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I am convinced that President Bush and our Chancellor have a good personal relationship. It is for sure not comparable to the Schroeder-mess and will help to restore the trans-atlantic relations.

Anyway - something fundamental happened through Schroeder between America and Germany. Before Schroeder we were a ally whose administration would have never ever critized the US in basic questions. That changed completely. Furthermore I doubt that the US will continue to count on Europe as a part of its millitary system in the same scale (as long as we speak about preemtive strikes - defense is something different) since the "coalition of the willing" was not as stable as they thought. Any US president will have to deal with democratic changes in European politics. Just think about Asnar and Berlusconi who were swept away by their voters. Even the UK is a unstable ally if we take the vast majority of Brits who dismiss the war.

All this is absolutely no reason for US isolationism since it has nothing to do with anti-americanism, but we all should think about some new definitions in our relationship.

I quite agree with all that you have said. Many Americans do not see Europe as an ally or friend. I don't mean that in a negative way it is just a fact. We are beginning to understand that we don't see eye to eye on very many issues anymore. It is okay! Like any other relationship it has its high and low points. The sense of betrayal that some Americans feel is that so many of us have European roots that the very idea that we and you do not stand shoulder to shoulder is confusing. Many of us go to European blogs and are appalled by the things that are said about our country and our people. We are waking up to the fact that Europe doesn't like us very much. This is okay too!

As we (you and us), move forward we will form new relationships and new alliances. We have different goals. All of which is also okay. That now we "smile and wave at each other" rather than being an integral part of one another's foreign policy is not a negative thing. Change usually is good, we just need time to get used to the present relationship and not expect too much from it. Our interests lie in different directions and so do yours. :0)