Lexington
Enough, children
Feb 27th 2003
From The Economist print edition
American anti-Europeanism does less damage than European anti-Americanism. But it is still worrying
THE spoof Google search doing the rounds in Washington, DC, runs: "Your search-French military victories-did not match any documents. No pages were found. Did you mean French military defeats?" An affable Frenchman might merely find it odd that Napoleon is unknown in America, despite selling a chunk of it to Jefferson, but other barbs will hurt. "What do you call a Frenchman advancing on Baghdad?""A salesman." On American talk shows, it is open season on continental Europeans, especially those "cheese-eating surrender monkeys".
Politicians seem to have caught the tabloid spirit. "I am particularly disgusted", thunders a California congressman, "by the blind intransigence and utter ingratitude of France, Germany and Belgium. The failure of these states to honour their commitments is beneath contempt." Richard Perle, a Republican hawk, now says that France should no longer be considered an ally. The speaker of the House mutters about boycotting Beaujolais.
Now, as is the nature of these debates, people are trying to argue that it is overdone. Stanley Hoffman, a Harvard professor, dubs the outbreak "one more episode in a long history of disagreements", albeit a bit worse than usual. Taking to task a long piece on anti-Europeanism in the New York Review of Books, Gerard Baker of the Financial Times argues that most Americans do not care enough about Europe to be anti-European.
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economist.com |
