NYT: Bush's Smiles Meet Some Frowns in Europe

[kskiska]

The start of President Bush's second term has been marked by conciliatory gestures toward Europe: a promised visit to the headquarters of the European Union, the selection of a top State Department team deeply versed in European affairs, restraint on trade, cooperation on the Ukrainian crisis and bold commitments to the active Middle Eastern diplomacy that Europeans want.

All of this amounts to a presidential gamble that the Atlantic community is alive and well, despite the divisive trauma of Iraq. But Mr. Bush will want results. As his secretary of state-designate, Condoleezza Rice, said this week: "When judging a course of action, I will never forget that the true measure of its worth is whether it is effective."

By this yardstick, can European-American cooperation still deliver? Can it usher in the freer world to which the president is committed? Promising to listen to the counsel of allies, Mr. Bush declared Thursday, "The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is the prelude to our enemies' defeat."

The initial reaction was generally cool. European commentators asked what new war Mr. Bush might embark on in the name of his idealism, and portrayed his global bid to eliminate tyranny as hubris or hypocrisy. But a few newspapers, like the conservative German daily Die Welt, suggested, "A little bit of this spirit would do the Old World good and help it to renew itself."

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http://nytimes.com/2005/01/22/politics/22view.html?hp&ex=1106370000&en=dae546bbdbf74ace&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[NYC]

1. What am I missing here?

"...the selection of a top State Department team deeply versed in European affairs..."

Wouldn't that start with the Secretary of State?

[leftchick]

3. the only thing condi is deeply versed in

is her boyfriend**. She does know Russia as well but they were discussing Europe right?

[Demit]

2. What Condi is really saying is, "The ends justify the means".

That's classic PNAC. If she's not a neocon, she's sure doing their bidding.

[soup]

4. Diplomacy

Depending on how much weight is put on one NYT article, this is truly frightening.

A bit more of the article for those without a subscription:

>>At the heart of Mr. Bush's new policy in Europe lies a push to reconcile with Germany, a firm postwar ally that opposed the Iraq war.

From Brussels, the president will travel to Mainz, Germany, for meetings that Ezra Suleiman, an expert on European affairs at Princeton University, said "has focused French minds on the fact that they risk being sidelined and marginalized if they don't get over the Iraq row."<<

and this:

>>"We see old European hands coagulating at the top of the State Department," said Jonathan Eyal, a British foreign policy expert. "We see a secretary of state with the ear of the president, we see the president coming to Brussels and deferring for now to European diplomatic efforts in Iran, and we see a quest for quiet mediation in the Airbus-Boeing dispute. All of that seems to amount to an opportunity we must grab."

But Europe, of late, has been characterized as much by division as unity, and hostility to Mr. Bush remains virulent in many countries.

An influential current in European thought sees the European Union more as a counterweight to the United States than as a partner. Where Poland and Slovakia embrace America, France and Spain wonder. The Continent is at best ambivalent about American power, at least as it has been exercised under Mr. Bush.<<

My way or the highway.
Iraq - get over it.
Iran - deferring for now.

[leesa]

5. Of course, the reality is that the United States is being sidelined all

over the world due to Bush's beligerence and irrational behavior.

Guess what Dubya...THEY don't need us. We're in debt over our heads, we have no manufacturing strength and our credibility is shot.