Iraq Is Europe's Business, Too

LONDON -- There is something rather surreal about the transatlantic world today. There are completely separate debates about Iraq ongoing on either side of the ocean and they simply don't connect.

There is now an elected government -- of all the factions -- in Baghdad, and it is struggling to get a grip on security. But too many European leaders are simply standing back from what stares them in the face as if any spillover from Iraq was a problem for America and not for we Europeans.

As day follows night, if Iraq implodes then the shock waves will wash over European capitals long before they hit Washington or Chicago or San Francisco. In the world of globalization, the Middle East is our close back yard, and it is an abdication of truly historic proportions to say to the United States, "You broke it, so you fix it."

And it will be a cynical betrayal of our populations' interests and lives if certain countries do not help for fear that it might help the ratings of the current U.S. president.

Historical parallels are not always useful, but perhaps European elites might reread some of the history books of 1939 and 1940, when the United States stood for so long on the sidelines as the Nazis stormed across Europe, swallowing up Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

The U.S. leadership, and many of its people, took the view that the fight was not theirs, and whatever horrors were being visited on the Europeans, at least America was safe.

Well, it wasn't, and Pearl Harbor told these Americans what they already knew but would not admit. Their entry into that war saved them, and it assuredly saved us, too -- but surely that experience should have engraved on every European heart the message that none of us is immune from the forces of disorder, chaos and destruction once they are unleashed.

If the Islamic terrorists succeed in Iraq, they will not stop there -- and no one will be safe or secure for a very long time.

And we Europeans know the score. We don't have to go back to the nightmare of 1940 and the retreat from Dunkirk; we can look back 10 years to the nightmares of the post-Yugoslavia Balkans. Then, it looked as bleak as Iraq does today. The killing, the medieval brutality, the savage population clearances, the towering human misery flowing from interethnic savagery -- it all dominated our TV screens every day.

Few people thought that there would be peace at all. And even the optimists thought that if exhaustion eventually stopped the slaughter, then generations would be required to bring lasting peace and any kind of reconciliation.

If all that seems strangely similar to the current punditry about Iraq, reflect on one thing. Per capita the violence in the Balkans then was much worse and much deeper than in Iraq today.

But we knew what to do in 1995 -- and it worked. Decisive military action stopped the fighting. A huge multinational force of 65,000 NATO troops (including forces from Russia, Ukraine and the Muslim countries of Turkey, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates) swamped every trouble spot. The United Nations put in its best, the European Union developed an aid plan and the outside world engaged -- militarily, diplomatically and financially.

The result? A functioning nation-state today, with refugees still going home in large numbers, a single army and one ministry of defense. Not only that but a team in the Olympic Games, and Bosnia and Herzegovina coming in third in last month's Eurovision Song Contest.

From 65,000 troops 10 years ago under NATO control, we have today around 6,000 E.U.-commanded paramilitary forces. Even the wildest optimists in 1995 dared not hope for this kind of outcome.

But it was not an accident, nor was it done out of altruism or humanitarianism alone. It had to be done because the spillover of violence, refugees, instability and criminality threatened us here in comfortable Europe, and we knew we had to act decisively in our own best interests.

It's time that European leaders recognized that what is playing out in Iraq today is their future, too. It's difficult, complex and, at the moment, bloody. But that did not stop us 60 years ago, or 10 years ago in Bosnia, or even seven years ago in Kosovo.

We knew what we had to do, and we did it then to save our people and preserve their security. In Baghdad today they are fixing, or breaking, our future, too. It is no time to look away.

The writer served as secretary general of NATO (1999-2003) and British defense secretary (1997-99).