Another Phony and Well-Scripted Kabuki Dance

According to Reuters' headline, you'd think everything was hunky-dory all over again with Europe. But reading further reveals that any bones the Europeans threw Bush were quite devoid of meat or marrow.

But U.S.-European differences over China and Iran surfaced, with Bush voicing concern at European Union plans to end an arms embargo on Beijing and France pressing Washington to offer Tehran incentives to curb its nuclear program.

The "differences" over Iran are what you want to watch, because Bush is really speaking out of both sides of his mouth on this one. On the one side he says that talk of attacking Iran over its nukes is "ridiculous,"and he encouraged European diplomacy on that front, but out of the other side, "he quickly added that all options remained open." Translation: "You Eurofucks can talk all you want, but we'll sabotage and pervert any outcome to justify bombing Teheran and any other damn place we like."

I can't tell if the French, Germans and Belgians are really buying this crap or not, because it could be that the reporting is skewed toward comity and warm handshakes. Of course, even Reuters noted that NATO contributions to Iraq were "token," so I'll bet that the smiles are more good manners than anything else. The balance of power has shifted dramatically in Europe's favor thanks to the Bush administration's combination of incompetence, arrogance, and just damned stupidity. It's really quite amazing that a single administration in the span of less than 5 years could reduce the U.S. to essentially a second-tier power.