I don't have time to work this out fully now -- see next entry -- but I think I glimpse an interesting historical analogy. Has anyone else argued on these lines before?

I believe it is generally agreed that socialists and communists in the Thirties, particularly in Germany, encouraged Hitler's rise to power because they thought they could use him to trash their common enemies and then discard him. Many of them paid for this mistake with their lives. Are today's French and Germans doing something similarly shortsighted, allying themselves, however gingerly, with Islamofascism to fight the U.S.? If so, they are surely making just as big a mistake. The characters haven't even changed much:

Thirties : Now :: Socialists and Communists : Tranzi Eurosocialists :: Nazis : Islamofascists

In each case, the chosen ally is a murderous gang of antisemitic thugs, and the chosen enemy liberal democracy of the capitalistic variety.