Europe and the US
Steven den Beste discusses an International Herald Tribune article on the relationship of Europe to the US:
"From the American side, the key point is that in American eyes, Europe is becoming less and less important, relatively speaking.
" 'The idea that something awful, fateful, has happened to the community of Western nations gets next to no attention here, if only because the complaint comes essentially from a fragmented Europe. In this view, Europe, officially designated by the Bush administration as "whole, peaceful and free," has devolved into an area of marginal strategic interest for the United States.'
"It's also commercially less important than it used to be. Though there continues to be a very large trading relationship between the US and Europe, it is a declining percentage of American trade especially as the Pacific Rim has increased in prosperity and importance.
...
"The American people don't value European opinion very highly:
" 'Francis Fukuyama, the Johns Hopkins historian and author of the famous essay "The End of History," explains: "Generally, the American people just don't care, whatever the ritualistic mention of America's alienation from the rest of the world. I even doubt this gets much traction even with the base of the Democratic Party."
"One of the reasons that European opposition to war was not persuasive was because it was widely viewed here as demonstrating a loss of nerve by them."
Steven den Beste discusses an International Herald Tribune article on the relationship of Europe to the US:
"From the American side, the key point is that in American eyes, Europe is becoming less and less important, relatively speaking.
" 'The idea that something awful, fateful, has happened to the community of Western nations gets next to no attention here, if only because the complaint comes essentially from a fragmented Europe. In this view, Europe, officially designated by the Bush administration as "whole, peaceful and free," has devolved into an area of marginal strategic interest for the United States.'
"It's also commercially less important than it used to be. Though there continues to be a very large trading relationship between the US and Europe, it is a declining percentage of American trade especially as the Pacific Rim has increased in prosperity and importance.
...
"The American people don't value European opinion very highly:
" 'Francis Fukuyama, the Johns Hopkins historian and author of the famous essay "The End of History," explains: "Generally, the American people just don't care, whatever the ritualistic mention of America's alienation from the rest of the world. I even doubt this gets much traction even with the base of the Democratic Party."
"One of the reasons that European opposition to war was not persuasive was because it was widely viewed here as demonstrating a loss of nerve by them."
Comments
Post a Comment