Jonathan Freedland (Guardian Utd): Beyond the great divide

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Unlimited (UK)
Dated Wednesday November 19

Beyond the great divide
If Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus, that spells big trouble here on Earth
By Jonathan Freedland

Call Relate: this is a couple that could use some marriage guidance. No, not the prime minister and his newly arrived visitor: they seem to get along just fine. They're like the sweethearts in the old Tracey Ullman song. No matter how many people insist their romance is wrong, their bond only gets stronger. "Why should it matter to us if they don't approve... 'cause they don't know 'bout us/And they've never heard of love."
No, George Bush and Tony Blair do not need counselling just yet. Nor do Britain and the United States. Most Brits seem to have kept a cool head about that relationship. As the Guardian poll showed yesterday, nearly two thirds still regard the US as a force for good in the world even if one third would have preferred the president to have stayed at home.
Still, there is one relationship that is in dire need of help. It's the one in which Britain is so often caught in the middle, trying to play peacemaker. The rift to be healed is between Europe and America.
For the second half of the 20th century, they were solid allies; in just the first few years of the 21st, they have fallen out badly. The poll numbers are instructive. In this month's now notorious EU survey, asking Europeans which nations posed a grave threat to world peace, the US scored 53% - level with Iran and North Korea, the two remaining arms of Bush's "axis of evil". A September survey found just 45% of Europeans keen on a strong US global presence - a drop of nearly 20% on the previous year. In France, 70% believed global US leadership was "undesirable".

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[Capt_Nemo]

1. Freedland is wrong and I'll tell you why

let's start with a few quotes:

"Americans see Europeans as limp-wristed parasites, too weak to defend themselves but only too happy to shelter under Uncle Sam's coat when things get tough."

"But Europeans must acknowledge that it is contemptible to condemn America for its military reach one moment, only to demand it take action the next."

"The only solution is for Europe to take defence more seriously. If there is peacekeeping, or more aggressive, work to be done, we have to be able to do it ourselves."

Freedland fails to see that the american stance is absolutely
hypocritical because on one hand they complain that the europeans
don't take defense seriously, but when europeans do any move
to boost their defense capabilities the US not only lashes out
whining that europeans are threatening NATO, but actively try
to torpedo any of these initiatives (as is implicit in PNAC's
"Rebuilding America's Defenses"). This has been going on since
the end of the Cold War and has only succeded because right wing
governments and the british are always doing Washington's bidding.

The fact is that the last thing they want is an Europe strong on
defense, that would anihalate the last trump card of the american
economy in the global market: an unmatched power projection
capability.
That would forge an independently minded Europe that could go
into a strategic partnership with Russia, thus giving birth to
a new superpower.

Venus has not shifted enough its orbit, but not in the way Freedland
thinks, The orbit where Venus should be passes inevitably right through Mars'
path and thats what Martians are afraid and why they are whining so much. That's what
Freedland fails to see.