Bush told to treat Europeans 'like adults'

[Khephra]

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The former American secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, has attacked the Bush administration for alienating the Arab world and Europe, warning a long-term rift will occur if fences are not mended.

"European unease with American pretensions, coupled with American doubts about European resolve, has created the potential for a long-term and dangerous rift", Ms Albright writes in the September/October edition of Foreign Affairs.

Deeply critical of the Bush administration's handling of the "war" against terrorism, Ms Albright - who was Bill Clinton's secretary of state - is also critical of the way some European countries handled themselves.

"The problem is that President Bush has reframed his initial question . Instead of simply asking others to oppose al Qaeda, he now asks them to oppose al Qaeda, support the invasion of an Arab country, and endorse the doctrine of preemption -- all as part of a single package. Faced with this choice, many who staunchly oppose al Qaeda have nevertheless decided that they do not want to be "with" the United States".

more.................

http://www.euobserver.com/index.phtml?aid=12724

[radfringe]

1. is it even possible

for a child to treat adults as adults???

:evilgrin:

[Kellanved]

2. Madeleine !

:bounce:


--snip
She concludes that: "Perhaps above all, the Europeans should be treated as adults. If they have differences with U.S. policy, those differences should be considered seriously, not dismissed as signs of weakness (or age) or tantamount to treason. Washington needs to recall that "allies" and "satellites" are distinctly different things".
--snap

[emad]

3. No matter how much spin.....

most sane Europeans see Bush as a gun slinging oil industry pimp, who needs a crawler like Tony Blair to do his sucking up for him outside the US.

[0007]

4. Very well said!

Where ya from ol' buddy?

[emad]

6. London, UK.....

......in a place where they know how to successfully sue the Bushes but not (yet) publish 35 years' of lawsuit transcripts (cometh the moment, cometh the woman....)

[tabasco]

14. There's no way he can restore credibility with the Europeans

The Europeans recognized immediately what an unsophisticated and stupid leader Bush is. My guess is Europe is waiting out till the next election and will not make any concessions to the Bush team.

[Mandate My Ass]

16. Exactamundo

It's telling that when he got to Yale on his legacy affirmative action admission Bush immediately made widely known his disdain for all intellectuals. He became an extremely boorish frat boy.

He knows he can't measure up intellectually or in any other way with his European counterparts so he treats real leaders with contempt he suspects they feel for him.

This is the behavior of someone with extremely arrested emotional development.

[Dhalgren]

17. It's called "Pe-emptive contempt"

And is always the recourse of the self-loathing type.

[imax2268]

5. Is it me...

or is he just trying to piss the off the rest of the world...?

[iam]

19. Remember,

Dumbya is a christian and christians need the world to end so that the bible would be proven right and they can be vindicated in the eyes of those who remain.
NEVER vote for a christian. Never vote to put someone in the position to prove themselves right, to fulfill their own deeply held beliefs and push that button of armageddon.

[TheLastMohican]

7. Pot calling the kettle black

Is it the same Albright who was smirking and grinning with satisfaction when NATO planes bombed Yugoslavia to the stone age targeting civilians, women and children?
Ironically, Yugoslavia was the country that saved her poor zionist arse from nazis in WWII. And she showed her gratititude by bombing that country to the ground. No matter what she says I don't believe her, because there are two types of zionists - the hidden ones and active (like Perle, Werewolf, etc.) She is the hidden one but she is in the same boat with the rest of the crew.

[Pocho]

9. WELCOME TO DU MOHICAN

But it is too bad some here are going to jump all over the alert button crying to have you removed for saying what needs to be. With dim hope they do not succeed, may we to read you here again and continue the good fight together.

[AP]

11. OK, that's a little rabid. Actually, it's pot meet kettle 'cause

Clinton and Albright, after Bosnia and Kosovo, told Europe that they had to build up an army and take care of their own business in the future. However, when they did, Clinton told them to back off, and not challenge NATO's authority.

Spedifically, the Europeans tried to replicate some of the military elements of NATO, and tried to form, within NATO, a European coalition. Albright (and Holbrook?) told them that they were not to replicate any aspects of NATO and there was to be no European coalition within NATO.

You can't tell Europe, on the one hand, to take military responsibility for themselves, and then shut down every logical avenue on which they embark to do that.

Granted, Bush has been worse -- he told Europe outright that the US would no longer participate in activities to help Europe, and proceeded to pull troops out of Kosovo and totally turned his back when thinks were heating up in Macedonia, but then told Europe, essentially, to shut the fuck up about Iraq, which is a serious European concern -- but Albright and Clinton definitely were very schizophrenic towards Europe and it drove Europeans a little crazy.

I don't doubt that lots of Europeans will be thinking that Albright isn't one to criticize Bush on this issue.

[Dhalgren]

13. You make a good point

regarding the actions of Clinton/Albright in Kosovo, and also touching on WWII. We always say that we (US) won WWII, but a small country called the Soviet Union had a little to do with that, as well. We can't be constantly throwing WWII in the faces of the Europeans, because "any port in the storm" kind of comes to mind. Most European governments had no use for Stalin, at all, but when the fight was against Hitler - "any port in the storm".
I just don't think that an illegal junta, that has seized power in this country can call on our "glorius" past as though it pertained to them (or the us, now). We are the new Hitler of the world, and Europe owes us (now) nothing.

[Democat]

8. When Clark or Dean gets elected, the adults will be back in the Whitehouse

Is there a catchy phrase Bush used in the 2000 campaign that can't be applied to him now? Most of them seem to fit.

[teryang]

10. Treating sovereign powers as children

Is the hallmark of a belligerent tyrant. Why do people continue to sugar coat this tyranny?

[Catshrink]

12. Whistle-Ass never traveled much

before being selected. That worried me a lot -- how can one understand other people if he's never interacted with them? He's never had the experience of roaming around another country as a regular person.

So what we get is his goofy idealism -- pictures formed in his own mind about how other people live, think, etc. The jackass is nominally POTUS and he has no clue.

But I'm preaching to the choir.

[TahitiNut]

15. For Smirk, that'd be adulteration.

He's so functionally illiterate, he might interpret it as adultery.

[bemildred]

18. Shrub and his henchmen have no finesse,

hence, are hastening the end of American hegemony,
Ms Albright doesn't like seeing all her work trashed
by morons, hence the whining.