State of the (European) Union
No one complained about French or German “unilateralism” over their opposition to a pending war in Iraq (well, Rumsfeld and this guy did, but no one in the EU seemed to mind). Yet, the ink was barely dry on this letter when the EU got its panties in a bunch over the audacity of Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain to stake out a joint position in support of the U.S. Oddly enough, none of these EU critics have argued that there was anything inherently wrong with these eight countries’ position on the merits; rather, the objection was ostensibly to the fact that they took a position at all, without first getting the rest of Europe on board. I guess this means that France is not the only European country that thinks it is more important to do things together than to do the right thing.
P.S. Yes, I realize that this “state of X” schtick is getting a bit tiresome. I promise to stop Real Soon Now (TM).
UPDATE: This story from the New York Times indicates that Slovakia is probably on board, too, bringing the total of real European allies to nine, and counting. No matter, we all know that “Europe” is really just a code name for France and Germany, right? Or maybe not.
