Yes, the "Old" rants are so old, aren't they? I guess it's the atmosphere of a wake. It beings out the most tasteless sentimentality.
...In the youth-worshipping American mind there is a far reaching identification between "old" and 'rotten'...."-------Kuehnelt-Leddihn
TimesOnline
UK
PRESIDENT BUSH has been told to muzzle Donald Rumsfeld, his provocative Defence Secretary, if he wants to ease European misgivings about war with Iraq. José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, spoke for many European diplomats and officials, including the British, when he delivered the message while staying at Mr Bush’s Texas ranch last weekend.
“I did tell the President that we need a lot of Powell and not much of Rumsfeld,” said Señor Aznar, referring to Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State. “Ministers of Defence should talk less, shouldn’t they? The more Powell speaks and the less Rumsfeld speaks, that wouldn’t be a bad thing altogether.”
Señor Aznar is the first leader to voice publicly what many Europeans supportive of confronting Baghdad feel strongly in private: that Mr Rumsfeld has made their diplomatic work much harder.
The Spanish leader is thought to have been particularly perturbed by Mr Rumsfeld’s recent comparison of Germany’s “do nothing” approach to Saddam Hussein with that of Libya and Cuba, two countries on the US State Department’s list of sponsors of state terrorism. European officials blame Mr Rumsfeld’s acerbic goading and confrontational style for deepening splits between Washington, Paris and Berlin that could have been resolved without either side losing face.
At the critical diplomatic juncture over Iraq in recent weeks, Mr Rumsfeld angered France and Germany by dismissing them as “old Europe”. “He’s deepened suspicions overseas and made it much harder to get people on side,” one diplomat said.
I suppose trite ranting could be considered a type of 'sentimentallity'.