Good point. However, I think any Arab Allies would come unglued to find themselves on the side Israel in a war.
I sympathize with your DSL problems. It broke down on me once a month in LA, and took forever to reach the provider. I am on "Roadrunner" through my cable provider here, and it is heaven. One minor problem with the box out front in 18 months. They had it repaired in 6 hours, and the call response to them is instantaneous. I was in California and Detroit for High School, so I missed "Texas Football,"
"WSJ.com" editorial today is on Germany. They are concerned with repairing their ties with us. I think the economic problem they have is major. Germany is such a "lever" on the EC that it could topple it. Here is a "snippet" from that editorial on the Economics.
>>>>If the precise shape of a new government remained hazy last night, the challenge ahead is clear. It is first to revitalize the moribund German economy and end the political gridlock that has made reform so difficult. Failing that, Germany will begin to look all too much like Japan--a G-7 powerhouse stuck in the slow lane and a political culture that, much like German voters yesterday, is incapable of making decisions.
Germany's economic troubles--rooted in high taxation, sclerotic labor markets, over-regulation and high levels of state intervention in the economy--long predate Mr. Schroeder. It was at least partly in recognition of these facts that Germans ousted Helmut Kohl in 1998 in a rare vote for change.
For a while it looked like Mr. Schroeder might give it to them. He cut income and corporate tax rates, abolished the capital gains tax on sales of corporate cross-shareholdings and took a step in the direction of private pensions. And yet his reforms proved to be half measures, largely undermined by new regulations. The rising dole lines--some 4 million unemployed--are the most glaring hole in Mr. Schroeder's attempt to blame everyone but himself for Germany's economy.
All this is watched with growing unease by Germany's EU partners. Germany and France together make up more than half of the eurozone's output; add in Italy and the figure rises to around 70%. While the new center-right governments in France and Italy have yet to deliver tangible economic change, both are at least chipping away at their welfare states. Germany has remained the holdout, stuck on a social market model that puts far more emphasis on the socialist component than the market one.<<<<
opinionjournal.com |
