As we have been seeing for months, when it comes to provisioning the population with health care, the behavior of U.S. Republicans is far more incomprehensible to Europeans than even for most U.S. Democrats. According to columnist David Francis of Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress on health care came close to sealing the deal while exposing Republicans as, “a party of fear-stoking, the sole purpose of which is not the...

Has America’s reaction to September 11 – its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq – accelerated the end of U.S. dominance of the international system? According to commentator He Liangliang of Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV – one of the few privately-owned cable operators permitted by Beijing authorities to broadcast to the Mainland – America’s days as a global cop are well and truly over. For Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po, He Liangliang presents what is likely a...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making news today with his splash of an arrival at the Venice Film Festival for the premier of Oliver Stone’s movie about his life called South of the Border. Italian news agency Adnkronos gave this somewhat detailed account of Chavez’ arrival in Venice and his comments in praise of Oliver Stone, President Obama and the Italian actresses that have stolen his heart – chiefly Gina Lollobrigida. Chavez also talks of wanting to meet the Pope –...

When one wants to get a sense of how people on the Afghan-Pakistan border feel about something, Pakistan’s Frontier Post, based in Quetta, Pakistan, is a good place to look. In this indignant editorial reaction to yesterday’s ill-fated NATO attack in Afghanistan’s Kunduz Province, the Frontier Post equates NATO forces with Taliban fighters, attacks the sincerity of the West’s stance on the value of human life and questions U.S. justification for the war. Another irony –...

If you happen to work for the Obama Administration and you’re reading these words, get ready for an earful. According to columnist Marcin Bosacki of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, Eastern European and particularly Polish discontent with the White House is high, and the reasons essentially boil down to the following: The decision to ditch the Bush-era anti-missile shield which was to be built in Poland and the Czech Republic and come along with substantial military assistance – offering...

Continuing with our European coverage of the 70th anniversary of World War II, Izvestia columnist Anna Kaledina complains that while debate rages among Western leaders about who is most responsible for starting the war, most of their populations haven’t the foggiest notion of who fought, when they fought or who was at fault – nor do they care. And this, she warns – is dangerous – because only those who are aware of the truth can correct the record. Referring to what Russian...

With President Obama confronting a confluence of issues that appear to threaten his chances of having a successful term in office, his supporters in Europe are also sounding alarmed. For France’s Liberation, columnist Bernard Guetta writes in part: “The likelihood is that Obama has already failed to become a new Roosevelt, an architect of a modern New Deal that without increasing health spending who would offer some form of protection against disease for the nearly 60 million Americans...

With a face perhaps reflecting contrition, German Chancellor Merkel lays a candle after giving a speech at a ceremony in Poland on the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WW II. She said, ‘We caused unending suffering in the world. I bow before the victims.’ Even after 70 years, the wounds and rivalries that triggered and resulted from the last ‘war to end all wars’ still fester in the heart of what many consider to be the most civilized part of the world. At a memorial...

Russia’s first nuclear test, Operation Joe Lightning. Soviet designs for the bomb were in large part stolen from the United States. Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. As part of its coverage, Russian newspaper Vedemosti carried this article defending the admittedly wholesale theft of Manhattan Project data. For Vedemosti, columnist Igor Korotcheko writes in part: “The key to success – and this should get a special mention! – was the access...

‘HEADWINDS’ The fascinating planetary split on whether or not it was correct to release Lockerbie bombing convict Abdul Basset Ali Al-Megrahi continues with this article by columnist Joao Pereira Coutinho who writes for the Brazilian newspaper Folha. For Folha, Coutinho writes in a sarcastic rejoinder to the release: “For ‘compassionate’ reasons, the Scottish government – which is sovereign in judicial matters – decided to release him. The terrorist is ill...

Judging by these articles from Dutch and German newspapers we posted during the weekend, it doesn’t look like Europeans have much sympathy for Dick Cheney’s view of the virtues of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ or dire Republican warnings about ‘socialized medicine.’ The first, an editorial from Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, counsels President Obama that it’s more than high time to ditch bipartisanship and gives him a road map for how...

Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi after stepping aboard the Libyan aircraft that would whisk him away to Libya, August 20. Did ‘the powers that be’ decide that pursuing the best leads after the Lockerbie bombing, aka/Pan Am Flight 103, was politically inconvenient? According to this analysis by Pierre Prier of France’s Le Figaro, the need to keep Iran and Syria ‘on board’ during the first Gulf War may have resulted in resort to a convenient scape goat:...

Senator Joe McCarthy covers the microphone as he listens to his nearly-as-notorious legal aide, Roy Cohen, in 1954. Is Hollywood being too hard on America’s one-time anti-communist crusader, Senator Joseph McCarthy? Furthermore, is the ‘factory of dreams’ too kind to those whose lives the late senator ruined? In the newspaper Rceczpospolita, Poland’s very own anti-communist crusader, journalist Bronislaw Wildstein, writes in part: “In recent years, American movie screens,...

