Just say "please".

You'd think that at some point, the EU would lose interest in letting Iran make fools of them.

Now the EU plans to "table" a resolution (as in "put forward", not "set aside") at the IAEA, but not ask the board to take any action on it. For the EU, this is a highly pro-active and aggressive move: They're not just going to sit there thinking about bleating helplessly. They're going to talk out loud about bleating helplessly. But don't worry, don't feel threatened: They won't actually bleat. That would be rash. And vulgar.

Their plan to eclipse the US as the major world power consists solely of strategies for getting their name in the paper. That's their entire foreign policy: Create a millimeter-thin impression of importance by grabbing lots of headlines. I never thought of Europe as an irrelevant backwater until they started trying to prove otherwise.

The "political class" over there are not adults.

UPDATE 9/22/2005: They've dropped their "threat" to talk about whimpering impotently.