[Huck]

this institutional rivalry between the US and "Old Europe"

There was much gnashing of teeth when that phrase "old Europe" first appeared. Who was it? Rumsfeld? And yet it seems to have taken hold. Truth has a way about it. Seems like maybe those old European countries were wrong about democracy in the middle east. Not hard to understand how new europe would be more appreciative of the power and promise of self government.

[Valin]

Europe was willing to let bygones be bygones.

Well GOSH! That gets me all warm and fuzzy inside.

[spinestein]

[Europe was willing to let bygones be bygones.]

A more accurate metaphor would be; President Bush went from country to country with a clipboard and pen and asked "Can we count on you to be with us in the Middle East, now that my policies are being demonstrated as right?"

[SunkenCiv]

The US-Japan joint statement on collaboration over security in the Far East was released in Washington on the eve of Bush's visit to Europe.

Good point. That was in regard to China's drive to annex Taiwan on its own terms, as well as its failure to bring North Korea to heel. But, in their never-ending quest to talk about peaceful solutions while guaranteeing violence and bloodshed, the Europeans must also have been in mind.