In this surprisingly critical article from China’s state-controlled Xinjingbao [Beijing News], the author castigates the authorities for relying on foreign justice to identify graft – and for failing to pursue those who have taken bribes from American companies. Given the appearance of this article in the state-controlled press, one can assume that Beijing has been embarrassed by disclosures from U.S. government agencies and Chinese Internet users into placating ‘Netizens’...

Carnage outside the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, August 19. At least 100 were killed. For those tempted to think that America’s involvement in Iraq is drawing to a close, this article by Fateh Abdulsalam of Iraq’s Azzaman newspaper might come as a rude awakening. According to Abdulsalam, the government is either winking at or directly involved in the truck bombings and attacks of recent weeks – and it may well require U.S. forces to go in and deal with the mess. So who’s...

Continuing with our global coverage of the reaction to Ted Kennedy’s death, this article by Laurent Joffrin of France’s Liberation frames the saga of the Kennedy clan as one of redemption from a merciless thirst for power. For Liberation, Laurent Joffrin writes in part: “In the 1940s and 50s, There wasn’t a clan that was more cynical or more determined in its quest for glory. A brutal father – a liar, very rich and very shady, was marked by his dealings with the mafia...

After the flood of reaction from Britain and Ireland yesterday, newspapers in other parts of the world have begun to chime in on the death of Senator Edward Kennedy. In the first Ted Kennedy-related translation we’ve done from Latin America, the editorial board of Colombia’s El Tiempo praises the senator for a number of things that have gone unmentioned in the European press. The El Tiempo editorial says in part: “Internationally and in keeping with his liberal philosophy, he...

Is it possible that Western officials were surprised by the welcome given by Libyan despot Mouammar Qadaffi to Lockerbie bombing convict Abdels al-Megrahi? Or could it be that their outrage stems from the embarrassment they feel over the way the story has been covered by the Western media? Reflecting a swath of Muslim reaction to the story, K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran suggests that the answer is certainly the latter. For Le Quotidien d’Oran, K. Selim writes in part: “Western...

Now that Swiss authorities have done the unthinkable: admitted to wrongdoing and handed U.S. authorities the data on over 4,000 of its American clients – how are the people of Switzerland reacting? If the comments of Nachrichten columnist Patrik Etschmayer are anything to go by, there’s going to be hell to pay in Geneva. For Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper, Patrik Etschmayer describes the content of a plea agreement between the Justice Department and one of UBS’ American...

What is the proper role of government in the lives of people? According to columnist Christoph von Marschall of the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, it is the answer to this question that separates Europeans and Americans, and is at the heart of America’s debate over health care. For Der Tagesspiegel, Christoph von Marschall writes in part: “At issue is one of the fundamental ideological differences between the old world and the new: What freedoms and risks should society leave to...

As it has in the United States, Scotland’s release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi on the grounds of ‘compassion’ is sparking controversy in Europe. Much of the debate revolves around the issue of which is more valid: European ‘compassion’ vs. American ‘revenge’. This editorial from Trouw of The Netherlands frames the issue this way: “The American families of the victims and the U.S. administration insist that Megrahi should have...

If what we are reading today is true, the end of Swiss bank secrecy – if it hasn’t been reached – is closing in fast. The Swiss Federal Council has made a deal with the U.S. Justice department to hand over the data on 4,450 American clients of the Union Bank of Switzerland, after a long investigation showed that the bank helped them engage in tax evasion. So how momentous is this from the Swiss point of view? According to this editorial by Pierre-Yves Frei of the Tribune De Geneve,...

Transplanted from Guinea-Bissau twenty years ago, a 37-year-old Afro-Russian watermelon salesman is making waves by running for a local parliamentary seat in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast (formerly Stalingrad). This news item by Natalia Rozhkova of Russia’s Vremya Novostei newspaper examines his candidacy and chances of winning, and compares how minority candidates in Russia fare compared to their American counterparts. The article quotes the deputy director of the Center for Political...

Is there some benefit for President Obama to inheriting from George W. Bush the governance of a weakened nation? According to the Thomas von der Dunk of Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, this has given Obama the opportunity to slaughter some sacred cows that had to go: “This is the interesting paradox: the fact that America is in visibly worse shape than before forces Obama to have the courage to take strong measures, not least on the domestic front where a number of sacred cows are dying, from...

For those not enamored by the Michael Jackson-mania that has overtaken the world since the singer’s death, this article by Gilles Hertzog of France’s Liberation may prove satisfying. Decrying what the phenomena says about modern civilization, Hertzog’s intense 1100-word intellectual diatribe says in part: “It was a universal tsunami of tears and lamentation; a worldwide communion ad nauseam from one end of the global village to the other; a media-mounted liturgy never before...