U.S. Could Be Alone as Europe Turns Inward

[marmar]

from truthdig:




U.S. Could Be Alone as Europe Turns Inward
Posted on Sep 21, 2010

By William Pfaff


The relationship between Western Europe and the colonies that became the United States was complicated from the beginning, when the North American settlements were mere appendages of the European powers, and were drawn into their conflicts—King William III’s and Queen Anne’s wars, the French and Indian war involving the Iroquois, and then the American colonial revolt against England. Three decades later, the reprise of the war with England afforded the new United States an opportunity to rebuild its burned national capitol and the city of Washington.

Today’s relationship with Europe is again complicated, more complicated than many think because there is a slow but clear erosion, and growing distrust on both sides, produced by the American unwillingness to give up its assumption that the states of the European Union remain the respectful satellites they have been during most of the period since World War II. The situation of the colonial period is to a degree reversed, with America’s European allies in reaction against America’s imperial wars.

Washington sees in this a disintegration of the European community that was fostered by the U.S. The Europeans are behaving in un-European ways, an American academic observer, Charles Kupchan, wrote recently in The Washington Post. He spoke of the European project’s death agony, caused by “the renationalization” of its political landscape, each country reclaiming a sovereignty it formerly was willing to yield to the European community as a whole. There is evidence of this in the rise of rightist nationalist political groups in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and the Balkans, as well as in the drama over France’s “Roma” population in recent weeks. The implications are not as grave as Americans may like to think because of the common European knowledge that Europe lives in an era from which there is no turning back. America remains in a different era.

The important change today is in Europe’s external relations, rather than its internal problems, which arise mainly from expansion of the EU into the Balkans. In Western Europe, which dominates the EU, relations with the U.S. are weakening. Obama-mania has largely passed, and the Nobel Peace Prize jury has retreated into the fantasyland from which it emerged. America is seen for what it is, rather than as an older European generation saw it in the past. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/us_could_be_alone_as_europe_turns_inward_20100921/

[qb]

1. I think much of the world has become disenchanted with Obama.

Many had high hopes.

[marmar]

3. I don't think this article says Europe is "disenchanted" with Obama.....

.... just realistic about the relationship with the U.S. ..... If you look at opinion polls, Obama is still quite popular in Europe.

[CanonRay]

2. So THAT'S the agenda

I always wondered!

[exboyfil]

4. Time for us to look to our own country anyway

Close all foreign military bases and bring the troops home. Have our Navy only protect our shores - get out of keeping the sea lanes open so we can import Chinese goods and oil. Reduce the military budget by at least $300B. Start cancelling expensive weapons programs.

We should spend no more on a GDP basis than any other OECD for defense.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.