American Future led me to a great article by a European that actually thinks straight….can you believe it?
Europe is snobbishly patronizing about Bush and likes to blame him personally for the things it does not like. The election proves that most Americans are on his side. We should recall that even the election loser, John Kerry, did not oppose the war. It is not just Bush who is unco-operative on global warming. Not one US senator voted for the Kyoto agreement…
Europe is surrounded by dangers across north Africa and through the Middle East. Our security depends on America now as throughout the 20th century. US intervention was decisive in both world wars, and if it had not been for US protection under Nato during the cold war we might all now be speaking Russian.
After US policy had toppled the Soviet Union, we Europeans proved unable to sort out Bosnia and Kosovo….
Europe does not understand America because it still does not grasp 9/11. When Al-Qaeda bombed Madrid?s commuter trains in March some said it was Europe?s 9/11. It was not. The plane that hit Washington struck at the heart of the state in a way that slaughtering train passengers did not. After 9/11 Americans closed ranks to defy the terrorists.
By contrast the Madrid outrages aroused bitter divisions in Spain. The ensuing Spanish election produced an important lurch within Europe as the new government withdrew its support for America and its troops from Iraq. It opted out of the ?new Europe? (as defined by Donald Rumsfeld) and rejoined the Franco-German axis.
Throughout 2004 European Atlanticists were in retreat. In truth the rout began before the Iraq war when Gerhard Schr?der?s government declared its opposition to US policy. Since the end of Nazism Germany had played a dual role as a founder member of the European Community and an ardent supporter of Nato. Schr?der bowed to German popular opinion. Abandoning America was a historic error.
Anti-Americanism is at record levels in other traditionally Atlanticist countries such as Holland and indeed Britain, too. The rot has spread to America?s friends in eastern Europe. Last month the Hungarian parliament defeated a government proposal to keep troops in Iraq until after the elections in January. The right-of- centre party, which when in government chafed impatiently to join Nato, campaigned to withdraw the soldiers.
Very interesting article. I don’t agree with everything the writer states in it but taken as a whole I’m glad one European “gets it”
See author page