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Europe must accommodate Bush vision
The Australian ^ | 21st February 2005

Posted on 02/20/2005 2:10:44 PM PST by naturalman1975

RONALD Reagan once described himself as a bull who took his own china shop around with him.

He meant, of course, that he preferred plain-speaking to euphemism and was prepared to bypass diplomatic niceties to achieve worthwhile results. In this, as in much else, George W. Bush is Reagan's heir, and today he steps into the biggest china shop of all. While it is easy to overestimate the degree of anti-Americanism within the European Union – much of eastern Europe is fervently pro-US, and Britain and Italy are among the US's closest allies – in the post-9/11, and especially post-Iraq world there are certainly pockets of wounded pride. As he swings through what US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously dubbed "old Europe", President Bush can expect the red carpet, but will need to watch for banana peels.

In a press conference last week, Mr Bush conceded it was after 9/11 that Europe and the US began to "talk past each other". This week's visit is about fence-mending, and Mr Bush will turn on the Texan charm – but not budge an inch on any issue of substance, especially Iraq. Neither should he. While the leaders of Germany and France continue to pay excessive attention to internal anti-American elites and drag the EU chain on assistance with Iraqi reconstruction, more than 8 million Iraqis showed last month they intend to take full advantage of the democratic opportunity afforded them by the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Among the collateral benefits of that overthrow are democratic openings across the Middle East that promise new pathways towards a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The aparent determination of French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to deal the EU out of the biggest game in town will appear increasingly anachronistic.

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger once said he would pay attention to Europe when it had a telephone number. By basing himself near EU headquarters in Brussels for this visit, Mr Bush signals he understands Europe now has a voice. In return, EU leaders must get over their unproductive resentment towards Mr Bush. Apart from recent events in the Middle East, what strengthens Mr Bush's legitimacy is his re-election victory and the deeper changes it portends beneath the surface of US political life. If European leaders ever believed they could simply bide their time until the US produced a leader who thinks as they do, that moment has gone. The Bush vision, which is based on an aggressive assault on terrorism and an activist seeding of democracy, is the direct result of what the US learned on 9/11. It will not go away. And when we see the US mounting a full-scale assault on AIDS and hunger in Africa, or following hot on Australia's heels with on-the-ground tsunami relief in Aceh, we are looking at another side of the same vision.

But Australia and the world can greatly benefit from a new era of co-operation between Europe and the US, which after all have many more values in common than dividing them. On nuclear proliferation in Iran, the US has looked with a sceptical eye on efforts by Britain, France and Germany to talk Tehran around to common sense. Yet those efforts deserve US support. Economically, Mr Bush recently put aside nationalism with a promise to cut farm subsidies. If the EU is willing to follow suit, it may start to enjoy something closer to the level of economic growth seen in the US and Asia. In the four-year chill between Washington and Europe, Australia has aligned itself with the US on the issues that matter. But as Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson pointed out in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, this has not marginalised us in Europe, because many EU countries have taken the same positions. As demonstrated by our Europe-friendly policy on arms sales to China, it is our national interest that drives foreign policy settings. So a diversity of powerful democratic voices in international politics is a wholly good thing – as long as they talk to, and not past, each other.


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bush43; oldeurope

1 posted on 02/20/2005 2:10:44 PM PST by naturalman1975
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To: naturalman1975

Either Europe must accommodate Bush's vision or it will accommodate Mohammed's vision.


2 posted on 02/20/2005 2:24:46 PM PST by Paleo Conservative (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Andrew Heyward's got to go!)
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To: naturalman1975
RONALD Reagan once described himself as a bull who took his own china shop around with him.

Actually, I think that's the way Winston Churchill referred to John Foster Dulles.

3 posted on 02/20/2005 2:24:51 PM PST by stevem
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To: naturalman1975

Bubbubbbubbut I thought Bush was on a "fence-mending" mission, to offer acts of contrition for his sins, and gain redemption from the Eurocrats!


