Eight leaders rally 'new' Europe to America's side

The Times ^ | January 30, 2003 | Philip Webster

[foreshadowed at waco]

Can anyone name five famous Belgians? As for Luxembourg, there are counties in Texas bigger than that place.

LOL...these comments combined with your screen name...picturing Jimmy Cagney...too much.

[My2Cents]

LOL....Of course, Poirot was an English invention.

[X-FID]

Pieter Paul Reubens - painter

Is this where Pee Wee Herman ended up? Didn't know he could paint.

[OldFriend]

I barely heard this mentioned on the news today. Am I surprised, NO!!

[Antoninus]

Can anyone name five famous Belgians?

Nice list. Here's another one:

Fr. Peter de Smet, SJ -- Apostle of the Rocky Mountains

[ffusco]

Thank you for posting a list of the giants.
Belgian cuisine-its French, only less snooty.

[ffusco]

Reuben's liked to paint chunky gals.

[ffusco]

Here in Texas they refer to upstate as "the Hill Country."

[keats5]

Aliances come and go. Old ones are dismantled and new ones arise. Nothing is new under the sun.

[keats5]

Here in Ohio we make our hills from snow.

[EaglesUpForever]

France and Germany are decadent cultures, essentially welfare states that have had the luxury to take their wealth and freedom for granted.

They are no different than the worse side of American culture, those spoiled brats who think that government should be huge and is responsible for their every last need.

We settled World War II for them, we got them through the cold war, and now the spoiled brats France and Germany have imagined that peace and prosperity come at no price.

The degree to which 9/11 means essentially nothing to the average French and German (of course there are exceptions, but in aggregate) is the difference in their reaction to 9/11 and their reaction to the prospect of war in Iraq.

Hopefully some in France and Germany will wake up before it's too late.

[MinorityRepublican]

God bless Tony Blair, who more and more is looking like Margaret Thatcher in drag....

He's a pleasant surprise. I thought he was just another "Third Way" politican in the same mold of x-42.

[duke_h3]

I think the Netherlands is more or less on our side too - we have to wait for the coalition to come together. It's simpler to list who is against us: France Germany Belgium Luxembourg Not exactly a "world beating" team, if you catch my drift. Regards, Ivan

Let me help you with that list:

Sweden
Finland
Russia
China
Greece
India
South Africa
"The Arabe World" except Kuwait and Quatar
...

And the list goes on. So well yes, France and Germany along with the rest of the world are totaly isolated. ;-)

[thescourged1]

I love having the former Warsaw Pact countries in our camp. Any word on how Romania and Bulgaria have weighed in on the Iraq issue? The thing that sticks out in my mind is those two countries never tried (that I can recall offhand) to throw off their Soviet chains. Hungary tried in '56, Czechoslovakia in '68, and Poland in the 80's. Then again, East Germany didn't try to either....but it's Germany now.
Interesting....the freedom-loving peoples of Eastern Europe are with us. Reagan the Great's legacy still lives on......

[Petronski]

I'm trying to spread the word I picked up on another website: BBC is apparently reporting that the leaders of France and Germany were not given an opportunity to sign. [heh heh heh]

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said France and Germany had not been given the opportunity to sign the letter of solidarity. A BBC correspondent said the source made it clear that Mr Blair did not think France or Germany should be allowed to speak for the whole of Europe. France responded to the letter by restating its determination to work with the framework of the United Nations. Germany rejected allegations that it was isolated internationally.

[DB]

BTTT for later read.