While most of Europe celebrates the fast-impending end of the Bush presidency, the painful truth is that, according to Joachim Fritz-Vannahme who writes for Germany’s Die Zeit:
“What most people know but prefer to overlook is that it wasn’t one man alone who widened the gap between the two sides of the Atlantic, and that the bogeyman Bush often either approved or facilitated Europe’s own decisions.”
Furthermore, Fritz-Vannahme argues that the downswing in transatlantic relations was something that had more to do with the forces of history than anything Bush has done:
“Always economically, but also in the social sphere and even in foreign policy, the dramatic transformation of the United States has been more accompanied by Bush than promoted by him: The end of the Cold War saw the dawn of the Pacific era. America sits astride the Pacific and therefore is party to it. With or without Bush, transatlantic relations would necessarily have shaped America’s worldview far less than in the past.”
And then, answering those who think McCain or Obama will prove better, Fritz-Vannahme writes:
“neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has criticized the politically-motivated arms build-up of the Bush warriors: This country buys almost half of the world’s weapons for the unimaginable amount of half a trillion dollars – and it still hasn’t managed to make the planet as safe as its fear of the rest of the world demands. If we are to believe the candidates who aspire to succeed Bush, this enormous waste isn’t going to change. Because the American “home front” has bought into an economic cycle that follows its own logic.”
By Joachim Fritz-Vannahme
Translated By James Jacobson
June 11, 2008
Germany – Die Zeit – Original Article (German)
Paris, London, Berlin in a pig’s gallop, yet also a detour to the Slovenian Idyll of Brdo – George W. Bush’s farewell tour through half of Europe differs little from the tours taken by American tourists visiting the Old World. Today the polls announce that about 80 percent of Europeans are opposed to the policies of this president. “The man,” reasons former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, “has done everything possible to widen the chasm between the U.S. and Europe.”
What most people know but prefer to overlook is that it wasn’t one man alone who widened the gap between the two sides of the Atlantic, and that the bogeyman Bush often either approved or facilitated Europe’s own decisions.
Always economically, but also in the social sphere and even in foreign policy, the dramatic transformation of the United States has been more accompanied by Bush than promoted by him: The end of the Cold War saw the dawn of the Pacific era. America sits astride the Pacific and therefore is party to it. With or without Bush, transatlantic relations would necessarily have shaped America’s worldview far less than in the past.
And neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has criticized the politically-motivated arms build-up of the Bush warriors: This country buys almost half of the world’s weapons for the unimaginable amount of half a billion dollars – and it still hasn’t managed to make the planet as safe as its fear of the rest of the world demands. If we are to believe the candidates who aspire to succeed Bush, this enormous waste isn’t going to change. Because the American “home front” has bought into an economic cycle that follows its own logic.
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