Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus
Thomas Friedman rants against the fashionable dissent of the Europeans in their opposition to US policy on Iraq. He’s got some points. Sure it is silly to go against Power for the sake of going against Power, or simply to draw attention to oneself, but is is their defiance that trivial?
“And where this comes from, alas, is weakness. Being weak after being powerful is a terrible thing. It can make you stupid. It can make you reject U.S. policies simply to differentiate yourself from the world’s only superpower.”
I’m not so sure. Is it not logical to become defiant when the world’s superpower has decided it will no longer listen to the international community? And it’s not even just that…it’s attitude. One good turn deserves another. The Bush administration is just as absurd in its cowboyism. The point is to make a point, and the Europeans are simply saying America you are not an Empire, please get off your chair and rejoin the discussion with the rest of us.
“There is now a structural gap between America and Europe, which derives from the yawning power gap, and this produces all sorts of resentments, insecurities and diverging attitudes as to what constitutes the legitimate exercise of force.”
That said, politics is the ultimate in fashionable self-expression these days…