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 Recent commentary from National Journal: Media: Exuberant Again (June 10, 2003) It's no surprise that readers are skeptical of media assertions that the economy's bouncing back. By William Powers. Social Studies: Corporate Lying Is Bad. But Allowing It Is Good. (June 10, 2003) It isn't nutty for the AFL-CIO to worry that lawsuits targeting corporate speech may come back to haunt unions. By Jonathan Rauch. Wealth of Nations: The Strong-Dollar Policy: Barking at the Moon (June 4, 2003) This administration has no policy on the dollar, and is right to have no policy on the dollar. By Clive Crook. Media: Grinding Away (June 4, 2003) Publishers of books by shameless media manipulators should be concerned about their own reputations. By William Powers. Political Pulse: Preserving the Road Map (June 4, 2003) Empowering the new Palestinian government may be the only way Israel can protect itself. By William Schneider. More from National Journal. |
Political Pulse 
Invitation to UnilateralismEuropeans have begun to realize that Europe's weakness is America's strength by William Schneider .... BERLIN—On May 23, a French reporter asked the U.S. secretary of State and the French foreign minister how they would describe relations between their countries. "Elles sont excellentes," Dominique de Villepin replied. "They're excellent, excellent," agreed Colin L. Powell. But when ordinary citizens are asked, a different picture emerges. The Ipsos-Public Affairs polling organization did just that in eight countries last month. Do people around the world think that President Bush plays a positive role in world affairs? Seventy-two percent of Americans think he does. Does anyone else? Citizens of Britain and Canada, historically America's closest allies, don't. Fewer than 40 percent in either country have a positive opinion of Bush's role in the world. Italians think a bit more highly of the president; 44 percent say he plays a positive role. What does the rest of Europe think? "They don't like him, and they don't believe he is the kind of sophisticated politician who can take the steering wheel of the world," Volker Ratzmann, leader of the Green Party in the Berlin parliament remarked here at the Aspen Institute. Martin Lindner, leader of the Berlin Liberal Party—a party of the Right, despite its name—echoed those sentiments: "President Bush is too much 'Texas style' for most Europeans." In France, Germany, Russia, and Spain, fewer than one in four people expressed an admiring opinion of Bush. "People do not like Bush's language," observed columnist Caroline Fetscher of Der Tagesspiegel. "Before the war, when he started saying 'crusade,' when he was talking about the 'axis of evil,' that's something people here don't find diplomatic enough." But, Powell, now there's an American Europeans can go for. "He's somebody who has the poise, the stature, the statesmanlike international approach that we like," Fetscher said. OK, but do people think the United States was right to take military action against Saddam Hussein's regime? Most Americans do (76 percent), and so do most people in Britain (58 percent). Canadians and Italians are split. Other Europeans have issues. "People are now looking for the evidence," Ratzmann said. "They've been told there are weapons of mass destruction. Nobody found them." Just before the G-8 summit in France this week, Bush tried to mend relations with the Europeans. "This is a time for all of us to unite in defense of liberty and to step up to the shared duties of free nations," he said in Poland. "This is no time to stir up divisions in a great alliance." But some members of his administration did exactly that. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that weapons of mass destruction might never be found in Iraq because Saddam might have destroyed them all before the war. Even more damaging was Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's explanation of why those weapons became the focus of the administration's push for war. "For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on," he told Vanity Fair. Those remarks have set off a furor in Europe. "We have been deceived," the Financial Times (London) editorialized. "Did Bush and [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair lie about the Iraqi weapons?" Le Monde asked. The French newspaper called it "without doubt the biggest government lie in recent years." In the Ipsos poll, fewer than one in three people in Germany, France, and Spain thought the United States did the right thing in Iraq. And only 10 percent of Russians praised the United States for overthrowing Saddam. Apparently, Europeans are willing, even eager, to quarrel with success. Jeffrey Gedmin, director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, said, "I don't think this was about Iraq at all. I think this was about America. It's about power. It's about weakness. It's about resentment. It's about envy." The European response? Maybe it is. "We have to think not too much about the strength, the power, of the United States," Lindner said. "We should think instead about our weakness here in Europe." People overseas are agreed on one point: Nobody can stop the United States from doing whatever it wants in the world. About two-thirds in every country but one agreed with that view, according to the Ipsos poll. The exception: Only half of Americans think the United States is unstoppable. Does the world need a new international organization to balance U.S. power? You bet, say about two-thirds of people everywhere. Nearly half of Americans agree. Europeans are frustrated. Take the French. Over 70 percent say the United States has a strong influence on world affairs. Only 12 percent think France does. So much for, "la gloire." Take the Russians. More than 70 percent say the United States has a strong influence on world affairs. Only 14 percent think Russia does. How the mighty have fallen. Europeans are beginning to realize an unpleasant truth: Europe's weakness is America's strength. It is said that weakness invites aggression. In this case, weakness invites unilateralism. "The Europeans have no common foreign policy," Fetscher noted, "and as long as that's the case, they are weak. And as long as they are weak, the U.S. is very strong. It's as simple as that. Whether we like it or not, that's the case." The message of the Ipsos poll is, Europeans don't like it.
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte. More from National Journal. More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly. William Schneider is the Cable News Network's senior political analyst. He is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly. His column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C. For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com. Copyright © 2003 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. | [an error occurred while processing this directive] | ||
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