Man, I'm going to show you something that will infuriate you...

[the_real_38]

... the byline says it all:

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101031201/nagenda.html?cnn=yes

[Closer]

1. Yeh, pretty disgusting read

But we gotta take the good with the bad. Time is usually pretty balanced.



hehe

[DebJ]

2. Europeans hate GW because they are more informed than we are...

their news, particularly coverage of the war, isn't edited like ours is.

[gardenista]

3. Going to France in two weeks.

I'm already bracing myself for real news. I expect to get my heart broken all over again over how horribly we're treating the rest of the world.

[Coldgothicwoman]

4. I couldn't make it

halfway into that article. The presumptions are nauseating.

And if I hear one more person talking about his so-called 'faith' I'm...I'm...I'm...

ARRRRGH! :spank:

[WilliamPitt]

5. Tell you what, though. This paragraph is spot-on.

"I suspect, however, that there are more fundamental factors at work. Bush reminds Europeans of the dark angels of their past. He is a conviction politician, a man who knows what he thinks and couldn't care two hoots for what he doesn't know. But after its blood-drenched flirtation with fascism and communism, Europe distrusts such certainty. Remember: Margaret Thatcher, another conviction politician, was hated—really, truly hated—by half of Britain. Bush is religiously devout, and that too calls up troubling spirits from Europe's vasty deep. Not all Europeans are godless heathens nor all Americans washed in the blood of the Lamb. But in European memory, religious fervor has often been a source of bitter communal strife—think of Ireland and the Balkans. Bush is prepared to use force to advance his political goals. But after the carnage of what might be called the long European war from 1914 to 1989, some Europeans—particularly older ones, in my experience—just cannot accept the idea that any war can be a good one."

In other words, they are watching Bush go down a deadly path they have seen traveled far, far too often. They've had to rebuild most of the place on a couple of different occasions after watching someone go down the path Bush is traveling. I trust their judgment. Any group that has weathered the trench warfare and wholesale slaughter in WWI, six million Jews murdered, 20 million Russians killed, some 10% of the entire population, and a bunch of the ones who survived the war got murdered by Stalin, the firebombing of Dresden, the invasion of Normandy, the London Blitz, Hitler, Mussolini, and then the Cold War, the laying of American nuclear missile silos, bayonet-to-bayonet standoff in Berlin, and Margaret Fucking Thatcher is probably one whose experienced opinion is worth listening to.

[the_real_38]

6. Yeah, but the point is that he then says they're...

... ultimately wrong in thinking all of this. They're not. And I don't think it's religious at all - Bush is showing the same mix of self-satisfaction and militancy that other Europeans have known. It's secular enough. From Rome to Hitler Europeans have witnessed that turning point from arrogance to conquest.

[WilliamPitt]

8. Well, I didn't read past this paragraph

I could sense where it was going, and decided to harvest whatever bits of worth I could. :)

[maggrwaggr]

7. you nail it as usual, Mr. Pitt

Americans aren't reel brite about histery.

[grasswire]

9. why do they keep saying...

...that Bush is devout. Devout Christians don't indulge in the thousand sins that George Bush commits with impunity and hubris.

[Generic Other]

11. Stupid article missed the point, eh?

"'Because European countries now resolve differences through negotiation and consensus, there's sometimes an assumption that the entire world functions in the same way. But let us never forget ... beyond Europe's borders, in a world where oppression and violence are very real, liberation is still a moral goal, and freedom and security still need defenders.' Every word of that is true."

Yeah, I agree, it is true. Violence and oppression are everywhere. Especially in Bush's America. And yes, liberating my country from the Bush regime is my goal. That's why I appreciate honest men like Will Pitt and others on DU who stand up day after day to defend "freedom and security" rather than spinning the lies of our submoronic leaders.

[BigBigBear]

10. I especially liked the part

where they characterized Bush as a 'conviction politician'...

As if 'I believe this, no matter what facts indicate otherwise' is a virtue.

[Toucano]

12. Oh, longing for the day...

When they call him "convicted" instead! :)