Hi Tim,
It's been a while since I involved myself in a discussion, but as a European with an open mind and a lot of respect for America, I couldn't resist to share my opinion.
In my entire life, I have never seen greater support for America as after september 11. American politicians came over, NATO declared war and everybody was ready to step in. You may not believe this, but for the green parties in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands etc, who have a background in the peace movement of the seventies and eighties, it was an incredible huge step to declare war. Everybody had the feeling western democraty and western values where attacked.
But after that, once America knew it had the support of enough allies, nothing happened. Yes, England and Germany delivered a few dozen special forces, and that's it. It was a major mistake from the Bush administration, to do the Afghan war alone.
Suppose you are in trouble, you ask all your friends for help. They all agree to come and help you, arrange there schedules, prepare everything and then you say: Sorry ,I don't need you, I can better do it on my own. Would't you think at least some of your friends would be a little bit angry? It's that feeling which is pretty common in Europe today.
An other long time point of conflict between America and Europe is military spending. In Europe, the view is common that America, in spite of some rethoric doesn't want a military strong Europe. Or let me put it different, they want our military money, but not our voices. For decades, America is lobbying against one European army. For the single reason they are afraid of losing control over it. Now , in NATO, they control everything. I'm pretty sure, Europe will only increase military spending if there is one European army, and the way America acted in this war, will only increase this process. I think we should have had one European army already for a long time, maybe you think the same, but American government clearly doesn't think so.
Sorry, I have to go now, I will be back later today.
Greetings,
Bert |