4 posted on 02/20/2005 3:20:16 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Democrat Obstructionists will be Daschled!)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: stevem

Bush wants to control Europe. As a European-American, I don't think he should. What are we, the Roman empire?
This is a nation not an empire, something which true conservatives, rather than neo-cons, assert.

It is ridiculous that some are so immature (and utterly arrogant) that they would hate another nation for disagreeing with them on declaring war on 1.2 billion people because they are Muslims.

If anyone should overthrow their governments it should be the people of those nations, for their leftism on domestic issues, not for their opposition to endless wars started by a foreign nation which no longer values the sovereinty of others. That's us. It doesn't represent me.


6 posted on 02/20/2005 4:35:45 PM PST by followerofchrist
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To: followerofchrist
Bush wants to control Europe.

Where did you come up with that idea?

7 posted on 02/20/2005 4:41:19 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Apparently, this is the only job for which I am suited. I am beset by the ironies of my life)
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To: followerofchrist
It is ridiculous that some are so immature (and utterly arrogant) that they would hate another nation for disagreeing with them on declaring war on 1.2 billion people because they are Muslims.

Bush declared war on Iraq because the Iraqis are Muslim?

Are you stupid or just a really bad liar?

Or stoned, perhaps?

8 posted on 02/20/2005 4:45:05 PM PST by AM2000 (I am not responsible for the contents of this post.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Unified Europe: Unified in his vision. Was he asking for them to unify against the war or for the war? Sorry, but I try to see these things objectively, from a non-nationalist standpoint. Our nation is trying to be an empire. If Europe told us to "unify" for their wars and ways, I would laugh at them. I believe in total freedom, and total sovereinty, for my fellow Americans and for my relatives in Europe. I should qualify all that I say with the truth: I am not a national supremacist, nor a globalist. I believe Christ our Lord doesn't care if we are Americans or Greeks or Bahrainians. I never mix nationalism with the true supremacism that is Christ our Lord and Savior. Who is to say we are rightous as He is? Who is to say we won't be the antichrist? We cannot serve two Gods. I apologize if I was brusque.


9 posted on 02/20/2005 4:54:51 PM PST by followerofchrist
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To: followerofchrist
So you were making it up.

That is what I thought.

10 posted on 02/20/2005 4:58:16 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Apparently, this is the only job for which I am suited. I am beset by the ironies of my life)
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To: followerofchrist

President bush stopped the euros from enriching themselves from others misery. That's why they hate him. He doesn't want to "control" them. He wants to expose them.


11 posted on 02/20/2005 4:58:58 PM PST by monkeywrench
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To: naturalman1975
Sooner or later, but probably later they will come to their senses.
At the end of this decade, both China and India will have overtaken them economically, as their growth is on course on ongoing backsliding.
Lessened economic strength coupled with a perpetual infection of unemployment, subsequent diminished influence in world affairs eventually brings in the dawn of a wake up call.
An adaption process while late, will help reopen their minds towards cooperation with their natural partners to the west, the U.S.A.
12 posted on 02/20/2005 5:10:14 PM PST by hermgem
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To: followerofchrist
Bush wants to control Europe.

There, now see, there is a prime example of european arrogance. Why on earth would he want to control europe? It's nothing.

13 posted on 02/20/2005 5:19:25 PM PST by McGavin999
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To: followerofchrist
Bush wants to control Europe.

I can't imagine Bush with such an attitude. I can't imagine anyone with such an attitude. I Think Bush wants to make life safe for Americans which is one of his jobs.

I confess I don't fully understand the attitude of folks like Chirac regarding challenges in the world today. In the end, though, the French are responsible for making their own beds. Same with the Germans, the Belgians, the British and the Americans.

It strikes me that what Bush is trying to do is change the dynamic. If he succeeds, he becomes a statesman such as Reagan or the two Roosevelts (regardless of how you think about any of them). If he fails, well the world is still a dangerous place.

I think Bush will succeed.

14 posted on 02/20/2005 5:31:58 PM PST by stevem
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To: followerofchrist
Bush wants to controls Europe? Bush is declaring war on Muslims? Go seek reality sometime.
15 posted on 02/20/2005 6:04:32 PM PST by bahblahbah
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