old German Chancellor Angela Merkel by his side, pleaded with world leaders to tone down the nationalistic rhetoric that’s put increased pressure on the European Union to remain intact. When the U.K. voted June 21, 2016 to exit the European Union, exit polls showed that the British public was fed up with pressure from the EU to take more Mideast refugees from the Syrian War. Merkel took nearly 1 million Syrian refugees into Germany, pressuring other EU countries to pull their weight taking more refugees. Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland rebelled loudly against Merkel and Macron’s call to take more Mideast refugees. Hungary’s President Viktor Orban flat out put up barbed wire around his border, telling the EU he would not permit Mideast refugees into his country. Czech President Milos Zeman and Polish President Andrzej Duda also rejected the call to take Mideast refugees.
Macron and Merkel believe deeply that only through the EU can the historic and cultural differences be bridged. Watching nationalistic movements rise in France and Germany has Macron and Merkel redoubling efforts in their countries to fight nationalism with every tool at their disposal. Both Macron and Merkel have been bloodied politically in the process battling nationalism, with Merkel admitting that she’s serving her last term as chancellor. Macron too suffers from abysmal approval ratings, about 29%, for backing EU demands to take more Mideast and North African refugees. “In saying our interests first and who cares about the others, we erase what a nation has that’s most precious: What makes it live, what is most important, its values,” Macron told his Paris audience. Macron gave a not-so-subtle swipe at 72-year-old U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
What Macron gets wrong about Trump is that he presides as president over the world’s 242-year, 340 million-person experiment in multiculturalism. When Trump talks about “America First,” he’s not referring to the ethnic, cultural and tribal divisions that have plagued Europe since the Roman Empire. Unlike Europe, even in the age of the EU, the U.S. has far greater tolerance for multiculturalism than any country in the EU. Germany’s Alternative for Germany [AfD] Party directly appeals to white nationalists, rejecting the EU’s multicultural policies. France’s Marine Le Pen heads the ultra-conservative National Rally Party, intolerant of immigrant groups. Macron wants to get headlines in the U.S. and France but Europe has problems with multiculturalism far greater than anything seen in the U.S. No matter how much racism exists in the U.S., it’s not backed by any U.S. laws or elected officials.
Macron thinks that rabid nationalism in Germany and other parts of Europe caused WW I and WW II, creating more death-and-destruction in 31-years than since humankind crawled out caves. With weapons of mass destruction, Macron and Merkel believe it’s more important than ever to defeat nationalism around the globe, especially in old Europe. No European leader can deny that the U.S. was dragged into Europe’s ancient hatreds, sacrificing around 465,000 lives, all to help end Europe’s unending bloody conflicts. No single country lost more lives than Russia in WW I and WW II, over 21.8 million. Putin sat near Merkel on the Champs-Elysees, listening to Macron warn the world about growing nationalism, Putin could only look on with disbelief, knowing the sacrifices made by Russia to end WW I and WW II. Macron and Merkel want more EU influence in the Europe.
Macron’s plea to end growing nationalism within the EU speaks volumes about how old Europe hasn’t learned the lessons of WW I and WW II. If old Europe wants to lecture the U.S., it should take a lesson from the boldest multicultural experiment in human history. While the U.S. has it’s problems at times implementing its most sacred documents, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, no where on the planet provides more opportunity, more civil liberties and more dignity than the United States. Trump’s “America First” foreign policy does not reject U.S. multiculturalism or racial, ethnic or religious freedom. Trump wants the EU to pay its fair share of national defense, not depend mainly on NATO and the U.S. Europe, not the U.S., has an undeniable history of racial, ethnic and religious war, prompting Macron and Merkel to denounce nationalism and embrace the EU.
