I suspect you haven't had a good listen to Bernard Kouchner on this subject. He's one of the main players.

After watching him in action, let me say I'm a lot less confident in the motivations and abilities of EU ministers than you are.

I appreciate your point of view, and actually this is a frequent argument that friends make when we discuss international events. I'm of the mind that fuckups frequently occur, while my friends tend to think that things are much more plotted.

From the US, I watch as the CIA sets up fake banks in Europe with which to entrap Al Qaeda, I watch as the Joint Cheifs of Staff conjure up Operation Northwoods to trigger wars, I watch as badly forged uranium documents are pased to Italy, as German intelligence conjures up Serbian genocide plots in Kosovo (Operation Plotvicka) not realizing they are using the Croatian spelling in their forgery, I watch as the British parliament states that, although the document is a forgery, it still rings true, and American congressman and State Dept officials who have no clue act surprised when an Albanian at the table at Rambouillet rejects a peace agreement.

These events, these people, do not inspire confidence. In fact, they look like bunglers to me. Bill Clinton's own Balkans outlook was fashioned after reading a single book by a neo-con. I think we could do better.