George b...'s Transatlantic Crisis

[RedEarth]

I wonder what this administration thought would happen when they tried to bully our old allies on supporting our invasion of Iraq. I guess they assumed it would be business as usual. They are truly pathetic.


George W. Bush's Transatlantic Crisis

By Ivo H. Daalder | Thursday, August 21, 2003

Europe — peaceful and secure — has largely slipped off the radar screen of a Washington preoccupied with other regions of the world. But what might have been an unavoidable geo-political shift has turned into a needlessly deep crisis in transatlantic relations. Ivo Daalder calls the Bush Administration to task — and explains why the United States needs Europe more than it may want to admit.

Today, U.S.-European relations are in deep crisis, a crisis that is worse than any other in the past 50 years. Not all of this is President Bush’s fault, but much of it is.

http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=3379

[teryang]

1. Interesting article

It got me to thinking about dim son's divide and conquer strategy with respect to Europe. His biggest success is peeling off UK from the mainland. Regardless of the oft repeated contentions "new Europe" is not strategically significant.

My personal opinion is that it is better to see France and Germany plot their own course. As we have lost all checks and balances at home, these powers in conjunction with Russia and China are the only limit on our naked aggression. While not completely effective in cases of peripheral conflicts, it is still a check of sorts.

As to cooperation in Africa this is almost laughable. Even more laughable than the prospect of "cooperation" in Iraq. The crises in Africa are the result of naked corporate colonial competition for resources and weapons markets between France and America. This secret struggle for control of Africa has resulted in genocide aided by private mercenaries supported covertly by government and resulted in unprecedented human misery.

While there is a positive tone to this article, I think the author is a little naieve and working hard to maintain a patina of civility over a rift caused by the openly brutal and ruthless policies of our current junta. In this, it has a Neville Chamberlain like quality of hoping to bring the irredeemable scoundrel and conqueror to the bargaining table. But the only thing he respects is naked power. Cooperation with the worlds new tyrant is only appeasement.