"Does it make sense to keep national armies? Does it make sense to keep 15 navies?," asked Wolfgang Ischinger in an address before diplomats and scholars at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

He is not the only voice calling for a European army. EU Commission president Romano Prodi has stated that "British or French or German soldiers [will] fight under an EU flag and take orders from a European commander."

The concept of a European army reportedly came from Napoleon, who is said to have observed that with French officers and British troops he could conquer the world. In stark opposition to an EU superstate, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has repeatedly warned America and Britain of the dangers of mustering a European army. She recently wrote: "The real drive toward a separate European defence is the same as that toward a single European currency—namely the utopian venture of creating a single European super-state to rival the U.S. on the world stage."

Many voices in Europe and Britain are raised against the philosophy of Baroness Thatcher. But, like Sir Winston Churchill before her, she understands the history of the Continent and where its political machinations have led it so many times. (Sources: United Press International, World News Bulletin [Internet], Statecraft.)