He didn't mean it that way. Or, did he?

After breaking America's grip on NATO, the EU's Javier Solana is offering Washington a helping hand. However, the EU's help will come with attached strings. You could say, ties that bind.

I though the Solana speech I posted yesterday was important. Friends, this one is too. Once again, I ask you to read the full text Read it here.

Solana says the reason the US and the EU need to work together is because they share mutual concerns. He says:

The reason for this is not hard to find. Europe and America share many interests and objectives: to spread democracy, to keep markets open, to resolve regional conflicts, to stabilize failing states, to fight terrorism, to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Here the pitch really begins. Solana attempts to bridge the values gap. He says:

We share core values, even though we sometimes use different labels: “freedom and democracy” are not the antitheses of “the rule of law and human rights”. They are two strands of a fundamentally similar outlook.

Solana turns to the need for the EU's new Constitution. Solana says:

When the European Constitution comes into force it will strengthen the EU as an effective international actor and partner for the United States. It will establish a new political foundation for a grouping that spans a continent and is ready to assume its global responsibilities. 

Now, wanting to include his domestic audience, Solana says:

The constitution will help to improve Europe's policy-making and execution. Perhaps the most important innovation in foreign policy is the creation of the post of EU minister for foreign affairs. This will combine, in one person, my current post of high representative for the common foreign and security policy with that of the vice-president of the European Commission with responsibility for external relations. The aim is to ensure that the components of EU external relations, political and economic, come together and operate coherently. This is a huge challenge that will fall to me, as the nominated future minister, to take up.

Taking up the sticky issue of why this new Foreign Minister will be replacing the EU's current rotating presidency, Solana says:

We want to give EU external policies not only more focus but also more consistency. That is why the Constitution proposes to abolish, in the area of foreign policy, the bewildering system of the rotating presidency, whereby countries take it in turn to chair the EU for six months. The presidency’s tasks – representing the Union abroad and chairing the regular meetings of EU foreign ministers – will in future be entrusted to the minister. This means that our partners will have one main interlocutor – something that is long overdue – and that there will be greater continuity in the EU policy-making system.

Friends, in light of what we're witnessing in Europe, there are some Bible verses that come to my mind.

But you are a chosen race, A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10 New American Standard Bible). 

I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time [3 1/2 years]; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed (Daniel 12:7). 

You see, we Christians are the true people of God. We believe in the Bible, including the Old Testament prophets. We believe in God's Only Son -- Jesus. And, we believe in freedom.

We don't believe in ties that bind.