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Oh, I quite agree. The difficulty is, as always, qui bono? Foreign relations have always been between governments, not people, for better or worse, and I get the sense that both have been profoundly misled in this matter and are likely to remain so until there appears an external threat to place our differences in perspective. The question is at that point will it be too late?

I speak as the most parochial of Americans in this, so make allowances, but it seems to me that Europe does not appreciate the current Islamist/West confrontation with the gravity it deserves. This isn't the United States pursuing empire or behaving within the old Marxian hegemonic paradigm that is the darling of academia these days, it is a sense of alarm over a threat that is very real and potentially potent far beyond the numbers of the peoples involved. Western technology is to thank for that, and Western resolve will either be sufficient to address this beyond the niceties of international law, (always the luxury of a peace bought in blood) or pretend that that law will somehow prevail over those who would supplant it with their own.

That resolve must be in the keeping of the respective peoples, not just the respective governments. And here I suggest that your argument is all too sound - that a Europe convinced for the most sordid and trivial of reasons that the United States is the principal threat to world peace will be incapable of recognizing the real threat before it comes crashing down and far more blood is spilt than needs to be. The system that freed Hamadi is a system that is being used against itself, and if its keepers do not realize this they will see it destroyed.

Oh, I quite agree. The difficulty is, as always, qui bono?

Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando? It are always the same questions. Nothing changed since the old Romans. ;-)

Foreign relations have always been between governments, not people.

The problem in democracys is, that the will of the voters is transported after some time into practical policy. In the moment you Americans still deal with quite rational politicians like Blair or Merkel (to a lesser degree Sarkoszy). As I already said - this will not be that way forever. There is a "clash" between cultures. The thing is that this clash doesn't happen only between the islamic world and the western world, it happens also between Europe and America.

The question is at that point will it be too late?

I am quite sure that it is not too late. It is like in a family. You have no choice of your relatives. Sometimes there is are fierce arguments between brothers or sisters and sometimes they love each other. There is simply too much that is connecting us. The secret is simple: To maintain our friendship we have to work for it - on both sides.